A two-bit Pastor of a 50-member church in a country of 300 million somehow got the whole world heaving in outrage. Mobs of Muslims chanted in protest and set fire to stuff (so what else is new). Religious leaders gathered to hold a press conference expressing their disagreement with his declaration. The Pope opined. Politicians and pundits pontificated.
And I don't get it.
Why is anyone paying attention to such a one as this, a man who has no power to affect anyone except the small numbers in his church -- no power that is until the world gave it to him. It is true that one person can change the world, and by the world spreading his small-minded, simple-minded idea, they've effectively extended his sabre-rattling range of influence from a few square kilometers to the entire planet. It's the propagation of his declaration that has put our troops -- Canadian and American, European and NATO allies -- in danger, not his idea. It was the world's need for drama and breast-beating that created this explosion of hatred. And though some say we have to out the darkness -- for to bring the darkness into light is to stifle it -- in this case leaving that black-and-white, tit-for-tat ideology in its little cesspool, would have meant it would have drained dry and died for wont of attention. For if no one had picked up on it, no one would have known and been able to feed it. And there would have been just a little less energy in the world to fire up that hatred that steams against our civilization.
And I don't get it.
Why is anyone paying attention to such a one as this, a man who has no power to affect anyone except the small numbers in his church -- no power that is until the world gave it to him. It is true that one person can change the world, and by the world spreading his small-minded, simple-minded idea, they've effectively extended his sabre-rattling range of influence from a few square kilometers to the entire planet. It's the propagation of his declaration that has put our troops -- Canadian and American, European and NATO allies -- in danger, not his idea. It was the world's need for drama and breast-beating that created this explosion of hatred. And though some say we have to out the darkness -- for to bring the darkness into light is to stifle it -- in this case leaving that black-and-white, tit-for-tat ideology in its little cesspool, would have meant it would have drained dry and died for wont of attention. For if no one had picked up on it, no one would have known and been able to feed it. And there would have been just a little less energy in the world to fire up that hatred that steams against our civilization.
Comments