Deja vu strikes again
The terrorists are at it again...
I switched on CNN this morning and saw that in Egypt around 30 people were killed and another 107 wounded while a powerful explosion has apparently rocked Beirut. I am sure if I do a search across different websites and TV channels, I might uncover some more news of explosions, bombings and civilian casualties.
Violence of this nature and dimension seem to be a general trend these days -- whether government officials who look at 'war' as an instrument of foreign policy or militants who look at 'terrorism' as a negotiation ploy. It makes me wonder whether this obsession for violence arises out of a curious sense of bravado and machismo or do they genuinely see this as a solution. As a pacifist, I find it hard to agree with rationales offered by violence-mongers because it brings to my mind the words of Jesus: "those who live by the sword die by the sword". And yet, when one hears of innocent children being slaughtered at the altar of some ideology or some cooked up policy, one begins to wonder...
I can understand that any antipathy towards violence and war may seem a bit naive in this day and age because that would be going against the dominant paradigm. But then, again, if we are people who follow the Prince of Peace, we need to start asking some serious questions, and to seriously disagree with the way the world is operating these days. After all, love and peace are the fruits that identify us as people of God and are qualities that we not only need to emulate but, also, promote. These qualities go against the grain of all that the 'world' stands for because it values meekness and humility over everything else and those are the very qualities that the 'world' considers to be 'weak'.
And if we consider how unsuccessful the "world's" value systems have been in creating a safe and secure world... we need to question it even more aggressively and make it known that there is more to life than this.
But we can only respond as Pete Seeger did when he sang, "When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?" *
(*from Where have all the flowers gone?)
I switched on CNN this morning and saw that in Egypt around 30 people were killed and another 107 wounded while a powerful explosion has apparently rocked Beirut. I am sure if I do a search across different websites and TV channels, I might uncover some more news of explosions, bombings and civilian casualties.
Violence of this nature and dimension seem to be a general trend these days -- whether government officials who look at 'war' as an instrument of foreign policy or militants who look at 'terrorism' as a negotiation ploy. It makes me wonder whether this obsession for violence arises out of a curious sense of bravado and machismo or do they genuinely see this as a solution. As a pacifist, I find it hard to agree with rationales offered by violence-mongers because it brings to my mind the words of Jesus: "those who live by the sword die by the sword". And yet, when one hears of innocent children being slaughtered at the altar of some ideology or some cooked up policy, one begins to wonder...
I can understand that any antipathy towards violence and war may seem a bit naive in this day and age because that would be going against the dominant paradigm. But then, again, if we are people who follow the Prince of Peace, we need to start asking some serious questions, and to seriously disagree with the way the world is operating these days. After all, love and peace are the fruits that identify us as people of God and are qualities that we not only need to emulate but, also, promote. These qualities go against the grain of all that the 'world' stands for because it values meekness and humility over everything else and those are the very qualities that the 'world' considers to be 'weak'.
And if we consider how unsuccessful the "world's" value systems have been in creating a safe and secure world... we need to question it even more aggressively and make it known that there is more to life than this.
But we can only respond as Pete Seeger did when he sang, "When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?" *
(*from Where have all the flowers gone?)
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