I do not hate Muslims!

I do not hate Muslims! I live among them, some friends, who I can sit and laugh and "talk story" with (as we say back home in Hawai'i).

Some Christians need to do a review of Matthew chapter 5 before they respond to things such as this.

However, make no mistake, while most Muslims are also appalled at this event, these deaths were specifically due to their faith. The Muslim students were separated from the Christian students who were shot due to their testimony of faith. This is not a Somali vs. Kenya issue. This is not a cultural issue. This is an issue of religious ideology.

Religious radicalism is not even the problem, per se. I pray that there would be some Christians who were radical enough to witness (martyria) to the good news of the gospel even if it meant their own martydom such as these students in Garissa, rather than a religious hatred that simply mirrors what is in the picture here. The true gospel is much more radical than cries for military invasion or to "nuke 'em!" The gospel is so radical that it makes the bold claim that the son of God died so that even they might not be lost.

So I echo strongly the idea of ‪#‎AfricanLivesMatter‬. These young Christians' deaths need to be recognized. They need to be plastered on every news channel and throughout the world. They matter just as much as the deaths on 9/11 in "glorious" NY skyscrapers.

However, the solution to the problem will not be found in political action - as needed as some of that may be. With Dietrich Bonhoeffer I recognize that we must speak truth and only the truth will set free the captives, bind up the broken and broken-hearted, and feed the hungry.

"The only hope for the world is for the church to be the church." (Stan) Let us not act as if we are something we are not supposed to be...something from which we have purportedly been saved...