President Obama responded to the weekend violence and hate killing as “not having a place in American life.” Mr. President, are you serious?
Violence, hate and sex are at the very core of American life. Those components make up the fabric of the current American soul—if television or video games or the Internet are indicators.
Anyone watching primetime TV recognizes violence and sex as the primary entertainment. I need a barf bucket to watch the butchery of most popular programs. They have become a primer in torture, brutality and murder. I’m wondering if the popular TV program “Scandal” is a documentary. No place in American society? Seriously?
America has become 21st Century Rome.
I received Killing Jesus by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard for Christmas. I waited until Lent to read it. Those Romans knew how to do violence and sex. I would skip Lent and Good Friday if I could. When I go with Jesus to the Garden and He says, “Father, if there is another way to do this…” I plead with God. Are you sure the Cross is the best plan?
Killing Jesus explains Jesus execution in terms I want to avoid. Why would Jesus choose that?
We set the alarm and looked at the Blood Moon. Then I couldn’t go back to sleep. I turned on the TV—music channel. I had just about fallen to sleep when a women’s group singing tight and high harmonies jarred me awake with….
“Why should He love me so? Why should He love me so?
Why would my Savior to Calvary go?
Why should He love me so?”
I know the rhetoric. I know what the Bible says. None of it gives an adequate answer. Not to go to the Cross. Not to die that kind of death. For me? If it had to happen, why didn’t He send someone else? I know the answer we’ve been reading and have been taught. Any explanation is just beyond comprehension which leaves us with—it was something He wanted to do as a gift—something we couldn’t do for ourselves. Don’t try to figure it out—receive it.
The Weatherfords was not the group that awakened me, but their sound is stuck in my head.
D. Dean Benton
Benton Quest House
Benton Quest House 