To face life's dark side in ourselves

"Did we expect the place to become Toledo overnight?" Andrew Sullivan asks rhetorically:

Iraq has been a free country for a single year after decades of fascism, mass murder, communal paranoia, hysteria, random violence and economic collapse . . . The closer we get to transferring power, the more the extremist factions need to prevent a peaceful transition and establish their own power bases for the next phase.

The closer we get to a self-governing Arab state, the more terrified Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas and the rest will be that their alternatives -- theocratic fascism and medieval economics -- will look pathetic in comparison.

There are millions of people in Iraq who need us now more than ever. Their future and our future are entwined. Which is why we have to keep our nerve, put down these insurrections with focussed ferocity, and move relentlessly toward self-rule. It may be dark this Friday, but Christians are told that a new day will dawn. Not in three days. But in time. If we keep our nerve.

Andrew titles his Easter Message "The Passion of Iraq."  Googling "The Stations of the Cross," we came upon a message that resonates:

What matters most in the Stations of the Cross is to follow Jesus Christ in his passion and to see ourselves mirrored in him. To face life's dark side in ourselves and in our world, we need images of hope, and Jesus offers images of hope in his passion. By accompanying him on the Way of the Cross, we gain his courageous patience and learn to trust in God who delivers us from evil.

Christian or not, we believe deeply that the denial of "life's dark side in ourselves" is the key to what's wrong with the utopianist left world view.

Comments

[willow]

In other words, those shadows get pretty big if you spend all your time facing the sun.

Indeed.

[syckerlich]

"The truly compassionate man is one who recognizes and overrules minor sadistic inclinations." --Snell Putney