First Posted 10-Feb-2105
Not dead yet? Sun rose again today? Doh. Guess we are not going to die just yet. Dang. I was hoping to be raptured so I didn’t have to do dishes tonight. Well that stinks. As I type it’s a fairly typical February day for Richmond, VA. It’s cold, it rained this morning, there was sleet but now it’s all melted and the streets are dry. We haven’t had our snowpocolypse storm yet this year. The one where the weatherman swears it’s going to dump 1,000 feet of snow on us and we won’t dig out until the year 3,000. So, there is bread, milk & toilet paper still on the shelves in the store.
I am familiar with my Christian brethren who live breathless lives sure that today is the very day when St. Lucifer will show up, pronounce his victory over Christ, and begin the end of the world. Various fools in our history have set a date & time that came & went and the sun rose and the end of the world was . . . not so much. So, they had to mop the floors like yesterday and do dishes and all the other stuff that comes with the day to day. Not raptured today? Maybe tomorrow.
Now, though, I learn that there are Muslim fools who believe an Islamic apocalypse very similar to our Krischin one. They too keep believing that Mohamed is nigh and we are all dead about . . . now. Not dead? Rats. Maybe tomorrow.
The hamper is full. The victory garden needs weeding. I’m cool with a kind of passive foolishness where folk run about evangelizing because they are sure that the end is near. What I don’t like is the thought that we should do something to precipitate the end. If God isn’t moving fast enough to bring final judgement on his creation then we have to get it in gear and start making it happen. Uhm, what? Wait. Meaning?
If I understand this right, meaning that we are doing God’s work by killing all who don’t agree with our flavor of Abrahamic religion. Whoa. That’s not good. If it’s true, it needs to stop. Too, if there is an eight century beef against Christians because of what we did back in the day, OMG, start forgiving, please. I’ve said similar things earlier on this blog. Vengeance just begets more vengeance. The whole reason that the final play of Oresteia is a trial is that by then folk have figured out that the rule of law is the only thing to break the perpetual bloodshed of a feud. Resentment is a bottomless hole. There is nothing the object of the resentment can do to make it even. There are no words sufficient, no number of bodies on the floor that will be enough. At some point justice and mercy have to come together to break the cycle of violence.
I don’t have the way out of this. Being nice to them doesn’t seem to mean anything. Talk is useless. They use the time to clean their guns and resupply. I know of the debate over whether it is “Thou shalt not kill” or “Thou shalt not murder”. I tend to fall with those who say it is “Thou shalt not murder” and on that, say that there are times when killing is necessary. I’d rather we didn’t fight, we didn’t unleash our military might in the Middle East. But, if that’s what it takes, if bodies on the floor are what is needed to end the fight, so be it. Those of us that survive will get the dishes done and do the needful.