Remembering God's Image In The Face of Great Barbarity:

Something To Think About, Recognizing the Image of God:

War is a horrible thing.  William Tecumseh Sherman who perpetrated its horrors on a wide swath of the rebellious South said, "War is hell."  One of war's most hellish aspects is the treatment that prisoners of war often receive.  I recently read two books about the treatment of American P.O.W.s under the Japanese in WW2.  My uncle lost a lung and his sight as a result of his imprisonment in Germany.  How a nation treats its enemies when they are helpless to either inflict further harm or do anything to protect themselves, is a powerful indicator of the moral ethos of that people. Recent news about the brutal execution of  Jordanian pilot,  Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh  is a powerful indication of the lack of respect for human life on the part of the ISIS terrorists.  The video showing his death was not leaked.  It was slickly produced and released as a propaganda tool.  Americans, and Jordanians, among others, are rightly outraged. Some realities about life on this planet are made plain: Evil--monstrous evil--is a reality.  Humans are capable of committing unspeakable atrocities. Human life--even when that life is our enemy--bears the image of God.  I believe that some wars are just.  In fact I think there are times when it is wrong to not use force to restrain evil.  But even in times of war the basic reality that all human life is a reflection of our Creator must be kept in mind. The evil that we see exhibited so powerfully by the killing of Lt. Kasasbeh is not something that only resides in our enemy.  All of us are descendants of the original sinner, Adam.  I'm not saying we are just as bad as them.  The reality is, though, that the forces that have restrained evil among civilized people need to be respected and nurtured.  Unfettered evil is horrible beyond imagination. This is just the beginning of a conversation.  I hope it is taking place on the highest level in our nation.  I hope for you it is . . . Something to Think About.

Something to Think About for April 30, 2014:

A recent news story reminded me about a question I had to ask close to fifty years ago.  I was a teen driver getting around in the suburbs south of Chicago.  My first vehicle was a Honda 50 Sport.    That was replaced by a Volkswagen "bug" with a soft sunroof.   I worked at an after school job, and sometime ended up traveling home between eleven and midnight.  The late 60s and early 70s were turbulent times in the US.  My area was not exempt.  I used to ride by Dixie Square.  It was one of the earliest enclosed malls built in our area.  Later, after it closed, it starred in the "Blues Brothers."  I shopped in some of the stores Jake and Elwood trashed in the film.  I remember riding by the mall one night knowing that earlier that evening one of the stores had been robbed.  The take was a supply of guns and ammunition.  Other nearby businesses were burned and/or looted during those troubled days.  One of the tactics of some more radical demonstrators of the time was to block a road.  The barrier was not concrete or wood.  It was people.  A group of people would congregate in a street and stop a car.  Usually, what ensued was people surrounding the car, slaps on the top and sides, insults, and maybe something written on the windshield.  On a few occasions--at least according to the news that came my way--things got worse.  People were dragged out of cars, and beaten--even killed.  It was a time when fear ran high.   Recently stories have been published about encounters at the US-Mexican border.  On one side are rock-throwing youngsters.  On the other are armed guards.  I have no idea who is right and wrong, but some of the youngsters, allegedly rock-throwers, have been shot.  Rightly, there has been outrage. I remember the conversations of half-a-century ago.  "If they try to stop me, I'm stepping on the gas instead of the brake." said some of my more militant friends.  (Not a lot of comfort for a rider of a tiny motorcycle, or even a VW driver.)  The scenario has hung around my psyche for a long time.  "What would I do?"  "What would have been the right thing to do?"  I have no doubt that similar conversations take place around the troubled border.  "If one of those rocks . . ." If I had a clear answer the ugly--and thankfully for me, imaginary--scene would not have hung around in my mind for so long.  The perversity of the situation on the border or the street eruptions of my youth is that the decency of one side is used as a tool against them.  The self-restraint of one side becomes the encouragement for the other side's complete lack of respect for life and law.  But if that decency is abandoned, what is there left? It's messy out there. If you are looking for a clear answer, I'm sorry to disappoint.  This is indeed something to think about.  As close as I come being definitive is this:  The respect for life is so valuable that my protection of it, may, at times, put me in danger for my own. Like I said, It's STTA. (Sorry to be so dark.  I'll be watching for something lighter.)

Something's Wrong--Doing Something About It:

I'm a long way from being a political activist.  In fact I try to keep the church out of anything associated with partisan politics.  I am, however, a promoter of Biblical activism.  God's people should be looking for opportunities to do good, resist evil, and whenever possible make our world a better place as a result of our passing through.

Over the past couple of days (here and here) STTA has been about some things that are wrong in our world.  Thefirst article referred to the erosion of respect for life seen in the story about the 911 call from a nurse who refused to do CPR on a dying woman because it is against policy.  The second is about the idiocy of suspending an elementary school student for chewing a pop-tart into the shape of a gun, and suspending a high-school student for rescuing a classmate from being shot.  These incidents make clear that when a real ethical system is taken away, the vacuum will be filled with zero-tolerance idiocy.  Way too often what is "zero-tolerated" is good sense.

So, what do we do about it?

When we see culture pushing in the wrong direction--andthese incidents are clear examples of that wrong direction--we need to push back.  God's people have a long history of pushing back.  We pushed back against the culturally accepted practice of letting unwanted children die from exposure.  We led the fight against the evils of slavery.  We oppose modern examples of human-trafficking.  

All around us are examples of the cheapening of human life.  When "quality of life" considerations totally dominate "sanctity of life" considerations we need to push back.  When the our culture acts as if the unbridgeable gulf between animal life and human life isn't really there, we need to push back.  When others ask as if the value of life is determined by how much other people want that life, rather than the value given to that life by our creator, we need to push back.   When others treat suicide as if it is an acceptable way of dealing with life's difficulties, we need to push back.  When bureaucratic, self-serving policies are given precedence over attempting to save a life.  We need to push back.

One Godly lady commenting on the refusal of the nurse to perform CPR, said, "I think I would have just put my job on the line and performed the CPR."  If I have a heart attack, I sure hope somebody like this woman--willing to push back against the trends of our culture--is there to help.  I ask myself, "Am I willing to buck the trends of my culture and do what is right?"

I'll comment on the second incident tomorrow, but for now, 

 

It's STTA.