The Middle East

I once had a friend whose predominately Catholic family was from Palestine. Although he may not have fully understood the reprecussions of what he was saying, he often called Arafat a hero, and proclaimed that Israel must die. I don't know all of my history, and I don't know the circumstances that led to the Palestinian people's support of the P.L.O., but it boggles my mind when people rise up in support of terrorist organizations.

The recent bombings in Lebanon, and the killing of innocent Lebanese people, is being used as fodder against Israel, and fuel for the extremists' cause to irradicate Israel from Earth. Sounds extreme, I know, the total annialation of a culture from the face of the Earth, but when we are dealing with extremists, the rediculous and absurd is considered normal. This would be considered a call to genocide, but the Muslim extremists, and the Lebanese government (in their silence towards Hezbollah's actions), consider this to be entirely just.

Now we have protests that call on governments to publicly renounce Israel and her actions, while they are consistently silent about what organizations like the Taliban and Hezbollah, and governments like Iran have stated and acted against Israel. How could we support regimes that promote terrorism and genocide? How could people logically and morally rise up in support of such atrocities? How can we allow our children to support murder in the name of martyrdom by publicly supporting such inhumane organizations?

Personally, while I would hope that there must be a peaceful way to coexist within the Middle East, if anyone were to speak to me about the Hezbollah - Israel war, I would give my full support to Israel. I believe that they are retaliating agianst a regime that lusts for their demise. I cannot fathom why anyone would want to support an organization that uses its own people as shields, and then cries murder when their "shields" are wounded or killed. And yet, our media and our culture is silent about the base actions of Hezbollah -- as if we are terrified by what may be the outcome of our public denouncing of such an organization. We need to grow a backbone and renounce any form of support for Hezbollah and the governments that allow such organizations to exist within their borders, and, quite literally, in their own backyards.

"Lest you become like like little robots ..."

Sometimes I think that Christians have given up the faculty of their intellect. I'll give you an example: I was recently reading the posts of a debate on same-sex marriage when I became fed up with most of the arguments that the Christians were making. The bulk of their arguments were, "don't do it, because the Bible told us not to." It was as if all these kids placed their brains on a shelf, and submitted the Bible in its place. Don't get me wrong, I understand that we are called to put on the mind of Christ; I understand that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. However, Jesus did not say that "unless we become like little robots we will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

The impression that I get when I read some arguments made by Christians is that being a Christian implies that our blind faith is more ignorant than childlike. Ignorant in the sense that we neglect to want to understand the "why's" and the "why not's" of our Christian faith. We do things because we are supposed to, not because we freely (that is, with the full use of our intellect) choose it. I am tired of reading arguments made by Christians that lack credibility and "meat."

We have to be very careful, because it is this type of ignorance that leads to strict fundamentalism -- the type of fundamentalism that ruins relationships, builds walls instead of destroying them, and leads to a hatred of anything that is "not with us." I don't know who said it, but the following quote certainly convicts us on this issue: "The leading cause of atheism in the world today is Christians ..." It is my conviction that this type of fundamentalism is where atheism is nourished. Something must change. We ought to make a stronger attempt to discover the riches of our Christian faith; we need to become living witnesses of our dynamic, transforming, and challenging faith. Our intellectual ascent to the "why's" and the "why not's" of our faith ought to rise up in adoration of our loving Father, just as our hearts ascend to the beauty, love, and grace of the one "whom our hearts love." I will contend that our blind ignorance will continue to present Christianity as unattractive, tasteless, and dry. After all, who wants to be a robot anyway?