An unpopular opinion, perhaps

In the recent weeks and certainly the last 10 years, American have had the trial of seeing things I thought they would never see. This country is going through such radical changes within a culture war. We're also dealing with cultural changes in a religious war and this is the sort of war that takes place on our streets as well as overseas.

Most Americans share a will that believes in religious liberty and we truly want people to practice their faith in freedom. I still believe that Americans are among the most caring network of humans on the planet but in the recent years we have certainly been hurt, wounded, scarred - whatever you want to call it.

In the wake of the recent attacks on the Boston City Marathon I myself am in some sense shocked and leveled by the reaction of some people but in a way I guess I'm not surprised at all. The suspects that committed these crimes are apparently Muslim and possibly al Qaeda sympathizers set against Americans and our way of life, which means they feel in their mind they need to take action and harm others. Now you'll have to react in some way too, and there are several choices in front of all of us:

We could be apathetic and think of somebody else will solve our problems. We could protest peacefully, electing community leaders and government officials that share our views, hopefully in sincerity. Others might take action to themselves during their own fits of rage and taking violence back to the people who think they think deserve it. Or other numerous option.

But we each personally have to also react. Each one of us has the desire, the innate will to act with justice in this situation. The problem is, for each of us, that justice might look different, to be one thing for one person and something completely different for another. In a recent article showing the body of the first suspect dead in his autopsy room, which leaked, there's a string of comments which are 90% hate. Yes, consider the source, consider the audience (this is not the consensus among Americans). Some people saying that pig's blood should be spread all ever body as to damn him forever in his own religious beliefs. Others making jokes about the 72 virgins suddenly bearing resemblance to Hillary Clinton. These certainly are creative ways of dealing with the suspect.

Most of us don't have that wish; most of us have the wish that these things simply don't happen again and that we take actions that would prevent the sort of thing from happening, the loss of life the death, of her children, the career of a young security officer/police, would be secured without a senseless act of violence. And that's not too much to ask because it too is justice.

So what is justice?

Believe it or not justice has been debated for a very long time. Socrates himself was prosecuted, tried, and put to death because of his radical views on justice. Much of those akin to Jesus Christ our Lord, the views of Socrates were not pacifist but nor were they vengeful. In his day, if someone did you evil, you did them 2 to 10 times the evil in return, and that was considered justice by the overwhelming majority of citizens in Greece, not just Athens. Is well known and well documented in Greek history that what you and I would call genocide was voted on and carried out by the generals of Greece against certain city-states, completely eradicating the population, and this was considered justice.

But with Christians know different was, as Socrates did. We know that the correct reaction to this are the very words spoken by Jesus: the radical phrase, "love your neighbor and pray for those who persecute you" which includes those who kill your neighbor which you loved. There is nothing wrong with labeling terrorists according to the professed religious belief, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. What is wrong however, is too wish the same hateful condemnation on those individuals who have done arm to us. And this teaching is tough. Only so many people in history have had the guts, the willpower, and the endurance to truly live it out. You and I can do our best to react in such a fashion, too, perhaps better than we already have. In Jesus' own words, "if you only love those who love you what reward is there in that?"

My charge to each Christian  is to act in a way of Christlike justice in the wake of these terrible disasters. It does no harm to pray for the souls of those that are working against us even if they wish to harm us. How are we going to change the world and bring an everlasting goodness if all we do is react in anger or perhaps violence for some. As a veteran and a Catholic, by all means I believe in a just war. By no means do I mean to say did each of us should not be appalled, but let us be stricken with the right sort to fear and let us react with the right side of justice.