While the title of a recent letter to the editor, “Only the Prince of Peace can eliminate fear in the church”, sounds nice, what followed was based on false assumptions, offered few logical conclusions, and took biblical references out of context.
The writer began by denying the appropriateness of the NSA. The letter cited an example of when the NSA mishandled funds or power and showed how they are not providing proper service to our country.
She resorted to name-calling and claimed “it is an agency that was born from the government’s fear of what people might be doing [in private]”. Yet she provided no proof of this governmental fear.
The NSA is not a bunch of “spies”; it does a lot more than that. In this country, intelligence and counter-intelligence is the job of the CIA and the FBI.
She stated that family friends of hers (employees of the NSA) lived in fear because they wouldn’t allow their children to swim in the ocean without an adult present. She suggested that such fearful people fill the NSA and then proclaimed this fear unfounded.
I hail from the Midwest where people leave doors unlocked all day without fear. Does my community takes unnecessary precautions about our safety? Looking out for our kids in the way her “fearful” neighbors did is not foolish – it’s prudent.
Jesus never told us that “we don’t have to worry about our safety and provision” in the way that the writer was preaching.
Sure, God provides for us and we must have faith in that, but we can’t be lazy and must not be foolish with our lives and the lives of our loved ones.
It seems the writer lives in a very idealistic world. One day, however, she will need to be more practical and responsible, as Christ tells us to do when we grow older.
According to her logic, presidents and their families should not be protected by the Secret Service. Should we even have campus security? Do we truly need combinations or ID card sensors to get into the halls? Should there be airport security? Her answer is “no!”.
Why is it a “[sad] thing…that [her] church…is full of people who work at NSA”? If this is true, she should honor those in her congregation who have protected our country’s borders.
No, we don’t fear terrorists; we prepare for their fearful choices, such as suicide bombers, biological warfare, and using airplanes as missiles. You might have heard of the last method of cowardice.
Muslims are, in fact, afraid of us. They fear us Americans, Christians, “Infidels”, as evidenced by their Jihad, the so-called Muslim “holy war”.
Sometimes capital punishment or wartime killing brings justice to murderers like Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin, Ted Bundy, and Saddam Hussein.
God’s way is not exclusive to violence; Christ was violent in the temple. God commanded the Jews to commit violent acts, yet He is the same God.
The writer argues that both the just war theory and preemptive war are “out”-not acceptable Christian traditions. I recall the Jews destroying local pagan cultures per God’s directives, killing thousands upon thousands of men, women, and children. I call such actions a preemptive strike and a holy war.
We are a school that believes in justice that joins with faith and reason. While some of the world’s over-ambitious leaders have been responsible for much of the mass killing throughout history, our recent response to terrorists had nothing to do with blind ambition and everything to do with national security and justice.
Without such measures of security, some that are managed by the NSA, our daily activities would constantly be hindered by threats of violence. If supporting such security is “fearful”, then I’m a chicken.
Keep in mind that gun-toting soldiers are protecting the author’s right to write such letters unabated by fear. And let us not forget that only the second coming of Christ will bring peace to this earth, not our feeble attempts at world peace.