A God
That Justifies The Horror
"Since nothing in your article provided any kind of answer to the events
of 9/11/2001 and the problem of terrorism, I am wondering if you have any ideas or thoughts on the subject? Other than the
idea that we should love folks who murder innocent women and children and love the folks who go over seas and kill the enemy.
Your arguments seem from the same old school liberalism that opposed the
effort of America in World War II. You are removed from mainstream thought and you seem not to have any particular concept
other than objecting to the religious people getting involved in the military.
Is that about it?"
Gosh, that must be about it ... don't ya think?
I doubt that either one of us would hesitate to drop our cell phones, leave
our keyboards and find some sort of weapon to defend our homes, our streets, our towns and our country the moment real actual
enemies put boots on our homeland. What we say to one another about whether or not we would kill to defend our families and
country is obvious.
My thoughts on 9/11 concern primarily a desire for justice to the victims,
redress if possible, accountability and harsh punishment for those guilty.
Those thoughts do not obsess on a blind vengeance against specific individuals,
countries and peoples to whom guilt has not been justifiably and irrevocably assigned. Those thoughts then do not have a need
to construct some sort of theological portrayal of God that justifies the resulting horror.
My thoughts do not need to claim that God wants or approves of the sort of
killing commenced by our Christian in the White House who garnered support for commencing killing specific people with lies.
My thoughts do move to dismay at any Christian who publically attempts to
justify killing innocents because political demagogues labeled military invasion of Iraq as a key component of something else
labeled a "war on terror"; the implication being that war is a dirty business in which innocent human beings will suffer and
collateral damage is acceptable so long as that damage doesn't come ashore here.
The same people who oppose abortion have not spoken out about the deaths of
pregnant women in Iraq due to bombs and military violence. The war-caused death of a pregnant Iraqi woman is in fact the military
abortion of her unborn.
Put religion and patriotism in the same mixer, turn on the switch and one
invokes a responsibility to reconcile the tenets of the religion with the realities of patriotic involvement in war.
Too many Christians in this country are looking the other way; in fact have
their heads buried in the sand whenever protest is made about so much killing.
We're coming up to 1500 deaths of sons and
daughters from American families, maiming and mutilation of more than 10,000 of our troops and the deaths of more than 100,000
Iraqi human beings.
When is the God of the morally indignant Christian Conservative going to be
satisfied?
I assume then that "mainstream thought" is that the American Christian community
has no moral accountability for participating and supporting the exportation of war in such a mindless manner as we are seeing.
I assume that when my son-in-law is redepolyed to Iraq I'll find solace in
the comforting confidence and arrogance that says going overseas and killing whoever political liars decide are our enemies
is patriotically and religiously correct.
I can prepare for his possible death with the assurance that the current mainstream-thinking
Christian citizens will weep with me and that my instinctive hatred of those who killed him, their race and their religion
is a spiritual attibute given me of God.
Is that what you're saying?