Oh God, These Men of God

Lot of that going around...

Wow.

What to make of this.

That jackass "minister" Terry Jones presided over a Koran burning at his church.  Word eventually made it to Afghanistan where a mullah exhorted his listeners to take revenge.  They stormed a UN compound and killed at least 12 people.

I am trying to be a religious person.  I find church a comfort, a solace and - with the right minister - a source of wisdom in a world that rarely values it.

When I see people like this, I understand why people turn their backs on religion.  I understand why it's difficult to believe that God exists if It allows things like this to go on in It's name.

But more than that, I am struck by the pessimism that this incident engenders.  We have spent hundreds of lives and billions of dollars to try and turn Afghanistan into something resembling the 21st 20th 19th century.

That the actions of one self aggrandizing asshat can in turn enflame some other hate monger on the other side of the world to inflame a bunch of idiots into committing mass murder... Where do you go from here?

There was a sociological study that notes when the rules and norms of a society break down, the first people to notice and act upon it are the sociopaths and psychopaths.  Normal people than have to emulate those sociopaths and psychopaths in order not to be victimized by them.

What do we do when we can't rescue a whole country from the sociopaths?

I would leave, but that's just me.