Beginning of Advent marred by violence and religious persecution

           Lighting the first candle of Advent

Today marks the beginning of the season on the Christian calendar we call Advent.  This is the time of the year when Christians prepare to celebrate the invasion of the world by the Prince of Peace.  This year, the beginning of Advent has been overshadowed by the horrendous acts of violence perpetrated by terrorists in India.  Tragically, when the dust settles, in all probability these attacks will prove to be religiously motivated.  Islamic fundamentalists hate Christians and Muslims.  Hindu fundamentalists hate Muslims and Christians.  During times like the Crusades, you could have just as easily pointed the finger at Christians.  One of the more tragic stories to come out of Mumbai is the execution of a Jewish Rabbi and his family.  They were targeted for one reason – they were Jewish.

I have Christian friends in India.  They are native Indians who, even in the aftermath of the events of this week, celebrated Advent.  You might be surprised to know that many Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims actually get along in India.  Several years ago, a group of Christians intervened on behalf of Muslims when Hindu fundamentalists executed a Muslim member of the Indian Parliament, dismembered him in front of his family, and then burned the family and nineteen others alive in the home of the murdered parliamentarian.  Buddhists and Christians work together in India fighting against the virtual slavery imposed on lower caste and untouchable men and women by the Hindu caste system. 

At the church where my wife and I observed this first Sunday of Advent we were all asked to pray for a pastor from Nigeria who had recently visited our church.  Friends of the pastor had received word this morning that his daughter and her family had been displaced from their home when it was burned to the ground by Islamic radicals.  It reminded me that over the last few months hundreds of men and women in the Indian state of Orissa have been murdered, thousands of homes destroyed, tens of thousands of people displaced, and hundreds of churches burned, simply because these Indians are Christians.

Entire nations, like Iran, are totally committed to the annihilation of other nations, like Israel, because of misguided religious insanity.  India and Pakistan, both armed with nuclear weapons, share a border, and are on the brink of a war that could plunge the world into the most horrific geopolitical conditions since World War II.  India is predominantly Hindu, Pakistan predominantly Muslim.   

This all seems crazy.  This is all crazy.  I read the words of Jesus and am baffled how the Crusades, slavery, or the Inquisition could ever have been justified in the name of Christ.  I’m sure many devoted Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists must feel the same about atrocities perpetrated by those who claim to embrace the teachings of their faith.  I would say the same about those of Jewish faith, but I can only think of incidents where they have been the victims, not the perpetrators of such insanity.

What is to be done?  Complicated isn’t it?  One small idea is to use Advent as a time to search our own hearts and to pray that we would love our neighbor - whether Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, or whatever they might believe or not believe - as we love ourselves.  Pray for peace.  Consider joining people and organizations that are working to build friendships and understanding between men and women of good will, but different faiths.   In whatever way you can, try to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.