Sweet, Sweet Revenge

So, how are we to deal with the killers among us? The primal urge is to take an eye for an eye, to retaliate by killing back. This is a common sense approach. It underlies everything from personal revenge to world war. It explains the common twisting of the Golden Rule into “do unto others before they do it to you.” Cinema and television have profited greatly by glorifying the supposed justice of revenge. Tex Sample, one of my favorite teachers, said that all one has to do to understand the antichrist is to watch a Western. The “good guy” is the one who kills the “bad guy”. When we are being violated, assaulted, or confronted is when we are least likely to ask, “What would Jesus do?” That’s a question developed by latter day Christians to spark interest in fund drives and charitable activities, but is rarely—if ever—asked when we are under attack. A killer has no reverence for life. This is why they are able to kill. To retaliate in kind, even if in defense, places us in the same category. I describe it as the primal urge because it is what comes most naturally to us, bred by millions of years of killing. If we find nothing wrong with killing, then let us proceed with gusto. It is only when we allow the glimmer of enlightenment to illuminate our souls that we may ask in all earnestness, “What did Jesus do?” The answer won’t be much to our liking.