Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Violence and Religion

The story came to my inbox this morning:
Sudan: Seven Christians Crucified
Marauding soldiers from the Lord's Resistance Army, a terrorist rebel group from Uganda that frequently crosses the border with Sudan, crucified seven Christian believers near the town of Nzara in south Sudan...
Yikes! Looks like the story was first reported in September by the Catholic Herald ("Christians are 'crucified' in guerrilla raid"). I should warn you, it's a pretty grisly story.

An item that ran in another British paper, The Sun, quotes the same article but frames it considerably differently. How do you feel when you read this?
Christian Terrorists Crucify Coreligionists

The Catholic Herald newspaper from Britain reports that suspected members of the Christian terror organisation The Lord’s Resistance Army attacked villages in southern Sudan recently... (Keep reading)
Wait, these are Christians crucifying people? That's terrible! They can't really be Christians, can they? Well, no: The LRA is a vicious cult that twists a religion of peace into something truly evil.

Of course, that could also be how many of the world's Muslims feel when they read about "Islamic" terrorist groups, don't you think? Maybe it's not the same. I'm not sure.

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