"Our Shame" OR "Repent Now"

abughraib
Originally uploaded by Randuwa.

I am so full of ideas tonight. So many things I want to share. I hope the gravity of this post will not be deflected by the previous one.

The president says that he's mad because the truth has come out yet again regarding the torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The president says he's a Christian. But when was the last time he went to church? When was the last time that he read the Bible? Has he EVER read it?

Permit me to help him out, if but a little:

"Blessed are the Peacemakers! They will be ranked children of God."
~ Matthew 5:9

"I tell you, my hearers, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you: bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If a man strikes you on the one cheek, offer him the other as well; give to anyone who asks you, and never ask your goods back from anyone who has taken them. As you would like others to do to you, so do to them."
~ Luke 6:27-31

"Never think, "I will treat him as he treated me. I will pay back the man for what he did."
~ Proverbs 24:29

"When the Eternal bends from his sacred height, and looks from heaven to earth, to hear the prisoner's groan, and to release the doomed; let this be set down for future generations, that people yet unborn may praise the Eternal, rehearsing his fame in Zion and praising him at Jerusalem, when realms and nations gather there to worship the Eternal."
~ Psalm 102:19-22

"Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.'
~ Luke 23:34a

"Treat one another with the same spirit as you experience in Christ Jesus."
~ Philippians 2:5

Now you've been to church.

I know that proof texting arguments with the Bible are so distasteful. It's mostly abused by those who seek to justify their own hearts desires and opinions -- an utterly wicked discipline. And I know that the Bible says enough stuff that most ideas can be justified AND condemned with equal vigor.

SO my litmus test falls on one question: What's easy to do? The easy thing is the thing that my human nature desires...and in this instance, the easy thing is "revenge;" therefore, the right thing is "forgiveness." Period.