At the high school I attend in Danbury, CT, chapel is a mandatory half-hour period on Mondays. Yet, these chapel services are often filled with political implications; last year, I challenged the reverend to a debate in the school newspaper over his discussion of the Iraq War and Global Warming during chapel. This year, during the 9/11 remembrance ceremony, the reverend suggested that it is time to forgive, and once again I challenged him to a debate in the newspaper.
This is just one example of how pervasive the concept of moral relativism is. My article suggests that we should not forgive, but instead we should hate, or rather, we can hate and we need not feel guilty about it. After all, is anything less than hate anything more than indifference? Is evil just not your thing? Or can you not define the slaughter of thousands of innocent men, women, and children as evil?
And if we do forgive, how will terrorists respond to us?
"Perhaps, 'Why, how kind of you! But we couldn’t really care less. See, our concrete political goal is the destruction of liberty and Western society, and we are willing to sacrifice our physical existence on Earth for our goal. Thus, we have nothing to be sorry for.' They might even get a kick out of it: 'So what you’re saying is that if we harm you, you won’t hate us; you won’t retaliate, but instead forgive us? Well thanks so much for the open invitation to kill without consequences!'"
So instead of following a pointless journey (during which we have to give up our values and morals) to somehow rationalize forgiveness, why don't we secure the fate of our nation and the stability and morality of the world.
I end with, "Forgiving evil men following evil dogmas will not bring peace, morality, or liberty. Instead, it excuses immorality. Rather than pursuing a pointless and impossible moral journey to somehow rationalize forgiveness, we should be condemning the actions of these men as purely evil and fighting as well as we know how to destroy this evil. No, this does not mean invade every country that we find evil. But evil exists; evil is embodied in the actions of evil men, and whether we can recognize evil for what it is and fight to uphold morality will be our greatest ethical dilemma as we are confronted by radical Islam."
When the issue comes online, I will post a link so that you can read the reverend's rebuttal.
