Normally, I try to give people from different cultures the benefit of the doubt. When things seem strange and different I try not to get too upset, because you never know, you could learn something from folks who are different than you. The first time I tried sushi, I was pretty suspicious, but now I love the raw fish.
However, there are some things that I just can't have an open mind about. There was a story in today's paper about the Taliban gunning down a school girl. It wasn't a mistake, it wasn't collateral damage, she was the target: a girl, a child, was the corrosive force that the Taliban thought needed to be purged from society, so armed men stopped a bus load of school girls and opened up on them. Pardon me being judgmental, but that is subhuman. Maybe our war against the Taliban really is a righteous war after all. Maybe we got in for the wrong reasons, maybe it's a futile effort, but if it makes the world safer for little girls (and boys) in the long run, it's worth it.
I have been aware of the practice of honor killings for years and it always turns my stomach. Sure, I'm a privileged, educated, western white guy, but one of the things I feel genuine righteous outrage about is the treatment of poor, uneducated, brown girls from the other side of the world. For once, you really can't blame this one on the colonial/capitalist oppressors. The blame for this one lies squarely on their fathers, brothers, uncles and cousins. How does the average Muslim father tolerate a world where his daughter could be gunned down for wanting to get an education? That's not a rhetorical question, if anyone out there knows please use the comment line.
Why isn't every father, who has or ever had a little girl, hopping mad about things like this?
It's not just a cultural difference, it's pure evil.
It's not just a difference between serving Yahweh or Allah or following Christ, it's a matter of doing violence to the most vulnerable members of society: it is serving the Devil.
Jesus said if you cause any of the "little ones" to stumble, it would be better for you to be thrown into the ocean with a millstone around your neck. So what is going to happen when you shoot a schoolgirl in the face in the name of your god?
I'm not judging (well maybe I am sort of), but I know someone who is going to, and Her name is The LORD. (and I use the feminine pronoun there because I'm pretty sure when God judges the Taliban, what they'll see is a schoolgirl bringing them a millstone).
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