Peace & War

ISIS has taken responsibility for three terrorist attacks that were carried out this past Thursday and Friday. On Thursday night over 40 people were killed and 250 were injured in a double suicide bombing in Beirut, Lebanon. On Friday a suicide bomber killed over 20 people and wounded about 40 attending a funeral in Baghdad, Iraq. Then on Friday night over 120 people were killed and more than 350 were wounded in six different attacks across Paris, France.

I stayed up late last night reading every snippet of information I could on the attack on Paris. I watched the death toll number rise. Finally, begrudgingly, I rose off the couch and headed to bed. I awoke to see the number higher still. And it climbs yet today. And my heart breaks for Paris. 

To defend both the unborn child and this oppressed family is to stand for the sanctity of all life.

It is clear that anyone who cares deeply for the sanctity of human life must not only be opposed to the policy of drone warfare, but must be an advocate to end it.

On 9/11 the West was suddenly confronted with the reality of Islamic extremism in the form of Al-Qaeda and the ideology of Osama Bin Laden. We all woke up to the dangers of fundamentalism. This was especially true for the Church in North America. Since 9/11 and despite or, as some might argue, as a result of the war on terror, extremism has only increased. Now we hear constantly about ISIS, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al Shabab, and other groups. Our own countries of the USA and Canada are more secure thanks to the efforts of Homeland Security and CSIS.

I recently watched a 20/20 episode entitled “Reversal of Fortune”. 20/20 was reporting on a newly granted mistrial in the case of two Vanderbilt University football players, Cory Batey and Brandon Vandenburg, who were convicted of aggravated rape and sexual battery. 

These are the kinds of conversations Aboriginal women are having. It is not normal and shouldn’t be routine. It is scary but necessary. Do other women have to have these conversations?

Can I be honest with you, reader? The last thing I want to do is write an article about Gaza.

Because in the face of what has just happened there, all the words that I keep trying to string together into some kind of meaningful or helpful thought seem superfluous, empty, and trite.

Listing the numbers also won’t do, as horrifying as they are.

2,168 people, killed.

521 children, killed.

12,000 people, injured.

500,000 people, displaced.

My colleague Shannon Jammal-Hollemans recently made a powerful statement, saying Christians tend to focus on the Fall at the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil, rather than focusing on the Tree of Life. I believe this cuts to the core of the “burden” of injustice, shedding light on the frustrating, paradoxical occurrence of disempowered Jesus followers.

We pray; we lament; we give to relief agencies. But we also struggle to understand why this is happening and who’s to blame. And the TV news channels are quick to serve up all kinds of plausible-sounding answers.