04 Oct 2006
Girl's grandpa: Forgive those who trespass against us

Well, this probably won't be a real popular viewpoint right now, but I've got to take advantage of this opportunity to highlight a very deep and important theological difference betwixt Christianity and Heathenry... you see, heathens are not under any moral injunction to forgive.

I have many friends among the Amish community here in west central Indiana, and to a man they're a hard working decent lot. Many of their ideas and attitudes are commendable, but there's still an underlying difference that just makes me wince, and it has nothing to do with their Luddite proclivities:

Sam Stoltzfus, 63, an Amish woodworker who lives a few miles away from the shooting scene, told The Associated Press that the victims' families will be sustained by their faith.

"We think it was God's plan, and we're going to have to pick up the pieces and keep going," he told AP. "A funeral to us is a much more important thing than the day of birth because we believe in the hereafter. The children are better off than their survivors."

My gut reaction was "Well, if your god's planning to of your kids, I'd like to suggest you get another god. The one you've got sounds like bad news!"

You see, we heathens have no theodicy, nor do we need one. Evil is evil, and it needs be rooted out and destroyed, not forgiven and blathered about. Pacifism of any stripe is idiocy with another moniker, but Christian pacifism, with the acknowledgment that evil deeds are part of their omnipotent gods "master plan" strikes me as especially ludicrous. If I thought that the Master Creator and Controller of the Universe actually had a hand in such things I'd be doing my level best to thwart his evil plans!

In this instance I feel nothing but sympathy for this killers own wife and kids - they've been made his victims as surely as the children he slaughtered. But I have no feelings of forgiveness, pity or sympathy for the killer himself. Turning the other cheek to this clown while he was still alive would've undoubtedly resulted in getting it blown off, too. I see no reason whatsoever to give him any anything resembling compassion, dead or alive, just because he's a sicko murderer and child molester. He's more than deserving of our hatred - may his ancestors and descendants scorn him and his name, and may he wander the outer darkness forever.

I guess the bottom line is that it just baffles me that folks can actually believe this "turn the other cheek" nonsense.

Let me close with a warning: we heathens don't care a whit for such lunacy, and if you're a criminal planning on harming my family don't expect me to turn the other cheek: I'll be too busy reloading...

An Amish man, standing by the body of his slain granddaughter, told young relatives not to hate the gunman who killed five girls in their classroom, a pastor said on Wednesday. Simple funerals are being planned for the victims, while their families work to forgive the killer, neighbors say.

(link) [CNN]

14:09 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link