Hope Amidst the Evil

After last week's column on the West Bank Fogel massacre ("Middle East Murder"), it struck me--or I should say weighed heavily on me--that there is a lot of evil making the news these days. It crowds into limited news time and forces itself on our attention.

Just after the beginning of the Jewish sabbath on March 11, terrorists from Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade (so-called) broke into a West Bank settlement home and butchered Rabbi Uri Fogel in his bed, along with his infant daughter, his wife, Ruth, and two of their sons, ages 11 and 4. This was not shooting from a distance; this was throat slashing and heart stabbing. Two children survived the massacre only because the monsters who flooded the home with blood overlooked them. The 12-year-old daughter arrived home after midnight from a youth event to behold what no human being should ever witness.

That same day, the earthquake and tsunami hit northeast Japan with a resultant nuclear crisis that has pushed even the misery of 450,000 people whom the disaster made homeless.

This volunteer fireman lost his wife, his son's family, and his four grandchildren when he went to close a wall against the tsunami. Warning, it is very sad.



Then there's Libya where the self-styled Mad Dog of the Middle East has been shooting and bombing his own unarmed people (as well as the subsequently armed ones) when he foresaw their protests sending him into exile as Hosni Mubarak's room-mate.

And all of that is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg as far as human suffering in the world is concerned. It's in Syrian dungeons, Thai brothels, Brazilian slums, and it's on your street.

In this week's column, "Overcome by Evil These Days?," I indicate where the wise turn when they come to face the ubiquitous evil of a fallen world.