By K Levi Rongmei
“Love Your Enemies, Do Good, Expecting Nothing in Return; and Your Reward will Be Great.”
— Luke 6:27-36.
On September 11, 2001 several people hijacked jet planes and rammed them into the World Trade Centre (WTC) in New York City. The incident resulted in the death of thousands of innocent human beings.
Most of us wonder- why someone would do something like this to innocent human beings? To put it bluntly, the people that did these dastardly and cowardly deeds functioned with a learned belief system that encouraged them to do so. They will, no doubt, be lauded by their co-conspirators as heroes for their ‘noble’ act (it was noble from their point of view).
Like most people that seek to harm others, the terrorist has a ‘god complex.’ The terrorist is an ardent blame placer. They believe profoundly in hierarchy. In their minds they preside at the top of that hierarchy. They believe they have ‘god like’ authority vested in them. Terrorists are fascists. They believe they alone posses characteristics deserving life. They believe their thinking is the sole determination of right and wrong. If someone does a ‘wrong’ by their arbitrary definition, they believe that it is their job to correct that ‘wrong.’ They are incredibly self-righteous. They believe ardently that things should be different than what they are! Thus, they deny reality with impunity.
Acting Like Deity: Ra-ther than going after the individuals that they ‘think’ did them ‘wrong’ these particular terrorists chose in ‘god like’ manner to kill anyone they arbitrarily decided were ‘infidels.’ If you happened to be in the group they arbitrarily condemned, whether you knew them or not, did anything to them or not, are young or old, you are their “devil!” You deserve death because they say you do. Since they believe their beliefs are “right” there is no reasoning with them. Indeed, they worship their own thinking. In their mind they are absolutely undeniably bigheaded and in “god like” manner, right! While most of us think no one is “perfect,” they “know” they are. They may even think they have a direct line to the deity. They often invent the idea that he has chosen them above all humans on the earth. Scary!
Individual Accoun- tablity: Most people think of themselves as individuals. To a somewhat rational mind, it doesn’t make sense to blame a group of people for what an individual may have done. Consequently, most of us will feel no responsibility for the wrong that allegedly happened to the terrorist. We think, since we did nothing wrong to them, why would they do harm to us? It’s hard for some of us to understand the thinking of terrorists. We think of ourselves as individually accountable rather than collectively responsible for our actions. So, if I did you wrong, you most likely would go after me and not after everyone in the city where I live. Yet, the terrorists, because of their deception, believe that we are collectively responsible for their real or imagined grievances. It is therefore only fitting to kill people that they think are in any way related to those that might have done them wrong.
The terrorists may have real grievances. But they greatly exaggerate the significance of their grievances. As one of them said they have “suffered” many year of oppression. Discrimination against certain people still exists in our country.
Terrorists devoutly believe in the “horrors’ of what they “think” was done to them. They seem blissfully unaware that their “horrors” are self-defined illusions. In their mind it’s OK to seek revenge or kill “infidels” because of their “god like” final authority mentality. Terrorists think they are the ultimate purveyor of what is good and what is evil. In the terrorists’ minds anyone that does not agree with their thinking is “evil” Hence they must die.
Sharing in Humanity: All human beings have a great deal in common. We have more in common than we have differences. We all enjoy eating a tasty meal. We all enjoy a beautiful sunset. All of us want to be with our friends and loved ones. We all wish to have good health and be disease and pain free. No one is really any less or more human than anyone else. Even the recent mapping of the gene genome bears this out. Genetically, all people share 99.99% of the same genes. The genetic differences between any of us are less than 1/10th of a percent. And yet we still ‘think’ we are vastly different than each other. That’s part of our problem.
The human mind is incredibly creative. The terrorists used their mind to create the illusion that someone did “awfulness” to them (dubious concept if there ever was one). They viewed that “awfulness” as so heinous that they believe drastic action “must” be taken. They then looked around and found someone to blame.
The terrorists do not realize that they have used their incredibly creative mind to make themselves miserable. Unfortunately, they do not realize that their mind has become a tool for self-deception. Like most deceived people, terrorists create their emotional misery within the confines of their own mind and falsely blame their disturbance on something or someone outside them.
Terrorists hate certain kinds of their fellow man with hatred that is almost beyond belief. They do not appreciate but rather condemn diversity. Too bad! They are deceived. No matter what they think, we are all human beings. It is profoundly sad that some of us can so distance ourselves from each other through our imagination and become (in our own mind) “super people” - people that go around touting their “god like” beliefs and decrees in violent means.
Why hate? Why do people hate each other? We are taught to. And make no mistake the people that did these deeds were taught well. They believed they were totally right in doing what they did. So much so, that some of them “gave” their lives up in the process.
Mankind’s problems all started in the Garden of Good and Evil. Our problems continue because people are still deceived into taking to themselves the knowledge of good and evil. And yet, most people are not even the slightest aware that they do so. Deceived people do not know they are deceived. They wouldn’t be able to explain how they take to themselves the knowledge of good and evil if their life depended on it.
Most people function unaware that they regularly take to themselves the knowledge of good and evil. They are deceived; to thinking that emotional disturbance is caused by the circumstances they find themselves in. They try to solve their problem by doing the most inefficient thing they can.
They try to change their circumstance instead of changing their “view” of it. Furthermore, they usually attribute to much “evil” to their circumstances for their own good. They often think they are diminished because of what someone did or said. In reality, they are disturbed by their own belief system. Unaware of this, they try to make other people do what they, in their “god like” thinking, think they must. The people they are trying to control think the same way they do. That just makes the inevitable conflict more intense. One can’t win a power struggle with another human because everyone has the same power.
Levels of “Control”:
There are four levels of control that people seek to use upon each other. Number One is a simple request: We ask someone to do something. Number Two is: We ask someone to do something and state that we will pay or do them a favour in return if they do what we want. Number Three is where we go overboard. We start making “demands” “I am angry and you had better do what I want!” Use of level Four results “in violence and or death! “You must do what I want or I will harm or kill you!” While most of us stay on level one and two and occasionally go to level three, terrorists go to level four readily.
Emotions are connected to the goodness or evil that we attribute to things:
There is no good or evil in the things that happen to us. Terrorists feel hostile towards their enemies because they talk themselves into it. They are usually unaware that they have created their hostility by the way they think. Their feelings are not the result of what some one has said or done to them. It is their view of the events or circumstances that determines the emotion they will have at any given moment. Since emotions are the effect of thinking they are only as valid as the thoughts that produce them. Terrorists do not know this. They erroneously believe their emotions are the ultimate measure of reality. To gain more understanding why these people did this to other human beings, we had better take a further look at their thinking. We need to understand that people think, feel and then have a tendency to act on their feelings.
Terrorist Thinking:
Now remember the terrorist, in his “god like” thinking, does not realize that his thinking is causing his emotions. He is deceived into believing that what happens to him externally is causing his “emotional misery.” He can and often does exaggerate or imagine wrong done to him. He feels hatred intensely because of the “awfulness” he attributes to his experiences. He then wrongly concludes that the intensity of his emotion proves he is right. All it really proves is that he believes very strongly in his own self-induced deception.
Thinking something or someone outside you causes you emotions is bad enough. To make matters worse, he then attributes to much bad to what he thinks has caused his feelings. Because he attributes so much negativity to his experience, he feels an extremely negative emotion. Since what he feels is so intense, and he has been taught all his life to trust his feelings, he lashes out at what he thinks is the cause of his misery. Unfortunately, that is usually a similarly deceived person. What a mess!
Let’s take a closer look at the specifics of what went on in the mind of those that chose do this to their fellow man. People often align themselves into groups because of the similar philosophical beliefs they share. Let’s take the Jew-Arab hatred for example. What is a “Jew?” But simply it is a person who “thinks” he is a “Jew” (and all the concepts he thinks goes along with that label). The same thinking takes place in the mind of the person who thinks he is an “Arab.” “Jews” have been taught to hate “Arabs” and “Arabs” have been taught to hate “Jews.” It is their current thinking rather than what transpired between the two groups of people years ago that is the cause of their current hatred. Their convoluted thinking is the same- the opposite side of the same coin!
To hate another person you have to tell yourself to do so. Most likely you have convinced your self that there are major differences between you and the person you hate. For a “Jew” to hate an “Arab,” he has to tell himself that he is better than the “Arab” is. For an “Arab” to hate a “Jew” he has to tell himself that he is better than the “Jew” is. And, since they hate each other so intensely, they often tell themselves that life would be better if the other were dead. They think they can’t possibly get along with each other because they are so different. They are oblivious to the fact that their differences are arbitrarily self-defined. They then wrong-ly conclude it is their job to kill the other person.
The apostle Paul had the answer to his dilemma. He said he learned in whatever state he found himself to be content. He learned how to create peace within himself. The answer to this mess is to stop taking to oneself the knowledge of good and evil and create peace in ours minds. But since deceived people do not know this, they can’t possible do anything about their twis-ted thinking. The intensity of their negative emotions blocks rational thought. They think in vicious circle.
In reality, how can anyone exist better or more than anyone else? The undeniable truth is that we all eat, sleep, drink and go to the bathroom! Our differences are more imagined than real! To be sure they are philosophical.
Thoughts Bring Emotions:
Our thoughts and only our thoughts bring out emotions. Deceived people falsely diagnose the cause of their emotional disturbance. They create emotional misery in their own mind and then wrongly blame it on something outside them!
Unfortunately, their wrong diagnosis takes them miles away from the practical solution to the problem - stopping the insane process! The terrorist functions under a deception that is so thorough and intense that only extreme measures could crack through it.
One of the things that has caused the relative level of peace that “Indian” have enjoyed over the year is that when people came to this country they were usually fleeing oppression and so wanted to come. Secondly, they knew they were expected to become Indians. This caused them, to some degree, to minimize their “ethnic” differences (which are really philosophical in nature- not genetic). They downplayed many of their differences and became ‘Indians’. When they became Indians, they suddenly shared a commonality and a sense of community that resulted in even more downplaying of their philosophical (ethnic) differences. Now they were Indians first and wha-tever they thought they were usually took second place.
Maximizing the similarities between themselves and others made it easier to get along. This is the reason that God said to love your neighbour as you love yourself. It cau-ses us to realize that we are all related to each other.
If we want to get along with others we would do well to maximize our similarities and minimize our differences. Thinking to oneself: “He or she is just as human as I am” goes a long way towards creating peace between people.
To hold a country (ma-ny individuals) responsible for what a few people did is unrealistic and wrong. But, because of the deception that the terrorist functions under, it makes total sense (to them).
Language unfortunately has some inadequacies. For, when we think about it, we are individuals by nature and can’t really become what we are not - a “group.” The concept “group” is internally illogical in its strictest application. The terrorists think erroneously: “Because you are an “Indian” (I am just me as you are you) and some people that live in “your” country did me wrong, “I hate any and everyone that I think is in the ‘Indian’ group (an over generalization). You must pay for what ‘your people did to me and ‘my people’.”
Notice that the terrorist holds “our” country responsible. Again, thanks to the imprecision of language and his deception, the terrorist has used an “illogical” concept. He thinks it is “our” country. Most people realize slavery is wrong- one really can’t own another person. The terms “ours,” “yours,” or “my” convey the false idea that we can be responsible for other individuals as if we could own and control them. Since others are “free moral agents” that we can control them is an illusion- a deception.
It is an non-sequitur- a magical jump in reasoning. We can’t be responsible for what anyone else thinks or does because they have the capacity to act on their own thinking and belief system- irrespective of ours. I may, for example love you, but if you choose you can hate me. You most likely will see me as your enemy. As the result of your thinking you will feel hatred for me caused by the way you think about me.
We think in the privacy of our own minds. What I think is not controllable by you. Nor, is what you think controllable by me. In other words, I don’t have to power to make you think or do anything you don’t want to. Therefore, I am not responsible for what you think or do in reality, I can only be responsible for what I think and do. Thinking is an individual responsibility. That’s why killing a bunch of people who never did anything to the terrorists makes no sense. Since pe-ople are individuals they always act unilaterally. One terrorist became “ma-ny” be perpetuating deception among themselves.
Problems to Peace:
The problems that prevent peace come about because of our self-imposed ideological and philosophical deceptions. If we are ever going to get along we are going to have to undeceive ourselves. To do this, we need to understand the process of taking to one’s self the knowledge of good and evil. Once we understand the process, we would do well to convince ourselves to modify the process and avoid the extremes of “good” and “evil” (dichotomous reasoning). We are going to have to stop making ourselves miserable where we live- our minds.
We would do well to look at things from God’s point of view. If we want peace, we have to accept that we are individuals and are therefore, individually responsible for what we feel and do. We need to realize that we all have a right to exist.
Peace exists in the mind of the person that thinks peaceful thoughts. If we want peace, we had better teach people a philosophy of peace. A few of us have begun this process within ourselves. However, given the “headset” of most humans on earth today, we are dealing with billions of terrorists.
Mankind could use a saviour to save us from our deception. He would have to be so powerful that death would not be a threat to Him. He would have to be above the petty political machinations of mankind. I personally think (hopefully I am wrong) that He would have to shove peace down mankind’s self-righteous, sanctimonious overlay religious stubborn throats! Until then, it’s your choice!
How should we respond to terrorism:
The Bible says that God has established Government and Government is endued with God’s authority to protect its citizens and punish those who terrorize them. The Bible is quite clear about why legitimate Government are established and the extent of their authority. From the apostle Paul we learn:
“The authorities that exist have been established by God” (Romans 13:1.
“There is no authority except that which God has established” (Roman 13:1)
“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities” (Romans 13:1)
Perhaps most appropriate to the case of the terrorists attacks on September 11 and December 13, 2001 to Indians, the events of these days were startlingly similar.
On one day, suicide terrorists used hijacked planes to destroy the World Trade Centre; on the other, suicide terrorists used hand grenades and AK47s in an aborted attempt to bring down a nation’s Government. In both cases, the targets represented a country’s main citadels America’s economic and military strength, in the one case, and the seat of India’s democratic governance, in the other are the following:
“Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves’ (Romans 13:2)
“Rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong” (Romans 13:3). “He (the ruler) does not bear the sword for nothing” (Romans 13:4)
“He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13:4)
Let’s show the world in these desperate days what the love of God is like:
“By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35). This is a time for us not only to show God’s love to our brothers and sisters in Christ, but also to others who need to feel the warmth of that love in the cold aftermath of loss.
Let’s be much in prayer for the safety of those who are demonstrating love to others by their brave actions:
Our military forces, police, firemen, rescue workers, doctors, nurses and volunteers of all kinds are living out God’s word, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Those who risk their lives for others are set in stark contrast to the cowardly terrorists who used the lives of others as a shield for their despicable acts. Let’s pray for these men and women and thank God for them.
Let’s speak up for understanding, tolerance, justice and forgiveness:
While you and I cannot tolerate the methods of these terrorists, their actions arose from the frustration of their feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. Who better to try to understand that hopelessness than those of us who have found hope in Christ. We need to be vocal in our insistence that there should be zero tolerance for any backlash of hatred against the particular community or people living in India. That will demonstrate the love of Christ. “But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:15).
To be continued...
Source: The Sangai Express
