Today, I awoke in my bed, in my own house and knowing my family is safe though not with me. What a sense of safety and blessing after watching the terror in Paris and feeling keenly the danger in a city I love to visit. My heart ached for those who have lost family or been injured. Insanity and hatred seem to rule the world, and their biggest weapon is fear.
Already people are saying attack; one of our American politicos has said to not calculate civilian non-combatant loss as importantly as we have in the past. In other words to become like the terrorists and kill the innocent in the hope of catching and stopping the guilty. There are many who would side with him but becoming like them makes us so much less than we are as a nation. Yes, we must act but we must do this in an honorable way. Reaction such as he is proposing is not a good thing.
People never cease to amaze me. French resistance in the the last war is legendary, and last night as they left the soccer game their fighting spirit came forward once again. https://youtu.be/j_ohE1P4RCw . This video made me proud to have studied the language and the history of the French. They moved calmly away from the stadium singing their national anthem. A proud people in a terrible moment showing courage and patriotism.
Hard as it may seem ISIS is not the entire Muslim world. Many here will disagree with that but stop and think we know that not all Germans were NAZIS. Yes , we must be vigilant, we must be prepared but we must of all things be humans and not judge everyone by the few who do these violent acts. In other words ,if we are indeed Christians in a Christian nation, we must practice the type of love Christ modeled for us. We can not say we are Christian and deny the needs of the poor, disregard the needs of children or more importantly condemn an entire community because of the radicals who are part of it
The extreme Christianity that I see now in my country is not good. The type that wishes to kill those who do not live life as they do, who becomes distraught over a coffee service's Christmas cup, who seek to limit freedoms of all who do not support them are radicals also. While they do not as of yet attack other countries, they are slowly but surely dividing our nation. "A house divided against itself can not stand" to quote Abraham Lincoln, and due to latent racism, and a growing intolerance of those who do not march to the ultra conservative drum our nation is no longer truly united. This is not a good thing.
Do I have a cure for this? No, of course not. I am one human but I am determined to continue to look for the good in others. I will live my life proudly helping those in need ,and I will hold firm in my belief that Jesus would not care about a paper cup, but he will care about how we put into the practice the love he taught and modeled for us. If you can not accept me as I am, so be it.
So enough for this sadder by last night's losses morning. Stand Strong France, and know that I and many Americans feel your loss with heavy hearts.
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