Shocked by what happened in Norway ...

Monday, July 25, 2011. We are shocked by the events in Norway. Some young Norwegian killed more than 90 people, he shot more than 80 young people in a camp on an idyllic island. Tears flood our eyes …!

The problem of extremism …

I had a long discussion today over lunchtime … what is the role of faith in this event. How can someone do this? The arguments which were raised are like the following: the religious realm is full of ideas which can lead people to act in an extreme way.

The point seems to have some truth. Within the realm of religions there has always been a lot of violence. That was something the killer of Oslo also said himself. He wanted to fight philosophies of violence - by his own violence, by his own cruel acts.

Jesus himself, speaking about the love of God, was killed in a very crude way. He was hammered to the cross to die. Violence is there, when narrow-minded people think they act in the name of God … without doubt we see this again and again.

Faith and the reaction of Christians …

So is there less violence when people are atheistic? I am not very sure about that. When we look into history, the amount of violence seems to be quite equally distributed through all philosophies. It is something tragic!

But Jesus himself strongly commanded his disciples not to act violently. He even told them not to resist evil, but to love beyond all means. He commanded his disciples to do good even to those who do bad things. He wanted to cut the vicious circle of violence.

Let us follow Jesus and love one another. Let us help one another. Let us work towards truth and appreciation, towards tolerance and love beyond all limits. He has done this, when he went to the cross to die for those, who hated him. As Christians we need to follow him … and beat violence by sincere love. This will be quite a challenge … but we are not alone! ... more texts