Today I came across a reference at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting to the media's reaction to African (read Somali) pirates. The article describes the responses in editorials, blogs, comments, etc., "people have called unequivocally-often in blunt, colorful language-for killing Somali pirates." This reminded me of a letter to the Democrat and Chronicle that I have been pondering for weeks now.
The letter writer attempts to use the capture and subsequent rescue of Captain Richard Phillips as proof of God's universal love (brief recap: Phillips was held hostage by Somali pirates. On Easter Sunday snipers from the U.S. Navy shot and killed his captors). The letter entitled "Capt. showed love for crew" opens with, "This Easter was a remarkable message of God's love for us all." Note that the writer wishes to impress upon us that a message of love for all people was delivered to the world by God.
The writer goes on to quote John 15:13, "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." The choice of Phillips to remain a captive so that his crew could go free is certainly noble.
The letter concludes with, "How awesome that Phillips was rescued on Easter Sunday — the day when Christians celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior." It was wonderful that Phillips was rescued, I however have to question the hand of divine providence (at least Christian divine providence) in the whole affair. While it troubles me that someone would consider what happened to be a meaningful message of God's love, what is most disturbing is that the writer never mentions the fact that to successfully rescue Phillips three people were shot and killed.
So, was the rescue of Phillips a message of God's love for us all?
It certainly wasn't for the three pirates who died violently. Perhaps those three pirates were unloved by God, perhaps His love excludes some people. If we examine Jesus's teachings we find he spent a large part of his time with prostitutes, tax collectors, and other undesirable people of his day. In this case tax collectors warrant more attention. In the classical world of Caesar Augustus tax collectors were government employees (Julius Caesar had ended the practice of tax farming); tax collectors were often corrupt and oversight lax so that they were able to "shake down" the population for as much money as they could get and keep whatever was left over after the taxes were taken. They often used intimidation and violence to extract money from people. You can imagine that the poor and powerless, the same group that made up most of Jesus's adherents, were especially victimized by the tax collector. Yet Jesus invited tax collectors to join him, and he even went to stay in their homes. If Jesus didn't exclude thugs who harmed and terrorized his followers it seems unlikely that any humans are outside his, and by extension God's, love.
There is more evidence that God's love extends to all people; one of Jesus's most oft-quoted sayings is, "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Luke 10:27) After Jesus affirms his belief in this ancient teaching from Leviticus a lawyer, looking for a loophole asks, "Who is my neighbor?" In answer Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. The point of the parable is that every human being is your neighbor. Here also it seems hard to reconcile the killing of three people with Jesus's endorsement of the Golden Rule.
It seems to me that had Jesus met the Somali pirates he would have had no qualms about breaking bread with them at table.
So was the killing of three people and the rescue of an innocent captive really a message from God? Perhaps, but if there is a message it's probably not as simple as many, including the letter writer, would like. It might involve things like, understanding: why do these people choose to commit piracy? Does it have anything to do with the crushing and deadly poverty of Somalia? What about the destruction of the Somalian fishery by wealthier countries taking advantage of the lack of a real government to protect the fishermen and their way of life? Or maybe the message is that we are our brother's (and sister's) keeper and it's time to stop ignoring the suffering that goes on in many parts of the world.
I have a hard time believing that a just and loving God would view the sad conclusion of the situation as anything but a single epsiode, in a long and ancient history of human beings failing to love and tolerate each other as he would have them do.
And I wonder why it seems so few other people see it that way.
