From the Young Fogey:
Exactly – a picture and a word that encompass the entire morass in Israel, Korea, Vietnam, the former Yugoslavia, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, and just about anywhere else the U.S. decides to intervene and sacrifice its lives and wealth. While I fully decry threats to “freedom” and all other sorts of badness in the world, it is not incumbent upon us to save others from themselves. We can do charity, we can act as honest agents in negotiations, we can advocate, but we do not have to fix everything. We cannot. We have enough to take care of here at home. Being wealthy and powerful does not come with a demand that we be interventionist. It comes with a responsibility to ourselves and to charity.
Somewhere in the Middle East, Jesus Christ is strapped to a bench, his head wrapped in clingfilm. He furiously sucks against the plastic. A hole is pierced, but only so that a filthy rag can be stuffed back into his mouth. He is turned upside down and water slowly poured into the rag. The torturer whispers religious abuse. If you are God, save yourself you f***ing idiot. Fighting to pull in oxygen through the increasingly saturated rag, his lungs start to fill up with water. Someone punches him in the stomach.
Which is quoted off another site. If you read the comments attached to the article you see a kind of quibbling that misses the bigger issue. To me the bigger issue is this: When you look at the folks “over there” or imprisoned at Guantanamo or held at other “black sites” what do you see? The quick and easy answer is “the enemy” or even “my enemy.” Look closely. Jesus actually looked like these folks. Jesus spoke in dialects much like they do. Jesus ate a lot of what they eat, and kind of lived like they do to this very day. Jesus was innocent as some of them are. Jesus was tortured, although innocent, just like some of them are. Jesus was killed, although innocent, just like some of them are.
We are all created in His image – even my enemy. He also told us that what we do, even to the least of our brothers, we do to Him. In the end we have to ask ourselves, in light of what we know, do we have reason to hold these people prisoner, and even if we do – which is justifiable – why torture them? Take a breath and hold it for a couple minutes – and while doing so pray – Lord, help me to see you, even in my enemies. Help me to witness Your love and teachings even though my neighbors, village, city, state, country, and church do not want to hear it.
The image is an artist’s rendition of what Jesus may have looked like (from the BBC). Looks familiar – no?