Sheer Insanity

The brutal murder of three US diplomats in Libya has frankly left me shocked more than I could have thought. The facts seem to be that this, like the attack on the US embassy in Cairo, was a response to a nasty little low-budget film released on the internet that is said to make fun of Mohammed in a rather obscene way.

This should leave every decent and sensible individual gasping in horror. The US government was almost certainly not even aware that the film was being made; the dead were utterly ignorant of why they were murdered. And the justification offered by a man on the ground, which was along the lines of "if you insult our prophet, our people will get angry, and they will kill." That is surely utter insanity; killing to relieve tension, not because of any understanding of justice.

As for Pastor Terry Jones of Florida, who is reported to have some link with this film, the man is frankly repellent. He is not trying to reach Muslims with the Gospel, and has no business doing anything else. The media are reporting that this film includes scenes of simulated sexual intercourse, which would count as immoral and quite inappropriate for Christians to support. But the makers of the film are not to be blamed for the violence and the murders; the killers and the perpetrators of the violence are to blame, and they should be blamed.

Contrast this with the reaction of Christians to films and TV shows mocking the Lord Jesus Christ. I think we learn something when we do that.

The bottom line; this is sheer insanity. It is also evil, and those who will not condemn it as such are themselves to be condemned.