On this day, which lives in infamy as much as December 7, we need to stand back and ask why is it people attack others and kill to advance a political goal? Yesterday, it was Charlie Kirk, last month Minnesota State Senator Melissa Hortman, and 24 years ago people at the World Trade Center buildings. What kind of twisted thinking did these murderers have?
As horrible and horrific as the Trade Center murders were, we have become inured to the many small murders. W\hat is it that drives a person to kill others in the name of God? Many of us recoil at the idea that murder is done in the name of God, but not so the true believer for whom murder is justified.
The increase in political violence here in America is more than distressing; it says something about who we are in danger of becoming. We demonize those who either do not agree with us, or those we think have different values than we do. We use language like “vermin” that makes the other less than human and that only permits even more violence, and worse, makes it also justifiable. If we don’t stop, we will be something we don’t want to be.
Prayer for the Day
Made in our image, O God, you are our refuge and strength,
And called to proclaim your message of justice and peace;
Soften our hearts, O Lord, that we hear the stranger’s knock,
And give us tender hearts so that horror and violence do not exist
May we stand firm against the hardness of the world
And flood us with courage to risk the pain of loving one another
In the name of the One who shows us how to love,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
The practice of violence, like all action, changes the world, but the most probable change is to a more violent world.
Hannah Arendt, political philosopher (1906-1975)
Dehumanization, although a concrete historical fact, is not a given destiny but the result of an unjust order that engenders violence in the oppressors, which in turn dehumanizes the oppressed.
Paulo Freire, Brazilian educator and philosopher (1921-1997)
Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
You people who have my teaching in your hearts;
Do not fear the reproach of others,
And do not be dismayed when they revile you.
Isaiah 51:7