I don’t know how better to describe the frequency of events such as took place in the town of Roseburg, Oregon last Thursday.
I remind you: the ‘contract’ I’ve maintained with you, the reader of every 2nd Cup of Coffee from its first issue has four parts: to lift, encourage, edify and challenge to personal and spiritual excellence.
Sometimes we must challenge ourselves – shine Wisdom’s light within.
We, the private men and women citizens of America, using whatever weapons we had, fought bloody, sweaty, hideous battles against a tyrannical arrogant regime famous for forcing oppressive, arbitrary edicts upon everyone except themselves. And we kept fighting until we won our independence. Our freedom.
Since then we’ve fought in wars the world over to not only maintain our own ability to live free, but to stand with other nations whose desire is the same. In the doing, mistakes have always been made in judgment, in operations. No military war plan, no matter how meticulously crafted, ever survives the first battle intact.
The vision, the love, to remain free and self-governing, able to freely travel, study whatever we decide, work at whatever we choose and earn accordingly, and have fun in the doing, however, has never dimmed for most of us.
Here are my concerns, which I ask in the form of rhetorical questions. I do not seek answers nearly as much as I fervently wish for people to think.
ΑΩ – How can it be true that in America, where religious freedom is written into our very founding documents, these men and women were shot in the head, executed for professing their Christian faith?
— Lucero Alcaraz, 19
— Treven Taylor Anspach, 20
— Rebecka Ann Carnes, 18
— Quinn Glen Cooper, 18
— Lucas Eibel, 18
— Jason Dale Johnson, 34
— Lawrence Levine, 67 (teacher)
— Sarena Dawn Moore, 44
ΑΩ – Where is the outrage at the martyrdom of these nine American Christians? Need I remind you this is not Croatia nor the Sudan nor China, but Roseburg, Oregon?
ΑΩ – Have we not been force-fed tolerance – realistically defined as “I expect you to agree with everything I believe”? Now, stay with me, here: Is THIS the face of tolerance in 2015 America?
Have those playing cute semantic games – “it’s freedom from, not freedom of” – overlooked the fact that our Constitutional right to believe and worship as we choose always has included the right not to? Is it not an inherent responsibility of free men and women to differ in personal tastes and preferences and still get along with each other without screaming at and killing one another because “they don’t agree with me”?
ΑΩ – Is it suddenly okay because the innocent victims were not singled out due to their race, which true or false would draw INSTANT screams for justice, but solely because this time we’re minus a few more Christians?
ΑΩ – Could it be that by opening our arms to a tyrannical arrogant regime famous for forcing oppressive, arbitrary edicts upon everyone except themselves, we’re seeing the inevitable consequences of bad choices–that, in the very words of one of our President’s self-proclaimed mentors, America’s chickens are coming home to roost?
ΑΩ – Regardless of where you place yourself in the political spectrum, I believe it is time to look inside and ask why the name of Jesus Christ can be openly abused and vilely profaned as listeners smile, clap and cheer? Why? Can you do that with any other religious figure, historical or otherwise, and not be met with instant dislike and even aggression?
ΑΩ – Is that why there is so little mention being made that these nine souls were martyred last Thursday because they are believers in the Cross, Resurrection and eventual Return of Jesus Christ? Is it because we’re uneasy with our lazy accommodation of anything and everything else except Him because we have a gnawing awareness that the Bible might after all be true? Out of sight, out of mind? Is that it?
ΑΩ – Is that why Lucero, Treven, Rebecka, Quinn, Kim, Lucas, Jason, Lawrence and Serena are now with God, having been made just the latest Christian martyrs to join millions of their brothers and sisters from across the millennia of Earth’s history – “of whom the world was not worthy. . . they weren’t in love with themselves; they were willing to die for Christ”? (Hebrews 11:38; Revelation 12:11).
Because what happened last Thursday was the classic definition of a martyr. Nine of them, actually.
And it happened HERE.
© D. Dean Boone, October 2015