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Welcome to Varied Expressions of Worship

Welcome to Varied Expressions of Worship

This blog will be written from an orthodox Christian point of view. There may be some topic that is out of bounds, but at present I don't know what it will be. Politics is a part of life. Theology and philosophy are disciplines that we all participate in even if we don't think so. The Bible has a lot to say about economics. How about self defense? Is war ethical? Think of all the things that someone tells you we should not touch and let's give it a try. Everything that is a part of life should be an expression of worship.

Keep it courteous and be kind to those less blessed than you, but by all means don't worry about agreeing. We learn more when we get backed into a corner.

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Opus 2016-149: More Than Nazis

Most people are aware of the evil of the Jewish Holocaust perpetrated by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.  Not as many consider the Armenian Holocaust that the Muslim Turks inflicted on the Christian minority of the Ottoman empire.   In reading Laura Schlessinger’s book on the Ten Commandments she got me thinking about how often there are “holocausts” and we don’t consider the frequency. 
“The many tens of millions of murders of the Stalinist era, the Third Reich, communist China, and the killing fields of Cambodia, to name only a few are blatant testimonials to godless chaos and cruelty.” pp. 32-33
These are just the ones we are aware of if we have done any reading or thinking.  These are just in the last hundred years.  These are just the ones that made the news.

How many deaths does it take to rate as a holocaust?  We have other words for them today:  Ethnic cleansing, genocide, abortion.  Does the destruction of the welfare system or drugs qualify?  Do we run the danger of desensitizing people by calling too many things holocausts?

It is important to note the anniversaries for the Jewish and Armenian holocausts.  It isn’t because these groups are any more important than the Ukrainians or Cambodians.  It is because they are more familiar.  It is because they remind us of the evil that is perpetuated by certain regimes.  It is to make us aware of what is going on today in the Middle East and in parts of Africa.  Maybe we need to have special days to mark more of these atrocities.

I expect to see it again.  I won’t be surprised if devout Christians are rounded up someday in America.  There is a saying about eternal vigilance being the price of liberty.

Here’s to vigilance.

Schlessinger, Dr. Laura and Vogel, Rabbi Stewart.  The Ten Commandments
    New York:  Cliff Street Books, 1998.

homo unius libri 

2 comments:

  1. The older I get, the more I'm beginning to see that evil never rests.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And I think as we get older and wiser we see more clearly the evil that exists.

      Grace and peace.

      Delete

Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.