A Rose By Any Other Name

Born to die is not the same thing as born to kill. Death is the natural order. Murder violates that order by virtue of human intervention. It does not appear that our species has yet learned this truth even though it has been proclaimed throughout the ages. The failure to understand the precious gift of life leads to the arrogant hubris of believing that there are circumstances which justify taking the life of another. The often disparate rationalizations used to justify killing become moot in that they all reach the same conclusion: murder. We Americans have gone so far as to institutionalize killing, ranging from capital punishment to warfare. Christianity first became legal only because Constantine credited his vision of the cross as the reason for his victory in battle. The extent of our hypocrisy is revealed in the realization that we are barely two weeks past the pagan celebration co-opted to proclaim the birth of the Prince of Peace before murder once again shocks our nation. Kill the killers before the killers kill us. This is the primitive, unenlightened mindset that may very well destroy us unless we awaken now to the redeeming power of love revealed by the Christ.