Those who won’t repent are ill-equipped to lead

posted 06:35 AM 05/21
Link this article here.

A bumper sticker in Olympia asked me, "Who would Jesus bomb?" The drive-by sound bite was successful in making this Christian feel momentarily guilty for supporting national policy of bombing certain people, but then I realized the bumper had its theology wrong. Jesus would bomb a lot of people; some right here in Olympia. He and others are planning on it.

Jews, Christians, and Muslims expect to see Messiah return relatively soon and do some serious hurt. They don't agree on who Messiah will bomb but they agree damage to some of us is overdue. The Jews don't recognize Jesus as Messiah, but Muslims give Him a prominent place in the end times and Christians see Him conquering those who would conquer the Jews.

In any case, most agree the Prince of Peace will one day set aside His Peace Platform to clean up this world again. The question is, "Who will He bomb?"

If precedence is any gauge, He will bomb the self-righteous unrepentant folks: Those who think, like Lenin, that the ends justify the means. They believe their causes are so right they can do or say anything to achieve some higher goal. Pharaoh wanted slaves, Sodom wanted sex on demand, and the priests of Baal wanted children sacrificed to their gods. They had hard unrepentant hearts and God "bombed" them all.

Like the ancients, today's self- righteous unrepentant folks don't care what the rest of us think or what our rights to a safe and orderly community might be. Their ends justify their means, and they don't care about us. They're like that country song: "We ain't wrong, we ain't sorry, and we're probably gonna do it again."

That sounds a lot like Evergreen's rioters, Olympia's port protesters and May Day's stone-throwing anarchists. They claim they aren't wrong ("It was the cops and bankers."), they aren't sorry ("Our means are justified.") and they're probably gonna do it again. ("It's a First Amendment right!")

Jesus, a protester in His own right, believed in obeying the laws. He "rendered unto Caesar" and told His followers to obey their governors and religious leaders — just don't emulate them. And while He didn't have a lot of praise for those governors and religious leaders, He did express love for sinners who repented such as the Prodigal Son, Zacchaeus the tax collector and the folks in Nineveh who repented with Jonah.

Most of us have sympathy and even forgiveness for those who show genuine repentance, but our local rioters have shown none.

No repentance damages the ideas of their causes. More revealingly, it shows how the most powerful representatives of those causes will disregard the opinions and rights of others if they ever get in power. In spite of what they say, they do not seek equality of law or reasoned debate. Is it any wonder why our community remains angry with them.

Jesus bombing unrepentant fools might seem a little harsh, but repentance and humility are something Jesus asks of all of us. It wouldn't hurt this community a bit to see these people show responsibility and regret for their actions.

Rick Taylor, a member of The Olympian's Board of Contributors, retired from the U.S. Army/Oregon Army National Guard after 27 years of service. He recently completed 14 years in the classroom teaching English, social studies and economics. He can be reached at anchordedhere@thurston.com.

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posted 11:42 PM 02/26