IN THE NAME OF GOD

The Paris terrorists, as is the custom of their kind, reportedly invoked the name of God as they went about their brutal acts.

This is an ancient God I recognize from the Old Testament--a God of wrath and vengeance, a God who permits hatred of those who dare to disbelieve in him and urges violence against them in his name.  A God who stands in judgment of the human species--his supposed creation--and attaches scant value to human life.  A God who condones the stoning of the adulterer and the cutting off the hand of thieves.

This God has no place in today's world, and he knows it. Those who claim to follow his commands act out of their own rage and vengeance.  In a world that is godless, they feel alone and threatened, and respond with violence and bloodshed.  Believing themselves to be marginalized, powerless, unheard, oppressed, without dignity, they give vent to their inner rage by brutalizing their fellow human beings without mercy.

In this, they mirror the actions of that ancient God in whom they so loudly proclaim belief.

These men--and I say that sadly, but advisedly, for the vast majority of them are men, and they suppress not only women, but their own feminine natures--these men are making themselves the plague of the modern world.

And the modern world, lacking the shared strength and purpose of a moral core, overpopulated, self-destructive, threatened with extinction, is at a loss to know how it should respond.  We confront the sad spectacle of human impotence, as Mammon proves powerless when confronted by the potent, God-driven wrath of ancient times.