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An eye for an eye leaves the world blind…

Violence does not promote peace. An eye for an eye will deprive us of our sight. Don’t seek to conquer people; seek to win their confidence.

Martin Luther King said, “That old law about an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. was prominently engaged in the African-American Civil Rights Movements in the 1960s. In spite of the attacks and inhuman treatments meted out to him, he believed in what Jesus said about loving one’s enemies and not retaliating.

In 1964, King became the youngest man to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (for his work as a peacemaker, promoting nonviolence and equal treatment for different races). On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, still on peacemaking trails. Today Martin Luther King is an icon in the history of the American Civil Rights movement, and he is well known for peacemaking.

Mahatma Gandhi said, “If we practice an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, soon the whole world will be blind and toothless.”

The Bible advises us to restrain from violence. The Christian is to be like Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

Violent people wreak havoc on people and properties as a way of expressing their anger; they want to conquer by using violence and intimidation. They justify their actions by saying that they are obeying God’s command. Wherever they go they spread violence and cause mayhem. They have no patience and cannot tolerate other people’s divergent opinions.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God,” (Matthew 5:9).

People who practice violence cannot be God’s children. They are not doing God’s will!

Terrorists are angry people who have not been able to get what they want. They turn to terrorism to express their anger. They attack even those who have no quarrel with them.

Unforgiving spirit leads to hate and violence

Proverbs 25:15 says, “By long forbearance a ruler is persuaded — and a gentle tongue breaks a bone.”

Be patient and forgiving. Articulate your views; persuade and convince. Don’t use force.

A Gaelic proverb says, “Patience wears out stones.” Rousseau also intimated, “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”

(You may want to read “Persuasion Is Better Than Force”… click here)

We read news stories like, “15 killed in University Attack, or 30 people killed in a suicide bomb attack…” Sometimes thousands of people are displaced as result of militant attacks. A religious group pops up and declares that it carried out the attacks in God’s name.

One wonders why the Almighty God, who has power to control people’s minds, will not use His Almighty power to make people to do His will, but will send humans who cannot control the minds of other people, to use physical force to make them change? Why would the Judge of Righteousness command people to destroy the lives of helpless and innocent women and children?

In Uganda, some religious extremists threw acid on a religious leader. The victim sustained severe burns that blinded one of his eyes and was threatening the other eye.

A newspaper reported that, in one city, eleven people died when religious militants bombed a worship center and attacked a police station.

Militants do not restrict their attacks to people of other religions. They attack their own fellow believers they think are not radical enough.

Violence does not promote the cause of a merciful and peace loving God. Hurting or killing people does not advertise a loving God.

(You may want to read, “Conquering Without Being Violent” … Click here for more)

Uncontrolled anger is madness

Robert Green Ingersoll asserted that, “Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind.”

A 43-year-old in New Jersey called police to say he had a knife and was threatening to hurt himself. Apparently, he was angry at something. Officers swooped over his Clay Street home and kicked on the door to his room, which he had blocked with furniture.

When he stood up, he shouted at the officers and frantically stabbed himself all over his body, leaving more than 50 stab wounds.

Officers saw that his intestines were sticking out from the wound in his abdomen. When they tried to approach him, the man allegedly threw some of the skin and intestines at them.

They tried to talk him down, but did not succeed. He slashed at them with the knife. Officers sprayed two cans of pepper spray at him, but it had no effect. They called the Bergen Country SWAT Team, who helped subdue him with beanbag projectiles.

The man underwent emergency surgery and remained in critical condition at the time of the news report.

That was an angry man who was angry with everyone, including himself.

 

Anger makes suicide bombers kill innocent people… and getting killed, too!

(Read Rockeybell’s testimony here)