On Easter (Update Added)
[guest post by Dana]
Happy Easter. For the Christian, it is the day to celebrate that He is risen. It is this very resurrection that makes our faith what it is, and allows us intimate communion with Christ our Savior. Grace and mercy came in the form of a Man who willingly died for us, only to raise from the grave to save and justify those whom He loved. This is the path of hope we walk.
Tragically, we learn this morning that fellow Christians celebrating Easter now face a a horror of tremendous proportion:
A bomb blast in a park in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Sunday has killed 44 people and wounded 91, a health official said.
Many of the injured are in a critical condition, Salman Rafiq, a health adviser to the chief minister of Punjab province said.
The explosion took place near the children’s rides in Gulshan-e-Iqbal park, local police chief Haider Ashraf said. He said the explosion appeared to have been a suicide bombing, but investigations were ongoing.
The area was crowded with Christians celebrating the Easter holidays, and many families were leaving the park when the blast occurred, Ashraf said.
Other sources claim that officials have told them at least 56 have been reported dead – the vast majority of those being women and children. While it is believed to be the work of a suicide bomber, officials say that has not yet been confirmed. No individual or group has claimed responsibility at this point in time.
To the people of all faiths impacted by this attack: my humble prayers for the wounded and the families who have lost their children, their mothers, and their fathers. I hope that God’s love reaches far down into the shocked and despairing hearts of those involved. May comfort be theirs, and may a glimmer of hope to hold onto be theirs as well.
It is good for me to be reminded, on this day especially, that, while this living hope in Christ extends far and wide to any who ask, not everyone who believes is blessed with the relative ease that we have to live out their faith. May God keep near to Him those who live under a constant threat of danger or persecution yet remain steadfast in their commitment to live a life pleasing to Him. They are a far better and stronger people than am I.
–Dana
UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times is reporting that a faction of the Pakistani Taliban has claimed they were responsible for the attack as well as specifically targeting Christians:
A splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast, which it said was aimed at Christians celebrating the Easter holiday. Pakistan, an overwhelmingly Muslim nation, has a small Christian minority. Officials said they had not confirmed if Christians were the target.
…
Christians, who make up less than 2% of Pakistan’s 182 million people, have frequently been targeted by Pakistani extremist groups.
Good morning.
Dana (0ee61a) — 3/27/2016 @ 10:52 amthe terrorisms in pakistan is almost as bad as the vote trump chalk writings at emory
everywhere you look the violence is raging out of control
happyfeet (831175) — 3/27/2016 @ 10:56 amSaw something stating 200 Million Xian’s daily risk their lives for breathing.
Not risking anything will be remembered.
DNF (755a85) — 3/27/2016 @ 11:02 amDespicable monsters that need to be hunted down to the ends of the Earth and killed with worse weapons than they themselves employ.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/27/2016 @ 11:20 amFind them, feed them… feet first, slowly into chipper/shredders
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/27/2016 @ 11:22 amI sat in church today thinking about the resurrection of the Risen Lord and wondering if my fellow Christians in other parts of the globe would be murdered today for doing exactly what I was doing.
But let’s talk about the potential backlash against the Muslim community.
JVW (9e3c77) — 3/27/2016 @ 11:30 amI’m reminded that this day marks the one-hundredth Easter Sunday since Ireland’s Easter Rising of 1916 (the actual anniversary date will be next month).
JVW (9e3c77) — 3/27/2016 @ 11:46 amAmen, Dana.
felipe (56556d) — 3/27/2016 @ 12:49 pmI sat in church today thinking about the resurrection of the Risen Lord and wondering if my fellow Christians in other parts of the globe would be murdered today for doing exactly what I was doing.
A sobering and prescient reflection, JVW, that resonates with me. I don’t know if you have heard of Dr Imad Shehadeh of the Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary, but I had the pleasure of being invited to a small luncheon that his UCSD college friends hold yearly for him. Anyway, what an eye-opener it was to hear him talk about the very real everyday threats to the believers in that corner of the world. Even in Jordan, where his seminary/compound has taken in an ever-increasing number of Christian refugees fleeing from persecution at the hands of ISIS. They went through untold hardships to arrive at their little island of safety (as limited as it is). In spite of having attacks on their facility, they believe that God will keep them standing as long as He wills it, and fear is but a daily hurdle to overcome through His grace. My point being that we are so blessed with the luxury of being able to wonder about other Christians in other parts of the world being killed for worshiping God. We worry about whether someone’s going to tsk-tsk because they didn’t want us to say “Merry Christmas”.
Dana (0ee61a) — 3/27/2016 @ 12:52 pmAgreed, Dana. We have a new priest from Africa (Kenya, I believe) at our parish. I can’t tell you how much I love the African priests. While modern Catholicism seems to spend its time wondering if the Church should be more accepting of gay marriage or if a “living wage” in Los Angeles is $12.50 or if it instead needs to be at least $14.75, the African priests come from a Christian people who are literally struggling to stay alive. They aren’t going to spend too much time worrying about whether a woman who announces that she is proud to have had an abortion can teach in a parochial school or if the government should be giving food stamps to illegal immigrants, they are wondering how you keep people spiritually tuned into the love and grace of the Lord of All when there are people who want to kidnap, torture, and kill them living only a few miles away. Because of that, when these African priests come to America they tend to deliver a gospel that is rich in the message of God’s love for us and not focused upon the more temporal obsessions so popular with Christians of the left.
JVW (9e3c77) — 3/27/2016 @ 1:06 pmthey take from us and give food stamps to you
then you abort a kid and wanna teach at our school
i love the priests down in africa
(i love the priests)
they teach us all about the things we never had
happyfeet (831175) — 3/27/2016 @ 1:17 pmUPDATE: The Los Angeles Times is reporting that a faction of the Pakistani Taliban has claimed they were responsible for the attack as well as specifically targeting Christians:
Dana (0ee61a) — 3/27/2016 @ 1:34 pmBe careful, coronello, that we do not become like those who hate us.
Surah 2:194 Al-Baqarah (The Cow)
The above includes the seed of the idea why IS could burn the Jordanian pilot alive. “Assault him in the same way that he has assualted you.” People tend to suffer burns in aerial bomb strikes. So…
But for us? Justice, including by military means, we can do as far as we are able. As St. Paul said the ruler bears the sword for a reason. Vengeance however belongs to our Risen Lord’s cabable hands. He shall repay.
Steve57 (08b8c6) — 3/27/2016 @ 1:40 pmThere is a simple and very Quranic justification for these types of murders. Anyone who assigns partners or equals to Allah commits shirq, the unforgiveable and worst sin anyone can commit.
Surah 5:72 Al-Ma’idah (The Table Spread)
Not only are Christians persecuted by the Taliban in Pakistan, they are persecuted by the Pakistani government. Remember, Christians, Asia Bibi in your prayers. She is on deant row in Pakistan for daring to drink out the the same cup the water her fellow fruit pickers drew well water. When they tried to prevent her she said that Jesus would have a different opinion than Muhammad. Blasphemy! Naturally as an infidel her testimony counted for nothing agains four “believing” women.
Pray only for Asia Bibi but our Lord to knock some sense into our political leaders.
Steve57 (08b8c6) — 3/27/2016 @ 1:59 pmRepeat from an earlier thread:
Steve57 (08b8c6) — 3/27/2016 @ 2:35 pmSorry for any mispellings. The new Brendan Eich Browser I use out of general principles does not yet give me the flexibility to adjust font size to allow my formerly eagle-like gaze to capture mistakes.
Steve57 (08b8c6) — 3/27/2016 @ 2:41 pmI put “my kind of Muslim” in my previous comment for a reason.
Please take the bait and make my Easter.
Steve57 (08b8c6) — 3/27/2016 @ 2:44 pm“So whoever has assaulted you, then assault him in the same way that he has assaulted you. And fear Allah and know that Allah is with those who fear Him.”
No, I say we go beyond that. Gotta send a Message.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/27/2016 @ 3:13 pmThe Jihadists are just angry at us because we allow women to drive cars.
Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 3/27/2016 @ 3:21 pmEurope needs are help, but our govt. is dazed and confused.
mg (31009b) — 3/27/2016 @ 3:21 pmThis was a state-sponsored pogrom. Terrorism in the broader sense that Cossacks raiding a Jewish village were terrorists. The Taliban are a creature of ISI, the Pakistani version of the CIA.
nk (dbc370) — 3/27/2016 @ 3:23 pmRespectfully disagree, coronello @18. We have to answer for our crimes come judgement day, same as them.
Now is it a crime to spill their blood? Only in quantities to cause them to ceas and desist. No more.
Steve57 (08b8c6) — 3/27/2016 @ 3:24 pmindeed steve,
http://biblehub.com/romans/12-19.htm
there is an anecdote, that ibn saud asked two delegations of americans, what they wanted as part of the compact, one said alcohol, the other churches, when pressed they said the former,
to which he replied you will get neither
the moral of the story is a people’s priorities determine their behavior,
narciso (732bc0) — 3/27/2016 @ 3:31 pmAnd since they’ve been pullin’ this sh!t for the last 1200 years there is obviously no limit to the amount of blood they can spill nor the amount of time they can spill it in. They’re multi-generational mass murderers, no multi-century mass murderers so I assume we have now earned an open-ended contract as to the quantity of blood we can spill in response. If we haven’t spilled enough in the last 1200 years perhaps it’s time to step it up a notch.
Rev. Hoagie ™ (e4fcd6) — 3/27/2016 @ 3:36 pmas with hirsi ali, the price of speaking truth to power, is high,
http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2016/03/25/10-years-ago-this-undercover-reporter-warned-of-radicalization-in-molenbeek/
narciso (732bc0) — 3/27/2016 @ 3:48 pmIf we would just help set up job training programs in immigrant communities in Europe, the youths would not be motivated to blow up airports.
Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 3/27/2016 @ 3:48 pmThis is the tightrope I find myself walking. On the one hand if I say we have to monitor and take action against MB/Saudi-backed mosques should they (as they consistently do) advocate the sabotage of the Constitution I must be for summary executions.
On the other hand when I say let’s not go too far and become like them I’m on the other side.
Steve57 (08b8c6) — 3/27/2016 @ 3:55 pmThis is how Muslims treat minorities in nations they completely control.
SPQR (d7fa7f) — 3/27/2016 @ 3:58 pmOther than being on the the rhe receiving end of a Islamic lobotomy or more probably the Islamic version of the Stockholm syndrome I can’t voxsplain it.
Steve57 (08b8c6) — 3/27/2016 @ 4:14 pmthis is the wisdom of foggy bottom,
https://twitter.com/will_mccants/status/713461952996057096
narciso (732bc0) — 3/27/2016 @ 4:15 pmHey Cruz Supporter, perhaps midnight basketball would do the trick? The leftist in America think so. You notice there are no more ghettos because of it! Or we could have a Million Moslem March where they go to Washington and rename it Mohammad, DC and sing We Shall Overcome.
Imam Hoagie ™ (e4fcd6) — 3/27/2016 @ 5:05 pmMaybe Bernie Sanders could come up with a plan for free madras’ with post graduate work in demolition all on the taxpayer. Why not? They already come here and immediately go on the dole, get free phones (convenient for remote detonations) free health care (till they vaporize themselves killing Christians) and cash to help them in those nasty slow times between bombings. We can put foot washing stations on every corner and require Christian pizza shop owners to bake halal pizza.
So stop saying “let’s not go too far” since there is no “too far” with multi-generational mass murderers. They drew the line, not us! If they kept their crap in the Middle East instead of trying to conquer and convert every non-moslem land around the world nobody would give a rats a$$. I don’t know about you guys but for the first thirty years of my life I couldn’t have cared less about moslems. Then they decided they have a “right” to come and live here and a mandate from allah to kill everybody so my opinion changed.
Now all the lawyers tell me everything we could do to get rid of them is unconstitutional and the religious guys say we can’t fight them back because of, hell I don’t know why. If we can fight Nazi’s and commies why not moslems?
Imam Hoagie ™ (e4fcd6) — 3/27/2016 @ 5:18 pmDid you know that Hitler’s nephew, the son of Hitler’s brother Alois Hitler, Jr., lived in the United States from 1940 until his death in 1974; served in the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1948; and was awarded the Purple Heart and WWII Victory Medal?
nk (dbc370) — 3/27/2016 @ 5:29 pmTrump has the answer to this though. Twitter:
Kevin M (25bbee) — 3/27/2016 @ 7:38 pmI did not know that nk. Did you know that Alois Hitler Jr’s uncle Adolf fought in WWI and was decorated? In 1923 he wrote the tome Mein Kampf which later became a #1 Best Seller in Germany. He also participated in WWII and is known for the murder of 6 million Jews, two million mentally retarded and handicapped and insane, 200,000 gypsies and homosexuals and over 45 million additional deaths in Europe? He rose to the rank of Furer and died during the defense of Berlin toward the end of the war being one of the last casualties.
Some say Americans in those days knew how to handle an enemy who attacked her people: annihilate them.
Imam Hoagie ™ (e4fcd6) — 3/27/2016 @ 8:28 pmMr. Trump would do more better than that disgusting incontinent old woman that’s for sure
plus he doesn’t leave pee-stank all over the furniture
happyfeet (831175) — 3/28/2016 @ 3:35 amWhile we’re at our racist dreams:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-28/23-americans-their-prime-working-years-are-unemployed
Apart from Muslima cleaning ladies, every last Muslim immigrant goes on the dole.
DNF (e4ee41) — 3/28/2016 @ 6:37 am36.
Putting me, receiving retirement and working two jobs securely in the top half.
Either address crony capitalism or throw in the towel GOP.
DNF (e4ee41) — 3/28/2016 @ 6:45 amApart from Muslima cleaning ladies, every last Muslim immigrant goes on the dole.
Was that a trick to make us click on the zerobrains link? Because it does not say that. It does, however, provide irrefutable proof that bananas are fish which adapted to life on land. (But you need the special decoder ring.)
Are you losing it?
nk (dbc370) — 3/28/2016 @ 7:07 amBanks Hate Him! See how you can make $10,000 in one afternoon with one simple trick.
nk (dbc370) — 3/28/2016 @ 7:14 amPoor Steve – it appears I have taken up residence in his mind rent free. If it bothers you so much then I submit there must be an element of truth you do not wish to acknowledge.
spokanebob (1aaf2a) — 3/28/2016 @ 8:39 amOne member of the religion of peace and tolerance said that Easter celebrations have no place in a Muslim country. That explains everything.
amr (2a9d7a) — 3/28/2016 @ 8:58 am38. I only get to make one point per post?
Without me no points are made at all.
DNF (ffe548) — 3/28/2016 @ 10:17 amnk (dbc370) — 3/28/2016 @ 7:14 am
Heh.
“I earned £2500 in one day working from home! No idea who’s home it was.”
felipe (56556d) — 3/28/2016 @ 10:25 amActually it does say a lot, amr. Pakistan being 96% moslem and only 2% Hindu, 1.6% Christian and.4% “other” indicates to me that if you’re Christian and choose to live there you best get familiar with the rules. And on of those rules is that it’s okay to murder non moslems. Did this come as a mouth wide open surprise to the priest? That’s why Christians should not be in moslem countries. It’s also why moslems shouldn’t be in non moslem countries. They should keep their filthy, ignorant, non tolerant, murdering cult in the sh!thole it belongs.
Imam Hoagie ™ (e4fcd6) — 3/28/2016 @ 10:54 amHas President Obama made any remarks about this slaughter in Pakistan? Or is he busy commenting on a Muslim student at State University whining that a white patriarchal Christian member of the lacrosse team looked at her funny while standing in line at the cafeteria?
Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 3/28/2016 @ 11:01 amAah, spokanebob @40, you’re a hoot. A real hoot. You assign yourself great significance when, really, you are just the latest in a long line of ignoramuses I’ve dealt with my entire professional life.
Nimitz’s staff did a study in min-1942 and concluded that the one warfare specialty where America was clearly superior to the Japanese was intelligince. Even in the 1990s when I was tried by the court of Neptunus Rex crossing the line I was found in contempt for claiming to be a naval intelligence officer because no such thing had ever existed. It was not pleasant. But getting back to the task at hand Nimitz was an enlightened commander and trusted his intel people. His staff estimated that his intel people gave him an advantage of two cairier groups.
http://www.navalhistory.org/2011/06/03/admiral-nimitz-and-the-battle-of-midway
Hence the battles of Coral Sea and Midway which, need I remind you, we won.
http://www.academia.edu/4526512/Intelligence_at_Midway
Intelligence gave Nimitz the edge he needed to offer battle on his terms. Yes he had confidence in his ship drivers, his aviators, and his admirals but intel gave him teh advantage of knowing where and when to employ them to greatest effect.
Now that I’ve set the table, let me drive home the point. Intel is only good if the operarators use it. And if the operators are commanded to believe certain obvious conclusions are racist, bigoted, or “Islamophobic” then they will not use it as Nimitz did.
So you don’t get the battle of the Coral Sea. You don’t get the Battle of Midway.
What do you get? Paris, London, Madrid, Brussels.
Congrats, spokanebob. This is your work, not mine. Take a bow.
Steve57 (08b8c6) — 3/28/2016 @ 11:19 amWhen I was in Al Qqeda could publish their plans in their on-line magazine inspire. Why could the do this? Simple. Reading their sources was branded racist.
It was like following a halal recipe. And the Muslims dereed it was haram for non-muslims to cast eyes on the recipe. And useful fools like spodanebob went along with the program. So now it’s haram to 1) read words off a page and b) go where the evidence leads.
Steve57 (08b8c6) — 3/28/2016 @ 11:39 amYesterday would have been the better day for this, but the truth is the same today:
The Minimal Facts for the Resurrection
Gerald A (7c7ffb) — 3/28/2016 @ 5:13 pmHappy Easter Funny
Finally, if we have no idea what happened, we are justified in claiming we know EXACTLY what happened.
gil (3bc22c) — 3/28/2016 @ 10:09 pmTo finish my rant, Chester Nimitz ordered his intel officer Edwin Layton to be his Nagumo. To put himself in the shoes of the Japanese admiral.
I will leave for a future date a complete exploration of whether this conflicts with Mahanian concepts of how a commander is supposed to contradict an enemy exept to note briefly that Mahan wrote before there was such a thing as radio and therefore radio intelligence and consequently known enemy intentions. Not presumed. But I will further note that Chester Nimitz recognized the game changing nature of new developments. This was in part his genius.
Returning to the trail, Layton performed his job admirable because he wasn’t constrained by PC.
I could read AQ’s Inspire or now IS’s on-line magazine Dabiq and tell you what they’re thinking. But that requires reading their sources the way they read them, which isn’t hard. There are probably tens of thousands who could do it. But in addition to not being hard, it’s not allowed. Becaus Islam has nothing to do with Islamic terrorism, haven’t you heard.
Paris and Brussels and London and Madrid and New York or Washington next time are your work Leviticus and spokanebob. Take a bow.
One of the reasons for retiring at the earlies opportunity was, why put up with this Bull***t? Because of PC AQ and now IS can lay it out for us in plane English on-line. But we’re required not to know, because knowing would be bigoted.
Again, thank you Leviticus and spokanebob. The fact that you may not have the clearances does not absolve you of anything.
Steve57 (08b8c6) — 3/29/2016 @ 7:16 amTo say we don’t have any idea what happened is deliberately obtuse.
I thought atheists always claim to know EXACTLY what happened, e.g. “they”, for reasons unknown, borrowed some resurrection myth from some unspecified pagan religion (or some other totally unsubstantiated explanation) and then label that the “rational” explanation.
Gerald A (7c7ffb) — 3/29/2016 @ 8:04 pm