How many of you remember John Lennon? While I am no particular fan, I liked a couple songs, I remember his tragic death. His killer lived a delusion of being John Lennon. The fact that a real John existed, conflicted with the delusion, so I read, and that drove the killer to pull the trigger. The ending of a real person so that a fantasy could comfortably exist.
I just read about two Canadian and one British aid worker who were killed by Taliban gunmen. The aid workers were offering food and education (such a hostile threat), for such they were struck down. They were likely in the way of someone's delusion, just like John Lennon. Let me theorize. In the fanatical schools of the Taliban, all Westerners are evil, "the great satan". The image of the great satan is hard to hold up against people who offer you food. When the woman that gives books to children, and then teaches them to read, is pointed out as the corrupter of youth, the practicality of the real person in your neighborhood makes the words of the preacher seem kind of hollow.
When the reality around you challenges your delusion, there are two choices. The first choice is to surrender your delusion. The second is to destroy that which challenges your delusion.
Of course America is not free of delusions, we have our own racism, culture wars, and self-righteousness. After we have kneeled before God and confessed OUR sin, then let us learn to prove the Taliban wrong and love our fellow man.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
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