TACIT PERMISSIVENESS
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Matthew
[GW] 5:13-16 "You are salt for the earth. But if salt
loses its taste, how will it be made salty again? It is no longer good for
anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people. "You are light
for the world. A city cannot be hidden when it is located on a hill. No one
lights a lamp and puts it under a basket. Instead, everyone who lights a lamp
puts it on a lamp stand. Then its light shines on everyone in the house. In the
same way let your light shine in front of people. Then they will see the good
that you do and praise your Father in heaven.
Ephesians
[GW] 2:1-10 You were once dead because of your failures and
sins. You followed the ways of this present world and its spiritual ruler. This
ruler continues to work in people who refuse to obey God. All of us once lived
among these people, and followed the desires of our corrupt nature. We did what
our corrupt desires and thoughts wanted us to do. So, because of our nature, we
deserved God's anger just like everyone else. But God is rich in mercy because
of his great love for us. We were dead because of our failures, but he made us
alive together with Christ. (It is God's kindness that saved you.) God has
brought us back to life together with Christ Jesus and has given us a position
in heaven with him. He did this through Christ Jesus out of his generosity to
us in order to show his extremely rich kindness in the world to come. God saved
you through faith as an act of kindness. You had nothing to do with it. Being
saved is a gift from God. It's not the result of anything you've done, so no
one can brag about it. God has made us what we are. He has created us in Christ
Jesus to live lives filled with good works that he has prepared for us to do.
In 1915 Hitler
was still in the world theater wings, but he was observing the staged dramas
very carefully. One act in particular was the persecution and massacring
practiced by the Ottomans.
“The Armenian Genocide[7]
(Armenian: Հայոց Ցեղասպանություն Hayots Tseghaspanutyun),[8]
also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and,
traditionally by Armenians, as Medz Yeghern (Armenian: Մեծ Եղեռն,
"Great Crime")[9]
was the Ottoman government's systematic extermination of its
minority Armenian
subjects from their historic homeland within the territory constituting the
present-day Republic
of Turkey. The starting date is conventionally held to be 24 April 1915,
the day Ottoman authorities rounded up and arrested some 250 Armenian intellectuals and
community leaders in Constantinople. The genocide was carried out during and
after World War I and implemented in two phases: the wholesale killing of the
able-bodied male population through massacre and subjection of army conscripts
to forced labour, followed by the deportation of women, children, the elderly
and infirm on death marches leading to the Syrian
desert. Driven forward by military escorts, the deportees were deprived of
food and water and subjected to periodic robbery, rape, and massacre.[10][11][12]
The total number of people killed as a result has been estimated at between 1
and 1.5 million. Other indigenous and Christian ethnic groups such as
the Assyrians, the Greeks
and other minorities were similarly targeted for extermination by the Ottoman
government, and their treatment is considered by many historians to be part of
the same genocidal policy.[13][14][15]
The majority of Armenian diaspora communities around the world
came into being as a direct result of the genocide. (Wikipedia: Armenian
Genocide)
Seeing that Christian nations that could have
interceded did not -- Hitler decided then and there that he could do the same
to Jew, gypsy, and all others hated and/or consider liability to the Third
Reich. And later in power Hitler did just that with impunity. (As also did “Uncle
Joe” Stalin on much larger scale.)
As a history fan from earliest memory
I decided a long time ago that horrific events are less the result of action,
but are very much involve permissive inaction. Let us forget not who is the
prince of this world and hence evil exists. Do little or nothing, irresponsibly
hiding light under bushels of comfort and fun or “What’s the use?!!” despair,
and those that love darkness prevail.
EBB4
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