[dropcap]F[/dropcap]rom the week ending April 20, 2013
From Alan Cross at Downshore Drift, Boston Bombings, Evil Unleashed, and Light Triumphing Over Darkness
In the midst of so much darkness and violence and pain, today, God showed up and the eternity written on the hearts of men (Eccl. 3:11) reflected a Story more true than all of the evil that can be unleashed on the world. Heroism and sacrifice and laying down one’s life for another still exists in this world. Light still triumphs over darkness.
From Todd Littleton at The Edge of the Inside, Natural Anger, Natural Fear – Boston and Beyond
We tend to fear those whom we consider our enemies. Christians, according to Jesus, must pray for and love our enemies. There is no indication in the Scriptures that we possess the human privilege of choosing enemies. If that is the case, then to be an enemy is to have been chosen an enemy rather than choosing the other as enemy. Loving our neighbor recasts others as subjects to learn to know and love.
From Jay Sanders at Pastoral Ramblings, Responding to Boston
No one needs to hear our opinion on why this happened and they certainly don’t need to hear our opinion on why God allowed this to happen. Taking God’s name in vain is more than just saying his Son’s name when you hit your thumb with a hammer. It also involves speaking on his behalf when he has not spoken. Jesus Christ was on his throne when those bombs went off and he is on his throne now. Nothing is beyond his sovereign care. That’s good enough.
From Popehat, Richard Jewell cannot accept our apology
For nine years, Richard Jewell labored under suspicion that he’d been the bomber. In fact, Richard Jewell was a jewel of a man, a private security guard who spotted the bomb, informed the police of its existence, and escorted park visitors off the site until the bomb exploded. Jewell was a hero.
Such an unlikely hero, it occurred to the FBI, and CNN, and NBC, and the New York Post, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution, that he must have planted the bomb. After all, private security guards are losers. Mall cops. And Jewell, for all his common sense and bravery in a crisis, was an odd man. A little weird, a law-enforcement wannabe who’d just happened to be in the right place at the right time, then went on tv talking as though he was an actual cop. And he was fat.
From Michael F. Bird at Patheos, Infanticide: The Coming Battle
Campaigners for infanticide will make their case in a gradual way. First, they won’t call it “infanticide” (killing infants) but “post-birth abortion.” The reasons are obvious. The word “infanticide” strikes horror into our hearts. But “post-birth abortion” makes it sound like the termination is simply an extension of abortion, which we are culturally adjusted to. Yet the terminology is grossly inaccurate. You can “abort” something in process like a pregnancy, but killing an infant is not an abortion, its an execution. Second, campaigners will advocate the infants born with terminal illnesses should be euthanized so as to prevent the infant’s suffering. That is the compassionate thing to do! Third, then the campaign will shift to children with chronic disabilities and all kinds of generative diseases and then move onto to any minor defect like cleft palates. Planned Parenthood will parade teary-eyed parents wishing they could have terminated their sick child either in utero or soon after birth to prevent the child’s suffering and their own. Fourth, then radical feminists will tell us that women will never be truly liberated until they are given the right to terminate their own infants. Fifth, we will be told that the only reason for not believing in infanticide is that you are a religious whack job. Well you get the picture by now.
