Grace of God

Once again terrorists attacked innocent and defenseless people in a truly despicable act of cowardice. Once again this terrorism was carried out in God's name, a gross perversion of religion which sadly seems to be the hallmark of Islamists, the extreme expression of Islam which is not the way of the vast majority of Muslims. Once again I am rattled by how some people perceive God and the terrible things they do as a result. The murders in the mall of Nairobi, Kenya were a low point, exacerbated by a mass killing at a church in Pakistan the same day.

I was greatly encouraged as I listened to one of the survivors of the Kenyan attack, a man who managed to initially escape the chaos only to return to help others. The CNN interviewer praised him for his courage but he was modest and deflected the conversation away from his heroism. He did say that God gave him the strength to return to danger and help others, as had many others. His whole conversation was sprinkled with talk of the grace of God.

What lifted me was that Satpal Singh is a Sikh and wore his turban during the interview. He demonstrated the best of faith in the midst of the worst and the most cowardly. I also listened to a Muslim leader here in Canada decrying the attacks and insisting that this has nothing to do with the tenets of the Islamic religion.

At it's worst religion is superstitious tribalism. At it's best it invites us to shared compassion and self-giving. Christians have deep convictions about how this is embodied in Jesus, who is the Christ. Yet we are diminished, as any person of any religion is, when we fail to understand that God is at work in others.

I ramble! What are your thoughts on this in light of the tragic events of last weekend?