Suicide Bombers and Old Evangelical Men
I have a question: why are most suicide bombers young? Would it not be more strategic or at least logical to strap explosives onto old men and give the honor of giving their lives for a cause. Are the older Moslem men cynical or cowardly or busy missing close puts and getting cancer on the beach?
But you know what? The pressing question is not about the older moslems. Its a question right on our doorstep: Where are the older evangelicals who generally well-set finacially, educated, healthy, etc. Why aren’t they knocking down the doors of the church to give 10, 20, 40 hrs a week for a cause that Jesus laid at our doorstep and a cause which has direct eternal implications?
Help me with this question…why is it that those of us over 55 (yes. I get AARP stuff every week in the mail!) were fed the Word better than any generation, have experienced freedom of religion all our lives, have been exposed to incredible equipping opportunities and so on and so on…and yet we attend churches that are dying for our skills and resources?
Hey, one more thing: see the movies “Paradise Now” and “Munich” if you want some potent thoughts on terrorism and revenge and the incredible situation in the Middle East.
I’m going to sell my clubs!
Dave
January 25th, 2007 at 9:38 am
Hey I was just downloading a past message I missed and saw the link for this blog. This is really cool, you should promote this more in the bulletin or something. I think this blog could be a great place to trade thoughts with everyone. Just a thought from my experience in Iraq on older men: they’re lazy and apathetic. It seems in Iraq the older you get (males anyways) the more right you have to do nothing. I don’t know if this same apathy is felt or accepted generally in the US. Could that be a contributing factor to “laziness” in spreading the word?
January 29th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
I wonder if the ‘older’ muslim men feel that they have already done enough and don’t feel the need to make such a sacrifice, or whether there are doubts in their own minds about their own faith.
I am an older christian man (43 yrs), but I am relatively young in my faith. The truth is that I have done very little in my life to serve Jesus. While I know that salvation is free, I am beginning to learn that following Christ will cost me everything (my time, my energy, my money, my obedience, my trust). If I had alot of worldly ’stuff’ or was a person in a position of power, I know it would be more difficult to follow Christ. The difficulty of this is illustrated very well in what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 19:
Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”
“Which ones?” the man inquired.
Jesus replied, ” ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”
“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
(Matt 19:16-23)
Not being a rich man, I cannot say that I know how difficult this would be. But, I know that no matter what, I would be better off by being obedient to our Lord Jesus Christ. In contrast, I don’t know how I would be better off by blowing myself and other innocent people up in the name of allah. With this in mind, I can understand why older muslim men are not willing to strap explosives onto themselves for the honor of giving their lives for their cause, but I cannot understand why older Christian men are not ‘knocking down the doors of the church to give 10, 20, 40 hrs a week for a cause that Jesus laid at our doorstep and a cause which has direct eternal implications’.
And just so you know that I am not being self-righteous, the above statement applies to me as well. I have no excuse.