WHY BAD THINGS HAPPEN, PART II

"... the hatred, prejudice and disregard for human life that led to the Holocaust have largely continued to this day."

The Nazi's so-called "Final Solution" only proved to be a harbinger of things to come. While Japanese civilians were training to defend their coasts with pointed sticks, the USA dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Soviet Union and Peoples Republic of China killed millions of their own people in various purges and "reforms." A million or more children died in Biafra of starvation or malnutrition due to a blockade by the Nigerian government, with the support of the United Kingdom, and with the United Nations unwilling to intervene. Viet Nam, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur, Iraq, Syria and the beat goes on.

War is certainly a bad thing and it's worse if you lose. The earliest archeaological evidence of humans being slain with weapons was discovered in 1964 C.E. near the border of Sudan and Egypt. At a site known as Cemetery 117, skeletons over 13,000 years old were found with pointed stone spear tips in them. But violence between hunting parties, bands and tribes of Homo sapiens and other hominid species was occurring for a hundred thousand years or more before that.

Although there have been extended periods of peace and cooperation in certain regions of the world, war has been a constant throughout recorded history. Wars have been fought for land and natural resources, king and country, political differences and alliances, pride and prejudice, protection and profit, mistake or madness, and even for the glory of God. If you take nothing else from this message, let it be that war is contrary to God's will. She does not take sides, or generally care who wins. The only exception is when war is necessary to stop an atrocity like the Holocaust. Otherwise, killing is only justified in defense of an immediate threat of harm, or as punishment for violations of certain of God's Laws.

Simply put, things like wars, genocides, ethnic cleansings, pogroms, etc., happen due to humankind's own inhumanity.* And because we don't listen very well. God keeps sending messages and we keep ignoring them. "Thou shalt not kill" was not merely a suggestion. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God." Mathew 5:9. We are all God's children and we can all be peacemakers, if we choose to be.

*Perhaps "inhumanity" is a misnomer, as the acts are perpetrated by humans, and ordered, condoned and even glorified by others.

Next: Why Bad Things Happen concludes