Provocations

By pbobby

My Father, Shelby R. Beaty was born on this day in the year of 1904. He was just an average boy who did things boys do, and frequently paid the price for some of those doings. He made average grades in school, but never fell in love with learning until he made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ and felt a Call to the ministry.

One story I remember most, I learned about from one of his sermons in which he used an autobiographical incident to make a point. At the time, he was living in Centralia, Illinois, and decided to run away from home at age eleven to show his parents that they did not control everything. He was gone for nearly two weeks before his homesickness let him know that home was much better than begging and mooching. When he arrived home, he went in quite sheepishly and found his father working on his Woodmen of the World insurance records. Grampaw ignored his presence until Dad summoned up the courage to say, "Dad, I'm home."

Grampaw, turned and said, "Hello Shelby," and went back to work on his books without another word.

What a shock to my Dad! All the time he was gone, he thought he was showing his parents what worry was really about. Little did he know that his parents were informed regularly by other parents in this small town - of where Shelby was eating lunch, and every home he spent the night in. Dad said he was a full-grown adult before he realized why his parents were not worried sick about his disappearance. One thing he said he remembered clearly was that running away from home was not a good tool for training parents.

His point was that we never gain much by running away from life's problems.

We Americans now have great evidence of new problems of which we have not seen, even in our wildest imaginations. The shock factor of facing a new, menacing, unknown can create greatly exaggerated fear unless we back off and look at the broad picture. If we do not do so, we can easily fall into a state of paralyzing panic. Our first reaction to fear usually is the inclination to panic.

Do you remember the first time you got really scared? I do. My big brother, Jack told me that a witch lived in the corner grocery store two-holer. One day after sacking up a bunch of candy with my nickel, I was proudly walking out of the store when a man came out of that fearful outhouse. He was very tall and bumped his head on the top of the doorway. I immediately thought that, the witch had hit him on the head with her broom. I panicked! And got home in record time with only half of my candy haul still in my sack. This was my first time to feel that there really is something Out There that wanted to harm me.

Needless to say, everyone in my family heaved great belly laughs when I excitedly warned them of the witch in the outhouse. Through the years, I now know that there are many things out there that can "get me." I also know that the list of what can "get me" is longer than I think it is.

This self-awareness became very clear when one day I fully realized that everyone of us must die. We simply cannot get out of this life alive. I suggest that coming to terms with our mortality sets us free to live fully until our death, even with terror surrounding us. Anthrax and myriad acts of terror will add to the things that can "Get Us." But with the strides in medical care, an increased alertness by all of us, and our peace with our mortality, we will be OK. So pbobby thinks we will be safer in the long run than his father was in his 81 years of life.

How did these new dangers come to threaten us with the unknown? pbobby is convinced that they came from man's attempt to cope with fear through religion. Religion is good for community and a sense of personal value, but when a group uses a religion to make claim that their abominable and heinous acts are holy and sacred, they become repugnant, abhorrent criminals of the worst sort.

I remember an old proverb that says, "as a man thinks in his heart, so is he." I believe that Jesus once said, "By their fruits you shall know them." The Muslim religion has been hi-jacked by these heinous terrorists. They have twisted the stated purpose of Muslims "to improve the world" to mean that killing all Americans and Jews will be the ultimate improvement.

I watched as a young (age 10 or 11) Muslim boy was interviewed with disbelief at his pleasant demeanor and innocent looking smile. He had just been asked if he was OK with the idea of growing up with the life purpose of becoming a human bomb to kill Americans and Jews. He seemed so proud of his life's goal - to grow up to be a suicide bomber and receive special passage into Heaven.

He was and is the victim of an upbringing based upon, "I will love you if you will hate Americans with all your heart." The whole community of Extremist Muslims loves one another only if they hate the West. Anything less will ostracize them from the "Family," and often results in torture and/or death.

We have been asleep at the wheel while numerous generations of Muslims have been brainwashed with a Hate that generates deadly toxins in their children's hearts. This is the formula for the development of terrorists: Make it the highest calling of life to hate and kill Americans. Lie to them about the sacredness of their own lives and the lives of the enemy. This is sad to us, but more so to the Terrorist's child who is continuously fed hate rather than hope. If these children should live long enough to lose their Western enemy, their lives will become a meaningless void.

When these Hate toxins hit a critical stage, Insanity of the Heart occurs. The symptoms of this disease include a total loss of compassion, love, and respect for any sacred life. So when Americans are killed, the Extremist Muslims indulge in riotous celebrations and mockeries. And when they suffer casualties, they fill the streets with riots against anyone who has a friendship with any from the West. The Insane Heart has only one choice in victory or defeat, have a riot.

Now we know the character of America's Enemy. They celebrate their murdering of thousands of innocent civilians in New York and DC, while they use TV to show the death of a few Afghan civilians. What is so insane is that the Taliban has murdered more of Afghanistan's civilians and women than any other "enemy." They are proud of the innocents they have murdered, and then try to shame us for accidentally killing Afghans in our war against terrorism. This is another symptom of Insanity of the Heart.

The Extremists have labored long and persistently to incubate Hate, which has now become their Captor.

Let us all pray that love and hope will free them from their bondage!