Blog is going Political!!

Ok, I know a lot of you stopped reading.  But today is April 1, and contrary to what you may believe, what I am about to tell you is NOT an April Fool's joke.

12 people were killed in Afghanistan today.  Of those 12, 8 of them were international employees working for the UN to spread peace in a nation, a region, and a culture, where peace is a dirty word.

Almost 30 more were critically injured. 

The violence was spurred by a Christian group in Florida that burned the Quaran a few weeks ago.

I can't honestly tell you which one bothers me more. 

I am a Christian.  I am proud of my faith.  I will tell you about my faith if you ask, and I will try to live it out every day.  This does not mean I think less of you if you do not believe in God.  Being Jewish, or Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, aethiest, or WHATEVER does not make you less of a person than me.  I believe in my bible.  I believe that that is the truth of the world.  It does not mean I have the right to hurt or offend you, or destroy your things because you don't believe the same thing.  How messed up is thinking that goes "Well if you don't believe in my book, I'll burn yours!  Yea!  Take that.  Now your's is ashes so you have to read mine.  And believe it.  And let it change your life."

I read my bible sometimes.  And my take on it is that we need to try to be like this Jesus guy.  And to my recollection, Jesus didn't do that.  Jesus flipped tables over, and Jesus challenged the pharisees.  Jesus did not burn their temples or scriptures, or defame what was important to them (unless you consider flipping tables excessive.)  

But the Afghan rebels killed people.  In brutal ways.  People that were knowingly innocent and unrelated to the group in Florida.  They did it to prove a point.  Last I checked, the value of a human life is not equivalent to the need to "prove a point."  (I have separate thoughts on war, but best leave that to another time.)

It's just difficult sometimes to look at the world around us, and think about how much hate is being bred. Maybe you think me naive or too liberal or hippi-tastic, but I honestly believed that if we taught our children and communities that the value of a human life is unparalleled, than maybe we would see a world that isn't so scary to live in.    That we don't have to worry about raising children in.  A world that - will not be perfect - but will be safe.  We don't have to all agree - and we never will - but we do have to value and respect each other.

That is my prayer for this fallen world.