Jeremiah is afraid as he is being terrorized and prays for vengeance from his Lord Yahweh of Armies, “I hear the whisperings of many: ‘Terror on every side!” “O Lord of Hosts… let me witness the vengeance you take on them.” Jesus is not afraid, too is being terrorized but prays for gentleness for gentleness from peacemaking disciples, “Fear no one.” “Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without Abba’s knowledge.” “Do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”
The terror of our present age is as real as that of the age of Jeremiah and of Jesus. Terrorism is increasing in India from Militant Hindu religionists, called Hindutva. For generations Militant Jewish and Islamic religionists have been terrorizing people who live in their shared region. The U.S. Empire, led by people who call themselves Christian, has been waging a terror campaign across the Middle East with soldiers based in Afghanistan, Iraq and over a dozen other nations ready to increase that terror. The U.S. has its own terror campaign being waged internally. Some of the terrorists are former and current soldiers and police. Studies, such as The Military, Police, and the Rise of Terrorism in the United States, show increased numbers of U.S. soldiers are “involved in a growing number of domestic terrorist plots and attacks.” Studies, such as the Brennan Center’s Hidden in Plain Sight, show U.S. police are increasingly perpetrating domestic terrorism with “active links” to white supremacy. A particularly disturbing U.S. terrorist network promoting male supremacy and white supremacy is the Terrorgram Collective. It is a communication forum for Nazis. It is a Network of over 200 Fascist telegram channels and accounts, for example, the Atomwaffen Division. The Terrorgram Collective posts instructions on building weapons and bombs and how to use them to accelerate militant racial division and anti-government violence. The groups are referred to as accelerationists, supremacists who agitate for civil disorder and violence across society to eradicate middle ground and force people to extremism and thus war. Members of these terrorist organizations act to instill fear. It is the definition of terrorism. The male supremacists and white supremacists are attempting to fill people with fear because fear is the feeling that fills them. They are afraid of equality, unable to relate in a world that asks them not to rule but to live in communion. It is a sad devolution of a person’s humanity that they are susceptible to coercion by scared white men. It is a sad devolution that their purpose in life is to instill fear, to make suffer, and to kill people who are not scared white men. Ex-Terrorists say they stopped their violent ethics when people who opposed them started engaging with them. People were open to them and then opened them to new ideas, to knowledge, to diverse sources of information, basic media literacy and critical thinking about it. We need to engage, and in fact accelerate our engagement, no matter our fear, because it is the terrorist’s fear which they are allowing to overtaking them and the rest of us.
“The way a man comes, with an important letter to an office window after hours: And the window is closed. The way a man comes, who wants to warn a city of in impending flood, but speaks another language: And he won’t be understood. The way a beggar, who knocks on a door for the fifth time… The way a man, whose blood is flowing out of a wound, who is waiting for a doctor: And his blood continues to flow. Thus we come and report, that atrocities are being committed against us. When it was reported for the first time, that our friends were slowly being slaughtered, there was a scream of horror. Then a hundred were slaughtered. But when a thousand were slaughtered, and there was no end to the slaughter, there was general silence. When the atrocities come as thick as rain, then no one any longer calls out, ‘stop!’ When the crimes stack up, they become invisible. When the sufferings become unbearable, the screams become inaudible.” (When Atrocities Come As Thick As Rain – Bertolt Brecht, 1934)
Prayer: Spirit, we vow in these terrorist times.
Question: Who are the fearful people who need me to engage with them?
June 25, 2023 Gospel Matthew 10:26-33 Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time