In the past two weeks alone there have been shootings at a Planned Parenthood, a California social service facility San Bernardino Shooting and, accompanied by explosives, in Paris.
Paris attacks. It seems that far too many people in our world believe that violence is the answer to political differences, religious beliefs, personal upsets, difficult childhoods and on and on.
When it comes to violence and the killing of fellow human beings, here is what I know:
1. When you say you believe in life and then kill people as a political statement, you do not value life.
2. When you kill fellow human beings under the guise of religion, you are twisting your faith, turning others against your faith and killing those whom your God created.
3. When you justify your rage as due to another person’s or group’s actions, you’re no better than the person or group you’re condemning.
4. When you, as a leader, blame a third party (such as Planned Parenthood) for the actions of a gunman, you perpetuate violence, grotesquely abuse your power and are grossly negligent in your role of leader of an entire nation.
5. When we, as a nation, excuse, justify or defend the violent actions of others because of their upbringing, beliefs or life stress, we perpetuate the likelihood of more violence and send the message that when life is difficult, we can’t be held responsible for our actions. This is a stunningly dangerous message.
Violence begets violence; it does NOT alleviate it, solve it or end it. Until our world gets this, we will ultimately end up destroying the very world we claim to want to save. The violent actions of others do not justify our own. The hurtful behaviors of others do not justify our own or cause our reciprocal hurtful behaviors. Using violence as a means of condemning violence is as crazy as it sounds. Radical beliefs, actions and ideologies are harmful, not passionate; toxic, not righteous, and are killing our world, not saving it. We no more have the right to rage at our spouses and children when they upset us than we do to shoot up a clinic because we don’t believe in what they do. It’s one thing to use violence as a means of self-defense, it’s an entirely different thing to use bloodshed to send a message or back up some type of ideology.
Challenge: Don’t be fooled by the rhetoric of violence. Violence is toxic no matter how you try to spin it and no matter what God you claim tells you to turn to violence as the answer.