Time to Speak Against Madness

[Dave Roberts]

First, on Sunday there was a horrific shooting in a Milwaukee area Sikh Temple. Today there is news from Joplin, MO, of the burning of a mosque . It's time for Christians to speak up in defense of those who are persecuted here and are the victims of senseless violence. Christians may be the victims of violent extremists in many parts of the world, but we cannot be silent when communities representing other religions are the targets of madness in a land where religious freedom is guaranteed.

[Stephen Fox]

Proud of you Dave. Bruce Prescott will be leading the call I'm sure very soon, joined by folks at ED.com

[KeithE]

[Haruo]

Kudos to St. Philip Episcopal.

[Matto]

Speaking out yes, condemning it yes, but this will not solve the problem.

This kind does not come out except by prayer and fasting.

These people are possessed by evil.

" I am the Joker " said Holmes. He was possessed by the Joker, and he manifested the Joker.

People think that Heath ledger acted brilliantly playing the Joker, but he wasn't acting, he was manifesting.

Movies can convey an evil spirit, and actors can be the conjurers of them, yes they reach down to the depths of their souls, and what they bring forth can be very evil.

With cinemas turned into so many temples of the evil spirits, is it any wonder that the vulnerable souls leave oppressed, obsessed and possessed by them.

The columbine boys dressed like the Matrix, trench coats, dark glasses and two hand guns, they were possessed by that evil.
Heat the movie inspired two bank robbers to openly fight police with automatic weapons from street to street.

Natural born killers inspired numerous homicides.

The spirits conveyed in these films possess, the spirits of violence, hate, power, and wrath.

Speak out against the violent film culture, we don't need our kids brains possessed of the these evil influences.

Pray and fast for those who are possessed by the spirits of violence, that they may be delivered.

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed; Rather good Matto, not sure how many here will understand. I would quibble a bit with the phrase "Natural born killers" in this context.

[Dave Roberts]

Christians need to be on the front line of challenging the ideologies of extremist groups that seem to often be the birthplaces of such violence. Our silence sometimes allows them to claim they speak for Christians.

[Matto]

[Mrs Haruo]

In my work as a classroom volunteer 25 years ago, when when VCRs and video rental shops became common, I was appalled at the amount of violence and explicit sex many of the children in the classes I worked with were exposed to at home. A sad joke in the faculty room was "I overheard two kindergarteners talking on the playground. One said "Mommy found a condom on the patio this morning."
"What's a patio?" the other child replied.
I see and hear parents screaming obscenities at their children at the playground and on the street. What ever happened to childhood?
I think a major problem in our so-called "information age" is that it is more possible to watch the most horrible filth in the privacy of your own home till your brain is turned to absolute mush. An acquaintance of mine seems to have 3 TVs going on in his house at all times, at least one set up with some shoot-em-up video game since his boys were still in diapers. Now one is in a therapeutic foster home situation because he was shouting insults at everyone that walked by his yard in a downtown project and attacking his brothers with knives. I tried to tell him years ago this wasn't good for the boys, but he didn't believe me........

[Dave Roberts]

[Mrs Haruo]

I was often struck by the irony of those who called me "baby killer" even some of the teens in my own church, when I enlisted in the Navy right out of high school during the Viet Nam war. 10 years later I was volunteering as a classroom helper at my children's elementary school, and the kids who seemed to have the most learning problems had parents who would be joking about doing drugs and how they used to throw stuff at soldiers coming back from Viet Nam at the San Francisco airport. Who were the real baby killers?

I saw a notice in the library in a particularly troubled section of Seattle looking for adults to organize activities for neighborhood kids while the community center was closed down for much needed repairs and remodeling. "If the village elders don't teach our children, the village idiots will." It really struck home. I had been out of touch with kids and teens for quite a while since my own kids are in their 30's now, and there are only a few children at our church. When we moved to our house I started helping with an evening tutoring program that is a community service by a Methodist church in our new neighborhood. Some of the kids were pretty rude and sassy, but it didn't take long before they could tell that I was "for real" even if I was "an old white lady" and they really appreciated knowing there were adults who genuinely cared about them. Most schools are so short handed. If you have a few hours, there are a lot of kids who need a little one-on-one help. I will never forget a Girl Scout leader who encouraged me to try some new things and find out talents I didn't know I had, when my parents were so busy trying to make ends meet they didn't realize I needed a little extra encouragement to keep out of trouble.