Christian, Piano-playing, ISIS-sympathizing terror

May 3rd, 2019 by Charles Cameron

[ by Charles Cameron — it’s a good and bad speckled universe ]

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Christian terrorist?

Both words, Christian and terrorist, need examining, but they’re not the wrong words, nor the right ones. Also, note (in big print) that this is the view from a Progressive, Secular, Humanist perspective — those three words are also worth pondering.

Context, context, context, as the realtors would say if they were selling attention-space..

**

To give you some context, then, let’s consider these terrorist killings with religious targets:

  • The Gurdwara (Sikh temple), Oak Creek, WI, 2012

  • Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, NC, 2015

  • The Tree of Life and New Light synagogues in Pittsburgh, PA, 2018

    • The Al Noor and Linwood Mosques in Christchurch, NZ, 2019

    and these religions with affiliated terrorists:

  • Jewish religious terrorism

  • Christian terrorism

  • Islamic terrorism<

  • Saffron terror

    • Morals:

  • You can be hated on account of your religion

  • You can hate on account of your religion

  • Your co-religionists may have reason to feel you are outsiders

  • The proportions of violent to other believers varies between times, religions

  • Religions & groups may differ on where injustice requires redress

  • Listening, which involves humility, is a necessary feature of compassion.

    • There’s plenty of room for nuance here — as fractal theorists would say, the world is self-similar at different scales — or at the poet GM Hopkins puts it, “dappled”.

    **

    Let’s peer a little closer:

    Half the equation? Presumably terrorist would be the other half?

    Uh-oh: piano-playing and nursing…

    That’s not at all what I was expecting..

    Sources:

  • Prog Sec Hum, Christian Terrorist John Earnest Issued Manifesto

  • GetReligion, Yes, John Earnest put ‘Christian’ label into play

  • Daily Beast, Synagogue Shooting Suspect, a Piano-Playing Nursing Student

    • **

    To repeat the point that it’s not just one religion that’s involved either in violence or as a target, let’s switch religions — these things are simultaneous rather than separate:

    Islamic Terrorist?

    Source:

  • Metro, US Army vet Mark Domingo ‘plotted Isis bomb attack

    • A US army vet turned ISIS-supporter attacking neo-Nazis? That’s just one more curious instance of how these hard-to-imagine cookies crumble..

    **

    To return to our Christian:

    Before he allegedly walked into a synagogue in Poway, Calif., and opened fire, John Earnest appears to have written a seven-page letter spelling out his core beliefs: that Jewish people, guilty in his view of faults ranging from killing Jesus to controlling the media, deserved to die. That his intention to kill Jews would glorify God.

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    Posted in army, Buddhist, Charles Cameron, christianity, hinduism, hindutva, ISIS, Islam, judaism, music, Religion, sikh, terrorism, Theology, Uncategorized, veterans | 1 comment

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