Somewhere in the world tonight someone is planning to kill as many human beings as possible. In doing so, they will most assuredly die with their victims. They are not afraid because someone has convinced them that God will be pleased and they are guaranteed a ticket to heaven. Thus it is that religious people can be very frightening. A common criminal can possibly be talked out of pulling the trigger, but if someone is doing it for God only a miracle will deter them.
Recent years have seen an uptick in religiously inspired violence. We have always seen patriotically inspired violence but with the addition of religion we face a new human crisis. Into the mix goes hate speech and the flames are fanned. People who hold different views than we become not just traitors but heretics who must be silenced at all costs. Somewhere along the way the ideals of faith that inspire us to be better people vanish without our being aware. Unwittingly, we become zealots who so often are but puppets for unsavory types who use our passion for their gains and to the destruction of the good we used to possess.
Our email boxes become repositories of hate materials disguised as religious or patriotic materials and we are duped into forwarding them on to our friends and relatives not even asking ourselves the question, “Would Jesus forward this?” “Does this represent the best that I want to be?” Hate crimes begin with hate speech, and hate speech is hate speech even if it is just a “funny” cartoon or an editorial that encouraged an inflamed soul to kill for Jesus. If we are part of the chain we share the guilt.
God has given the 21st century citizen marvelous electronic tools with which to spread the gospel. Let us use them to proliferate the joy of salvation.
Written by Roger Bothwell on March 31, 2010
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org