Root Causes of Terrorism

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God    Rom 3:23

Yep... there you have it. Not poverty, not demographics, not colonialism, not even ideology... sinners. We have been murderers from the beginning when Cain slew Abel. There is some foolish notion abroad that mankind is basically good and if only we gave people a chance, or the right environment, or the right upbringing then everything would be just fine. Some have even gone to the extent of trying to improve the human species by selective breeding or selective genocide all in the name of allowing mankind's innate goodness to shine forth. Well, take a look around you folks... mankind is seriously flawed. Not just those people over there... all of us... you and me included.

Terrorists are nothing more than a fairly extreme sort of sinner. If you can't hold people in thrall to greed or gluttony because because wealth and food are in short supply then wrath will do very nicely. Hatred is never in short supply. Just give people a glimpse of things they can't have, let them taste their own powerlessness and envy will eat away at their souls. Soon enough the corruption will spread and eventually you will have people ready to commit murder for you. Just point them in the right direction and turn them loose.

Of course the presence of wealth, food in abundance and a media full of temptations makes your job much easier. A fat, lazy, lustful sinner is not likely to commit murder for you but what does it matter? Not only is he in thrall to his own lusts and appetites, he provides an excellent object for envy and hatred. It really doesn't matter whether the hatred is motivated by one ideology or another...communist revolutionary groups, Islamic extremists, nationalist liberation movements,  or whatever the ideology du jour... it's all the same.  The hatred is the thing and the fear it inspires.

Sin is all pervasive, part of the world we live in and the air we breathe. It is an all consuming morass from which there is no escape without help. It does you no good to somehow convince yourself that your sins are somehow better than their sins. Besides, most of us have very little notion of the real damage the sin in our lives has caused anyway. This is one of those things I have never gotten. If you are sitting in a foetid swamp, what possible comfort is it to see folks sinking deeper in it than you?  Would it not be better to seek a way out of the mess? Fortunately we are offered a way out if we can stoop low enough to accept it. It isn't easy and there are even those in the church who cannot stoop low enough... but there is hope.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.    1John 1:5-10