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I’ve got a “wild hare” of an idea. (Is it ‘wild hair’ or ‘wild hare’?) It’s something I’ve been kicking ‘round the ole gray matter for a few weeks now, but it came back with a vengeance Friday morning. Here’s why . . .
As I was driving in to the office, listening to the news, heard a report of another bombing in Iraq . This time it was in a northern province where a group of people known as Yazidis live. This is a religious sect that blends elements of Islam, ancient Persian religion and Christianity. Some 400 of them were killed in a terrorist attack staged by an al-Qaida linked group. So here’s my thought; and yes I know—it’s completely unrealistic. No one would ever do it. But still, I dream. Since the way we’re currently prosecuting the War on Terror doesn’t seem to be working, a radically different approach may be in order. I mean, really, really different! Like—let’s keep military troops on the front lines in places of outright conflict, as in Iraq and Afghanistan , but let’s adopt a completely different strategy with prisoners. If in our military operations we bag terrorists or radical fundamentalists who pose a threat, instead of depositing them in Guantanamo or one of the nefarious and covert prisons the CIA has supposedly stashed dozens of such unsavory persons in around the world, then using harsh measures to extract information out of them, let’s “love-bomb” them. (Or, “love-balm” if that fits better.) What do I mean by love-bombing? Just this... show captured terrorists the real difference between their hate and violence filled religion and genuine Christianity. Now, I know the hew and cry this will raise form agnostic liberals. Hold on a second—according to interrogations and the stated reasons of the terrorists themselves, the reason they’re attacking us is because in their eyes we’re heathen infidels. Either we’re Christian infidels or we’re liberal, godless infidels. So, if you’re going to get killed for something, might was well use it to your advantage. Here’s what we do to prisoners – we so overwhelm them with love and kindness, we make them face the radical difference between the hatred of their religion and the profound effect of our religion. Then we constantly challenge them with the question of where God appears more evident. While they’re a prisoner, we treat them with utmost respect. We feed them well. WE honor their convictions regarding their desire to observe their religion, as long as it doesn’t require us to violate ours. Of course we have to keep them in secure facilities and ensure they don’t escape, but we make the chains of their bondage “velvet and golden.” When they revile we do not revile in return. Then, we begin to expose them to wholesome examples of American family life, where our faith is lived out in a winsome way. We do this by allowing them to watch videos of the American family just living The Life. After a time, they are taken out into public, under secure guard, where they are then exposed to real American men who love God and their families. WE let them see the fruit of genuine faith and love. Then we expose them to the best of what our Faith has done for our culture. But we’re realistic, we also show them the problems our society faces & how they’re the result of NOT following the Biblical/Christian worldview. But we show them how we deal with those problems – not with a gun or bomb because that’s inconsistent with our Faith. Rehabilitation. Love-bombing. “By this will all men know you are My disciples, by the love you have for one another.” Okay – I know it’s never going to be tried. Too bad. The current policy sure isn’t working. Today, put someone in prison and they come out worse than when they went in. Three weeks ago, I heard the report of a man recently released from Guantanamo because it was discovered he’d been nabbed wrongly. Going in to prison he wasn’t a terrorist. After being treated the way he was by Americans, as soon as he got out, yep, you guessed it, he went in search of the jihadists to join up. Should our prisoner of war camps be producing terrorists or reducing their ranks by countering their hate ideology of the radicals?
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