OPEN COLUMN
It’s a strange kind of piety that believes killing is right

Editor, the Tribune: While walking around the air show tarmac with Jesus’ picture and the words "Who would Jesus bomb?" I discovered a sect of Christians who believe that Jesus would bomb me personally.

It’s unclear whether their preachers failed to transmit Jesus’ message to "love your enemies" to their flocks or whether these "Christians" were playing with the pretty ribbons marking the pages of their Bibles instead of paying attention to how Jesus disarmed his followers even after they came to arrest him.

Like Diogenes, who roamed the ancient marketplace with a lamp looking for one honest man, I searched the throng of thousands who seemed awed by the weaponry.

Finally a man approached and asked "What are you doing?"

I told him, "I’m looking for a true believer in Jesus who practices what he taught because I want them to help me answer a question that’s been bothering me: How can a Christian love their enemies and kill them at the same time?"

"You can’t" he replied. "But what about terrorists who kill innocent people?"

"Haven’t these planes killed innocent people while trying to kill terrorists?" I asked. "They’ve bombed wedding parties and killed innocent civilians who just happened to be nearby intended targets. Why believe we’re more civilized than their terrorists because we bomb and kill from the air rather than by suicide attacks? The results are the same."

He had no answer.

War is the terrorism of the rich; terrorism is the war of the poor.

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Steve Jacobs

901 Range Line St.

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