How would you feel if a family in Wichita, Kansas sold their sixteen year old mentally challenged girl to an acquaintance of theirs? The acquaintance held a grudge against Towne West Shopping Center. The acquaintance strapped a bomb onto the body of the girl, sent her into the shopping center, and detonated the bomb by remote control, killing all who were within 150 feet of her. The girl never knew what happened.
How would your community feel? How would this nation feel? What kind of news coverage do you think there would be? What kind of new laws would legislators want to pass? How many inquiries, inquests, and other formal hearings would be held?
And what of punishment for the acquaintance? What punishment would be appropriate? The death penalty? Life without parole? Put on a rocket and sent to outer space?
Such events happen (and recently have happened) in the Middle East. Al Quaeda used this tactic recently to kill 99 innnocents. See http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,327445,00.html for the story.
What should our response be? Should we say that it’s in another country and so doesn’t concern us? Should we read a story or two about it and remark how bad the world is today? Or should we as a society, as a nation, determine to let the world know that these atrocities will not stand, and that those responsible will be held accountable?
The United States long has been the champion of the oppressed. We have, and are the most generous nation on the face of the earth. Even though we tread carefully at times, and our record is not perfect, we step in to right a wrong, correct an injustice, or secure liberty for a citizenry.
If for no other, this is reason enough for us to confront this evil. This is reason enough to expend our national resources, both human and monetary. This is reason enough to be actively engaged in the societies of the nations that permit this.
And this is reason enough (if the Great Commission isn’t enough) for the Church to do its part, confronting evil, overcoming evil with good, and engaging in the spiritual war that has claimed far too many souls for the Evil One.
2 comments:
It is not our government's job to interfere with the citizenry of other nations. Our government was created to protect our citizens. The Monroe Doctrine says that we won't interfere in European (or today, we can expand it to Worldly) affairs unless it directly affects our citizenry. Pull our citizens out of there, and let them have their bombed out cities back, to govern themselves. It is not our job to decide who the leaders of foreign countries should be.
The writer of the comment has an incorrect understanding of both the Monroe Doctrine and my point in this posting. Nowhere does the doctrine state that we will not interfere in European affairs. Additionally, nowhere did I say that we need to decide who the leaders of foreign countries should be.
What I did say was that both this country and the church (emphasis on the church) have an obligation to stop the kind of abuse that we saw with these girls being used as human bombs.
There are several tools we as a nation have that can be used to stop the abuse. The military tool is a poor choice, in my opinion.
There are also several tools that we as a chuch have that can be used to stop the abuse. However, the goal of the church should, whatever the tools, be to reveal the mystery of God (Ephesians 3).
Post a Comment