Showcased Iniquity & Patronizing Sorrow

i just read that 16 people were killed in Nigeria today and most of them were Christians in the Maiduguri district due to the recent Mohammed cartoon. one of my closest Christian friends in High School is from Nigeria. were his family members murdered? cartoons are often silly and absurd (worst case scenario foolish, but this doesn't have to be a foolishness that's broadly recognized), yet the Muslim world is literally up in arms. the image of the prophet strikes sacred fear throughout the Islamic world, yet infidels scoff the "Great Plagiarist". still i was sad. it moved me to know that those murdered, embarked on the journey to the invisible land prepared for the saints; and they will stand beneath the crystal sea at the feet of Christ after the end of things. why am i sad? really, why am i so sad; these people are in paradise, awaiting the new heaven and new earth; awaiting their reign without waiting for royalty? why does the American media depict Iraq as a field swamped with innocent corpses? possibly because America worships humanity--dare i say the church. while i am an inadvertant understudy of the former, i am an eager member of the latter. humanity sells, especially in the wake of the sorrow of death. the Scriptures say that corrupt doctines will come that say what our itching ears want to hear.

now--it seems--iniquity sells, not so much due to the worship of humaity but rather because America worships choice. the will loves, does good, strives, expresses, and seeks to provide for utmost equality. right? besides most of the following list being falsely assumed as proceeding from the "will", they aren't all good in and of themselves. nevertheless, is this not the thought of civilization? the church has a more substantial position against iniquity, and the falleness of the will in general, but choice still sells. i briefly glanced at a new show on FX about the collision of belief. in it a rural, Christian, farmer from Michigan moved in to the same apartment as a man living a homosexually decadent lifestyle in the Castro district of San Francisco to see if his convictions would stand. the Scriptures say that bad company corrupts good morals, and if this Christian man intends on surviving as a witness, he will need active Christian encouragemnet. sexual sin unlike any other seems to pale in godless repetition. just look at The Picture Dorian Grey (or Oscar Wilde). like a product on display, the once promising qualities of sin embarassingly fade in the halogen lights of reality. as sin is publicized and grief grows distracting--"permitted" American idolatries whither and blanch in the face of Truth, which is most appropriately transferred somehere above the aperture of the larynx...(photo by: Wm. Rieppe Moore)

(re-reading my post, i realized i didn't really round it off [sorry Barbara]. i meant to say that "showcased iniquity & patronizing sorrow" represent something else, namely idolatry, or more specifically, the worship of "humanity and choice". the greater our belief in humanity, the greater the sorrows when examining death across the world: the greater the belief in the power of the will, the greater the attraction to a life of sin. so as a Christian, i want to express love to others by being a pollinator of Truth, that's made available to all by the blood of Jesus, yet belongs to no one.{photo by: Wm. Rieppe Moore})