It Could Have Been Us . . .

Standing With Muslims

Much has been made of Brenton Tarrant's hatred of Muslims--a hatred that was so extreme, he just had to murder fifty men, woman and children just to make sure everybody got his depraved point.

But why this hatred of Islamic folk?  Is it because they worship on a Friday--thereby, unsettling Jews and Christians who worship on a different weekly holy day?  Or is it because Muslims prostrate themselves on the floor when worshipping, and Christians do not?  Or is it because they separate men and women in public worship, whereas Christians do not (although orthodox Jews do)? Or is it because Islamic women wear scarves, despite the fact millions of Christian women replicate the practice? 

None of the above.  In his manifesto, we are told, Tarrant hates Muslims because of their fecundity and large families.  It violates, he explains, the fundamental necessity of reducing the human population which threatens the ecosystem.  In order to save the planet Tarrant thinks Muslim families should be attacked and killed because there are just far too many of them with large families.


Now, it is at this point that many, many Roman Catholic believers would feel themselves profoundly threatened, for Roman Catholic clerics preach and teach that fecundity is commanded and contraception (let alone abortion) is proscribed.  There will be thousands of Roman Catholic faithful in New Zealand who will feel as threatened as Islamic believers and congregations.  Tarrant could have "made his point" just as relevantly and consistently by attacking and murdering Roman Catholics.  

In a similar vein many orthodox Protestants, especially of Reformed and Presbyterian stock, place a high priority on bearing, raising, training, and sending children into the world in order to bless the world and do good.  As Scripture says:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

    So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”  (Genesis 1: 26-28)

Tarrant might just as well chosen to shoot such congregations down on their holy day to make the exact same point, depraved though he be--since, lest it be forgot, the Sixth Commandment says, "Thou shalt not kill." 

Orthodox Christians, therefore, stand side by side with Islamic New Zealanders.  In these matters we are one.