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March 13, 2004
More on Madrid
As the death toll continues to rise in Madrid, we all need to reflect on the actions of these evil men (and women!) and the reason that they do this. Firstly, the accomplish a great deal just by the threat they pose. We are all kept on edge by the possibility of their bombing the train, aircraft or shopping mall we use. They disrupt trade, they impoverish our lives. And their weapons include much more than bombs, guns and bio weaponry - it includes SPAM and computer virus generation.
I have, in the course of my career, had to deal with the aftermath of several bombings, they all strike me as evil for the same reason - the target is invariably the innocent. The first I attended was a queue outside a job centre. A bomb had been placed in the industrial wheelie bin outside the building and the queue had formed next to and around this. The bomb went off at 0730 in the morning, it killed 15, maimed around 50. Not big numbers by any standards, but they were all people the vile scum who planted it, claimed to be fighting to liberate. And so it continued through my career. I can only recall one where the device actually hit some (a very few) of the supposed "enemy". It took out even more of the supposed "victims of oppression".
In Spain we have seen the latest of a long line of atrocities committed to force the world to change to match the "vision" of the evil men and women who perpetrate them. As a believer in the salvation offered by God through Jesus Christ, I find myself hoping that the bombers find their way to a special hell somewhere in God's creation. But, I also know that God is a loving and forgiving God, and must acknowledge that his words to Jonah, angry that Ninevah had repented and been let off the hook, hold equally true here. Who am I to second guess God? Who am I to say that God should condemn these maniacs to everlasting damnation? Perhaps He has another way of dealing with them - a more Godly way, that is not for our knowledge or eyes.
In the meantime, please let us all pray for the victims of terror, wherever they are, and whoever the terrorists are. Pray too for those who must deal with the devastation to lives, property and psyches of our nations, pray especially for an end to violence and to the distress it causes. Let us pray that true justice can be found for all those affected by this and other acts of mindless, satanic terror.
Posted by The Gray Monk at March 13, 2004 11:41 AM
Comments
Beautifully written and thoughtful. It is a perfect sermon that should be said out loud over and over again.
Posted by: Cindy at March 14, 2004 04:50 AM
Thanks Cindy, saying it is one thing - that's the mind talking, the heart is burning for revenge, even though it knows it is not the right way.
Posted by: The Gray Monk at March 14, 2004 04:09 PM