Christian Reflection and Prayer

 

Thirdly, and finally, we must utterly denounce the
message of political leaders who speak and act to
politicize terrorist violence in service of their own
political agendas and ambitions. In particular we
must denounce the message of those who have
called for the "patrolling" of Muslim neighborhoods
in the United States and for putting Muslim
American citizens under surveillance we must also
denounced the words of those who secure fear of
more attacks and purpose to protect
"us" from "them" by monitoring Muslim Americans,
banning Muslim immigrants from the United States,
torturing suspects and killing the families of terrorists,
and even suggesting they might be open using
nuclear weapons against Isis.
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The second way that we can deny the terrorists their
victory:

 

Second, we must resist with all of our beings that
hateful, ugly, and violent reactions people who are
not responsible for these atrocities. In particular, we
must resist attacks of discrimination against
Muslims and hateful language against the religion of
Islam. We must avoid re-victimizing Muslims, who
are already suffering from Isis violence, in our
responses to terrorism. Instead, Christians and other
people of faith should reach out to our Muslim
brothers and sisters to build bridges of understanding,
love, and mutual respect. Then we must all work
together to undermine, disrupt and end this evil violence

DENOUNCING the POLITICS of HATE (part two)

 

Here are some ways that we can deny the terrorists
their victory:

 

FIRST, WE MUST focus on life and the terrible human
suffering that these attacks are causing all over the world.
When you add up all of those killed, maimed, wounded,
and traumatize--and all their family members, friends,
fellow congregants, and co-workers--the number of human
beings impacted by terrorist violence is almost countless.
We must also include the impact on all our children whose
fears these attacks kindall, and the fears we in turn feel for
them.

 

While the terrorists focus on provoking a political reaction,
we must pray, remember, and focus our minds and hearts
on the human lives that have been ended or forever changed.
It's especially important in these times to remember our
Muslim brothers and sisters all over the world, who are
killed in much higher numbers than non--Muslims by Isis
and their I LK