15 Mar On the New Zealand Shooting
I’m sure many of you have been watching the news unfold about the tragic shooting of many Muslims in a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand. I have some thoughts about this (and other similar, heartbreaking stories) and some encouragement for us, too, and would like to reflect on this tragedy in a few ways:
1. We should always condemn evil as evil.
It can be tempting, with our nation’s and faith’s history of strained relationships with Muslim people, to not condemn this but to sort of silently be ok or secretly happy that a tragedy happened to a people group with whom we disagree and we feel have hurt us in the past. That is called revenge, and it is not right or healthy to entertain. Just the simple act of calling something like this evil begins to put us on the right track. Actions taken in the name of ethnic supremacy, in this case, white supremacy, in specific, only break the world.
2. We should pray for our enemies, and bless those who persecute us.
This would be a time for Christians, many of whom consider Muslims to be their enemies, to obey Jesus at this point in his teaching. Just the simple act of praying for “the other” begins to humanize them and to call on a real power to help. And yes, we should pray that they come to know Jesus as well.
3. We should remember that persecution rarely, if ever, ends a faith system.
In our own Christian history, hasn’t persecution only helped us endure? As our own early Church apologist, Tertullian, said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church”. While Islam and Christianity are fundamentally two different faith systems, we do not worship the same God, and a mosque is not a church, we are nonetheless both systems of faith with people who gather in congregations, and persecution, in the end, usually only strengthens a faith system. When we really desire to see people come to know Jesus, we are told to “overcome evil with good”.
4. We should pray and work, always, for justice and truth, and pray for our law enforcement.
Law enforcement and legal systems have so much power and opportunity to help and hurt communities, much like churches. I hope we will pray for justice to be done and for wisdom and protection for our law enforcement here and law enforcement around the world.
5. We should honor what we have in common with others when we can.
With our secular friends and neighbors, many of whom regard science as the ultimate power and reality, we should agree that we love science, that it is a gift and not look suspiciously at it. Don’t we believe that God is the author and creator of all things? Understanding what He made can only help us understand Him better and believe more truthfully. The reversal of seeing the earth at the center of the solar system to understanding our star is the center only makes us marvel more at God’s largeness and care for our seemingly fragile planet.
And with our neighbors of other faith systems, we should be glad that as Christians, we are not the only ones in the world who believe in a supernatural order of things, a world full of good and evil. Affirming this where we can allows us the ability to rightly distinguish the critical and non-negotiable differences of Jesus later on, and creates a platform of mutual respect on which to build.
And with all humans, we can acknowledge, even when they don’t, that they are made in the image of God, and worthy of being treated as we would want to be treated.
6. We should remember that eternity is forever.
Jesus, more often than any other person in the Bible, spoke about the realities of heaven and hell, and the darkness in the heart of people that drives them away from God.
We should allow tragedies and acts of hate like this to drive us towards crying out to God to rescue people trapped in hatred of heart and in darkness of thought before their lives end and they slip into an eternity with Him or without Him.
The world is crying out now for help and light.
I pray we would be a people like that, and teach others and our children to do and be the same.
Morgan