He was committed and unmovable in his personal and
religious convictions. He was operating on his own. Yet he had the full support
of his religious leaders. Everybody he could find who had veered from the
teachings of the faith were subject to his incarceration to be brought back for
trial and subsequent punishment. He was determined, zealous and feared. He
supported even the death of those who did not uphold what he believed. He was a
zealot – some even viewed him as a terrorist!
No, he was not a Muslim, nor a jihadist. He was a Jew who
was on his way to Syria. Damascus was his destination. The detention and
deportation of Christians back to Jerusalem was his mission. That mission transcended geographical
boundaries and international differences. Bringing religious defectors back for
punishment was his goal. Who would stop him? Who could stop him?
This scenario, no doubt, has been duplicated hundreds of
times in this area, and in other regions. Hundreds and thousands of people who
have found reason to change their religious beliefs, convictions and practices
have been sought out, challenged, incarcerated, persecuted and killed for their
actions. Wars are waged to prevent people from changing their religious
convictions. Families are displaced from their homes and communities are destroyed.
Governmental systems are interrupted. Religious convictions are subject to
religious and political persecutions.
What happened next never made the Jerusalem headlines. There
was no embedded reporting from CNN, Fox News, Reuters or any of the other
national news media. The Damascus media was also silent. Yet word did get to
the Christians in Damascus. In spite of their justifiable fear, they became the
recipients and benefactors of his transformation.
What happened? Witnesses in the scene who traveled with
him were not quite sure. They reported hearing someone else speaking, but were
unable to identify the source. The only credible account came from the
“terrorist” himself! He came to the understanding that his efforts to uphold
his faith were better accomplished by living out his faith in the presence and
differences of those whom he encountered.
It wasn’t easy, but even those who had come to fear him
soon came to love and submit more faithfully to the one who had encountered him
on his self-determined mission. Living one’s faith is a more effective
conversion method than trying to force faith on them. Persecuting and killing
them does not accomplish their conversion.
Terrorism, in all of its forms, is a result of
individuals and groups forcing their beliefs and compliance of behavior on
others. It is self-seeking and not self-submissive. It engenders fear, not
faith. And fear-based behavior does not draw one closer to the source of one’s
religious principles. The persecution of those whose beliefs, politics,
ethnicities and/or personal statuses in life, which differ from yours, is not
only an unjustifiable act against those persons but is also a direct attack
against the source of their beliefs.
On his road to another terroristic destination, in
response to frequently occurring terroristic acts, the transforming solution
was affirmed. Terrorism will not, nor cannot, be transformed by reciprocal
violence, but rather by a true understanding of and a submission to the immutable
source of the light of divine truth that engenders a self-sacrificing love for
our neighbor. How true the affirmation that we cannot love God and hate our
brother (neighbor).
Hopefully, prayerfully, those who still perpetrate,
promote, encourage and/or participate in terroristic behavior will experience a
personal encounter with the Lord and become convicted to cease their
once-determined actions and seek to accept and follow the directions of the true
light of this world.
Pastor Samuel W. Hale, Jr. is the former pastor of Zion Missionary Baptist Church and president of J.L. Powell Mission Ministries.
