EASTER & TERROR

Yesterday, security forces loyal to Syrian President Assad sprayed a funeral procession in the city of Douma with gunfire. They killed at least eighty-eight mourners and scores more were seriously injured in the attack. What is it with brutal dictators, Islamic terrorists and members of the Westboro Baptist Church – always feeling the need to attack innocent mourners at funerals?

Oh, I get the fact that funeral attendees are the most emotionally vulnerable, and thus, the least likely to be expecting such an attack, but where is the honor and dignity in picking on the weak? Maybe that's the point – there is none! In fact, the practice probably says volumes about the merits of a cause that has to focus on torturing the lowliest and most vulnerable to make its statement.

Heinrich Himmler, the sadistic director of Germany's feared Nazi SS, made the case for terrorism when he stated, "The best political weapon is the weapon of terror. Cruelty commands respect. Men may hate us. But, we don't ask for their love; only for their fear."

I raise this point on Easter Sunday, as hundreds of millions of my fellow Christians world-wide are celebrating the birthday of our church. Himmler's brand of terror succeeded for the better part of three and a half years, fueled totally by fear and the murdering of over six million innocent people, and then it withered and died. Christ championed the lowly and the oppressed, and didn't kill anybody, and two thousand years later, we're still celebrating his name.