Atrocities? Well, It Depends on Your
Definition of What Is or Isn't!
Contributed by
Clayt on Monday, April 22 @ 17:35:59 EDT
This article was edited for HTML.
Atrocities? Mention the word and not a few people just aren't real sure
as to what you have in mind when you speak of it, especially if you
indicate we have a monumental problem with it in our culture. Sad thing
is that it's pretty much swept under the rug as though it doesn't exist
with powerful and influential people in our culture making sure it stays
that way!
The Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary (Deluxe Second
Edition) lays out these definitions:
Atrocity: 1. Enormous wickedness;
extreme cruelty
2. A specific act of extreme cruelty
Atrocious: 1. Extremely brutal or cruel;
outrageously wicked; evil
2. Very bad; in bad taste; abominable
3. Very grievous; violent
Historically
the trail of blood runs wide and deep on many occasions as one group of
people of all ages became the target of a violent extermination process
initiated by another group which reasoned that the former no longer had
any claim on the right to live and exist!
The 20th
Century witnessed numerous events which qualify as atrocious acts of
mass murder involving helpless and defenseless human beings.
One of the
most notorious would be the atrocities committed during the dominant
years of Nazi Germany's Third Reich under the leadership of Adolph
Hitler. Total number of victims during the Reich years before its defeat
totaled in the range of 14 million or more. Six million of these were
Jews whom the Nazis regarded as less than human. In the warped and
twisted logic of the Nazi mind Jews and other undesirables were to be
exterminated in order to establish a pure race and to insure the
establishment of a thousand year Reich!
 
However,
atrocities have not been limited to the Third Reich of WW II era. In
recent years other parts of this chaotic world have been settings for
violent atrocious acts.
The area of
former Yugoslavia underwent violent conflict and our diligent media
people gave gruesome details of what came to be known as a policy of
"ethnic cleansing" -- a sort of updated Nazi logic and applied to
certain people whom ruling authorities felt needed to be eradicated!
Certain areas
of Africa have likewise experienced conflicts with atrocities taking
place in which thousands of men, women and children have been brutally
murdered. Same old story in which one group with diabolical leadership
decided that another group should not live.
 
One thing is
certain -- rare would be the individual who would not agree upon hearing
details and/or viewing photos of the aforementioned events that indeed
these more than meet the criteria of what constitutes atrocious acts
against certain groups of human beings!
One can visit
the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC and discover that there are
viewing areas which are restricted to adults only where an extensive
record of Nazi atrocities can be viewed on film and still photos. Having
made two visits to the Holocaust Museum I can say that one doesn't feel
like eating for a while after the visit! Further, one can find oneself
intensely disturbed upon the realization that atrocities continue
without restraint in this world even now in the opening years of the
21st Century!
But let's
look at an area of activity which very few would label as being
atrocious acts of the most heinous type -- take a close look at the
photos just below -- do they in some ways seem to resemble photos which
have been associated with happenings involving the violent murders of
adults and children -- the defining term to be applied is "atrocities"
-- do you agree?
 
Is it not
strange that in a society professing to be "civilized" and which proudly
proclaims that all should have the right to
"life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," we have instituted a
policy in which atrocities are committed at an annual rate ranging from
1.2 to 1.5 million victims! By the way did you notice above that one of
dismembered victims is seen clasping a U.S. coin that has the word,
"LIBERTY," prominently displayed on the face side? And do you remember
that the coin also has the words, "In God We Trust," inscribed on it? Do
you in at least a small way sense that something is amiss here?
 
Further, is
it not strange that the president and his wife, members of the
administration, the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, a host of
church leaders and members of their churches, print and broadcast mass
media people, and influential professionals have yet to come up with
even a whisper of a protest! This is in stark contrast to the outrage
expressed over atrocities taking place in other areas of the world in
the recent past, the terrorists' attacks on the U.S. on 01-09-11, and
even national outrage expressed upon learning of the brutal death of
journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan during the 3rd week of February
2002. Officials gave limited details of seeing on video the moment that
Mr. Pearl was murdered by knife! But there is THE haunting question
which is like a black cloud hanging over our culture -- why no outrage
over atrocities taking place within our borders at the rate of over
3,700 or more and up to over 4,000 per day?
And could it
be in the view of Almighty God, atrocities involve not only the violent
murder of adults and children outside the womb, but the millions who
have been violently dismembered and destroyed within the womb as well?
Obviously
there is a vast chasm existing between God's definition of the extent of
atrocities and where the boundary lines are established as opposed to
the badly distorted mindset of U.S. society -- U.S. citizens and their
leaders make a grand exception in their definition of atrocities -- that
exception is millions of unborn children!
None of us
will want to be around when Almighty God corrects our limited definition
of what atrocities include by way of human carnage!
In the
meantime, may Almighty God, Who has a beautiful plan for every conceived
human being (Psalm 139), do in His infinite power and wisdom whatever is
necessary to bring ALL elected officials, church leaders, business and
community leaders, the powerful and influential in the news media and
entertainment industries, the professional fields of medicine,
education, law, sociology, psychology, and all of us citizens to our
knees in acknowledgement of our collective guilt in sanctioning
atrocities on U.S. soil which have totaled 41 million or more victims
since January of 1973, and the urgent need to fully repent of further
violent crimes committed against the unborn!
Clayton D. Harriger
Elder in Full Connection
Western PA Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church
and presently serving as pastor of
Gipsy Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Gipsy, PA
Clayton's HomePage:
http://www.crrange.com
Location: Belsano PA
Occupation: Retired Pastor
Interests: Reading, writing, web site ministry, ATV riding, target
shooting
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