Putting Terrorism in Perspective

Columnist Leonard Pitts puts terrorism in perspective, saying that terrorists are only powerful if we pay attention to them.

Some quotations on fear

Genesis 3:9 Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (All Bible quotations from the World English Bible, public domain)

As it was, she was surprised into looking into the Beast's face.
The contrasts she found there were too great: wisdom and despair, power and weakness, man and animal. These made him far more terrible than any hungry lion, any half-tamed hydra, any angry sorcerer, terrible as something that should not exist is terrible, because to recognize that it does exist shakes that faith in the foundations of the natural world which human beings must have to bear the burden of their rationality. Robin McKinley, Rose Daughter. New York: Ace, 1998, p. 87. ("she" is Beauty.)

1 Peter 3:13 Now who is he who will harm you, if you become imitators of that which is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “Don’t fear what they fear, neither be troubled.”


I was in the chapel over the burial-vault of my race.  I called aloud:  "If any of the dead are moving here, let
them take pity upon me, for I, alas! am still alive; and let some dead woman comfort me, for I am a stranger in the land of the dead, and see no light."  A warm kiss alighted on my lips through the dark.  And I said, "The dead kiss well; I will not be afraid."  And a great hand was reached out of the dark, and grasped mine for a moment, mightily and tenderly.  I said to myself:  "The veil between, though very dark, is very thin." (George MacDonald, Phantastes, public domain)


GHOST, n. The outward and visible sign of an inward fear.

. . . Accounting for the uncommon behavior of ghosts, Heine mentions somebody's ingenious theory to the effect that they are as much afraid of us as we of them. Not quite, if I may judge from such tables of comparative speed as I am able to compile from memories of my own experience.
There is one insuperable obstacle to a belief in ghosts. A ghost never comes naked: he appears either in a winding-sheet or "in his habit as he lived." To believe in him, then, is to believe that not only have the dead the power to make themselves visible after there is nothing left of them, but that the same power inheres in textile fabrics. Supposing the products of the loom to have this ability, what object would they have in exercising it? And why does not the apparition of a suit of clothes sometimes walk abroad without a ghost in it? These be riddles of significance. They reach away down and get a convulsive grip on the very tap-root of this flourishing faith. (Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, public domain)


LONGEVITY, n. Uncommon extension of the fear of death. (The Devil's Dictionary)

My first religion was pure Paganism, which among sincere men is more shortly described as extreme fear. Then there succeeded a state of mind which is quite real, but for which no proper name has ever been found. The ancients called it Stoicism, and I think it must be what some German lunatics mean (if they mean anything) when they talk about Pessimism. It was an empty and open acceptance of the thing that happens—as if one had got beyond the value of it. And then, curiously enough, came a very strong contrary feeling—that things mattered very much indeed, and yet that they were something more than tragic. It was a feeling, not that life was unimportant, but that life was much too important ever to be anything but life. I hope that this was Christianity. At any rate, it occurred at the moment when we went crash into the omnibus. (G. K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles, public domain)

Revelation 6:15 The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. 16 They told the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of his wrath has come; and who is able to stand?” 

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Musings on an anniversary

Today is a September eleventh. I am very sorry for what happened. Real people died, and real people who didn't die had their lives shattered -- loved ones gone, in a few cases jobs gone, nightmares endured for the rest of their lives. But, as always, we didn't react as wisely as we should have. I didn't, either.

When thousands of US residents die one by one, in gang warfare in our streets, in highway accidents, without proper medical care, we don't pay a lot of attention. When hundreds or thousands die at once, we do. Is that wise?

Our elected and appointed officials felt that they had to "do something." One thing has been to beef up airport security. Are we better off because of this? Maybe. Maybe not. Critics of airport security say that we are now very good at keeping small sharp objects off planes, but that it no longer matters, because of changes to how the cockpit is protected. And maintenance personnel could do things to blow up planes, and we don't check them.

Another thing that our leaders felt that they had to do -- a lot of us we wanted them to -- was to punish someone badly. They picked Iraq. Perhaps the world is better off for this, perhaps not. Some people think that Iraq is likely to turn into a bloodbath between Kurds, Sunnis, and Shiites. Some think that the Shiite part of it is going to become a satellite of Iran. Even if Iraq becomes a stable democracy, where freedom of religion (including for Christians) is allowed, it's not there yet. Osama bin Laden has yet to be caught. Iraq has been a breeding ground for new terrorists. We've lost lives, and taken them. There has been massive corruption and graft. We didn't plan for an occupation very well. Our troops lacked armor at first, and they often haven't been given the medical and psychological care that they need. We have sometimes been exposed as horribly immoral. We've spent vast amounts of our money, without (until recently) even putting the expense into the budget.

God says that vengeance belongs to Him. I should let Him take care of revenge on someone who harms me, if He chooses to. It's not my business. Does that apply to governments, especially governments which, like ours, are not theocracies? Perhaps not. But God is still the final authority.

I close with good news. Christ came to end all suffering and death. Whatever evil is now in the world, it will all be ended.

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