Why
does this keep happening?
In the face of evil perpetrated by humans onto one
another, a question has been recently raised:
Why does this keep happening?
President Obama quoted this question in his remarks at
a memorial service in Orlando this week—a memorial for 49 people who had been
tending to their own business when they were murdered by a man who felt
compelled by his (heart-felt) beliefs or (culturally acquired) behavior or (thoughtfully
chosen) moral code or (cold-blooded) feelings or (spiritually deranged) sense
of self to judge and end their earthly lives.
This act, like stabbing someone on the sidewalk from
behind—seems so senseless, an explosion of sin, a rip in the space time love continuum.
To one who does NOT have these same heart-felt beliefs
or particular moral codes or specific culturally acquired behaviors or who is NOT
deranged—this act provokes judgement—or something. Those among us who are
Gandhian will look upon the man one way. Those of us who are Kingian, perhaps
another. How does the Dalai Lama look upon the man who rips the continuum this
way? How a Democrat? A Republican? A Muslim? A Buddhist? How must a Christian look upon this man? Are
we not weeping for the lost soul of the murderer? What does Jesus say to him?
This man who might have lived a life of joy, who might
have made his children happy, who might have shared love and connection and the
fruits of his labors with his community and in the world… Are we to pity him?
Love him? Despise him?
Delight in his death?
Why Does This Keep Happening?!
For those who have not pondered The Big Questions, this
question is a cry for the end to a sadness that is painful and seems even unbearable.
This question is for children who do not understand the way of things here on
the journey, the Pilgrim’s Progress, the walk through the valley of death. For
those who have found the Source of Faith, Hope and Love, this question is easy,
heartbreaking to answer.
It keeps happening because men (please, I use the word
as synecdoche) live in a state of sin.
These sorts of acts will keep happening as long as men
live separated from God, that is, the Pure Light of Love consciously waiting
for us in our hearts and in eternity. If you are an atheist, I do feel some pity for you, )life simply the flotsam and jetsam of genetic material, randomly swirling about
the universe, hoping to replicate, generation after
generation, through the meaningless ages, to no end...) as you will find that human beings without grace cannot build a utopia.
These sorts of acts have happened since the beginning.
And these sorts of acts have happened throughout history—sometimes
the monstrous act of war, malignant beyond all words; sometimes a micro act, of
terrorizing one’s own mate, one’s very offspring; sometimes through (logically
twisted) beliefs or (selfish) behavior or (sociopathic) moral codes or (lustful)
feelings or a (spiritually deranged) sense of self.
Why should these acts not happen now? In the present age, our
psychological research has determined the most powerful techniques to influence
our children. We’ve taken this knowledge and constructed games, movies, music
that allow our children to revel in destruction; attitudes and acts repeated
and modeled over and over, day by day, year by year. In one country, children are at risk
of losing their heads, in another, losing their minds. In one culture we teach
our children to get money sex fame products bling and attitude, shoes they can’t
walk in and clothes that point to the naughty bits; in another we teach them to
run for their lives, to huddle, starving in hot tents with dirty water and
biting insects because your neighbors don’t want you…
We have 300 schoolgirls stolen and enslaved for YEARS while
the fancy leaders wine and dine and fly about visiting. We have boys and girls
and women and men sold around the globe, more slave trading than any time in
human history; knives are used as rape weapons in Congo and gay men thrown blindfolded off rooftops to their death -- by Law, in certain countries, fu’cryin’ out
loud.
Millions around the globe apparently adhere to a beliefsystem whose moral code demands behavior similar to that which was inflicted by a man in Orlando so methodically, so selfishly, upon a collection of others of his own species who were in the middle of a night of music, connection, and the search for relationship…
Millions around the globe apparently adhere to a beliefsystem whose moral code demands behavior similar to that which was inflicted by a man in Orlando so methodically, so selfishly, upon a collection of others of his own species who were in the middle of a night of music, connection, and the search for relationship…
Why do these things keep happening?
Life in a fallen world.
The carnal and the spiritual.
We are not looking at the beam in our own eye…
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