*Ø* Blogmanac | Revenge, and forgiveness
Revenge is not only commonplace, it appears to be coming rather more respectable. A relative of one of the victims of the Bali bombings told this week how he had been fomenting a plan to leap over the dock of the courtroom and "snap the neck" of Amrozi, the perpetrator of the terrible revenge crime, who will soon be shot to death by Indonesian officers of the court.
An American fanatic kills an abortionist, supposedly because killing is wrong, so the state executes him, for the same reason.
A group of mainly Saudi Arabian lunatics fly passenger planes into the Twin Towers, killing 3,000 innocent civilians, in revenge for what American corporate capitalism is doing to poor countries. So America's avowedly Christian president orders the death of more than 10,000 Middle Eastern innocent civilians and tens of thousands of service men and women. The president's men capture 700 men and place them in small cages in Guantanamo Bay, refusing to charge them or allow access to the Red Cross, Amnesty International, family or lawyers. So the spiral grows. What dreadful plots are now brewing to avenge those 700?
Some Palestinians kill some Israelis, so some Israels kill some Palestinians, so some Palestinians kill some Israelis.
The immature notion of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" ends up with lots of blind, gummy people. Nothing could be more glaringly obvious in our modern world that revenge is not only morally indefensible, revenge is also very stupid. Is there any belief more execrable, more worthy of our attention and committed opposition, than the notion that revenge has a place in human affairs? Whether on the micro or macro scale, revenge, in my opinion, is the number one burning issue of our times.
For that reason, and because it is my conviction that revenge is becoming more acceptable in traditionally Christian nations, that Wilson's Almanac focuses on the topic at every opportunity. Thus I convey news items, few though they may be, whenever I find them, in which people who still have their brains challenge this obvious trend towards mutual slaughter. For if the trend continues, we certainly will all be slaughtered in the most horrible ways. This, in my opinion, is not an exaggeration of the issue; my view comes from observation of changes in public and private behaviours over several decades. Where revenge was once spoken of in ashamed whispers, it is now openly accepted, particularly amongst the young. This we must turn around.
Brother of murdered missionary forgives killers
"The brother of a Queensland missionary who was murdered in India four years ago is calling for the killers to be spared the death penalty.
"Graham Staines, his 10-year-old son Philip and eight-year-old son Timothy were burned to death while they slept in their car in the eastern state of Orissa.
"Thirteen people who were convicted of the murders in an Indian court yesterday could face the death penalty when they are sentenced next week.
"John Staines says he has forgiven the killers and he hopes that they will realise their sins."
Source
Google news on revenge
Revenge is not only commonplace, it appears to be coming rather more respectable. A relative of one of the victims of the Bali bombings told this week how he had been fomenting a plan to leap over the dock of the courtroom and "snap the neck" of Amrozi, the perpetrator of the terrible revenge crime, who will soon be shot to death by Indonesian officers of the court.
An American fanatic kills an abortionist, supposedly because killing is wrong, so the state executes him, for the same reason.
A group of mainly Saudi Arabian lunatics fly passenger planes into the Twin Towers, killing 3,000 innocent civilians, in revenge for what American corporate capitalism is doing to poor countries. So America's avowedly Christian president orders the death of more than 10,000 Middle Eastern innocent civilians and tens of thousands of service men and women. The president's men capture 700 men and place them in small cages in Guantanamo Bay, refusing to charge them or allow access to the Red Cross, Amnesty International, family or lawyers. So the spiral grows. What dreadful plots are now brewing to avenge those 700?
Some Palestinians kill some Israelis, so some Israels kill some Palestinians, so some Palestinians kill some Israelis.
The immature notion of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" ends up with lots of blind, gummy people. Nothing could be more glaringly obvious in our modern world that revenge is not only morally indefensible, revenge is also very stupid. Is there any belief more execrable, more worthy of our attention and committed opposition, than the notion that revenge has a place in human affairs? Whether on the micro or macro scale, revenge, in my opinion, is the number one burning issue of our times.
For that reason, and because it is my conviction that revenge is becoming more acceptable in traditionally Christian nations, that Wilson's Almanac focuses on the topic at every opportunity. Thus I convey news items, few though they may be, whenever I find them, in which people who still have their brains challenge this obvious trend towards mutual slaughter. For if the trend continues, we certainly will all be slaughtered in the most horrible ways. This, in my opinion, is not an exaggeration of the issue; my view comes from observation of changes in public and private behaviours over several decades. Where revenge was once spoken of in ashamed whispers, it is now openly accepted, particularly amongst the young. This we must turn around.
Brother of murdered missionary forgives killers
"The brother of a Queensland missionary who was murdered in India four years ago is calling for the killers to be spared the death penalty.
"Graham Staines, his 10-year-old son Philip and eight-year-old son Timothy were burned to death while they slept in their car in the eastern state of Orissa.
"Thirteen people who were convicted of the murders in an Indian court yesterday could face the death penalty when they are sentenced next week.
"John Staines says he has forgiven the killers and he hopes that they will realise their sins."
Source
Google news on revenge
Pip Wilson posted item above at 8:47 PM | Permalink
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