These Bombs and Missiles are NOT Hostile!

    You know I rarely get political. I don’t in this blog and I don’t in my preaching. And I don’t mean to take a political position with what I’m about to say. The politics in it are up for debate.
    But did you hear the White House’s legal defense of the military’s continued operation in Libya without authorization from Congress? The President claims that this particular operation does not fall under the War Powers Act because our military actions do not constitute “hostilities”.
    What? What, pray tell, does it constitute? Are the missiles we are firing (and we are firing missiles) gentle offers of friendship? Are the bombs we are dropping (and we are dropping bombs) loving acts of kindness? If our actions are not hostile, than what are they?
    Again, I’m not making a statement on the rightness or wrongness of American military actions in Libya. Moammar Gadhafi is a bad guy, no doubt, and his regime is an enemy of the United States, and freedom loving people around the world. I’m not in the position to judge the rightness or wrongness of this war (and haven’t given it a lot of thought). But to say our acts of war do not constitute hostilities is ludicrous! (And I know that Republicans have said equally ridiculous things in the past.)
    But here’s my point. We are good at that. Not we Americans or we westerners or Republicans or Democrats or Capitalists or whatever you want to label yourself. But we as a human race are really good at putting a positive spin on bad things we are doing to other people. How many times have you defended your own hostile actions against others, claiming, “I meant no malice.” Ya, right. How many times have you, after running down another’s character or criticizing another behind their back, said something like, “That’s not really gossip because…..” blah, blah, blah, blah.
    And the bullets we are shooting, the bombs we are dropping, the missiles we are firing are not hostile.
    Yes they are and yes it is. Speaking negatively about other people outside of their presence is gossip. It’s not “getting it off your chest” or “bouncing it off someone you trust” or any of the other excuses we use. It’s gossip – plain and simple, and it’s wrong.
    Attacking people verbally behind their backs or to their face, whether or not you think it is deserved, is malicious. Let’s just stop denying it. When we do these things, we are trying to put ourselves above others by putting them down. It is malicious, it is selfish, and it is sinful.
    Our problem is that not only does our sin cause us to look out for #1, and in doing so put others down, but we deny that we even do it. And we rationalize, blame-shift, or spin the truth to make ourselves look better. Even when caught red-handed, we do all we can to put the best light on our actions. We can be bombing another country and claim it wasn’t hostility.
    So the first step in any kind of change is to face reality. The reality is, we’ve been acting in hostility towards Ghadafi’s regime in Libya. Are you willing to come clean in regards to your acts of hostility towards others?