Western Laughter: A Taunt to Terrorists

As international headlines gain our attention dripping with despair and doom, discouragement and frustration – even anger – become normal. Common.

It angers me to see images of Westerners singled out by Islamic jihadists for gruesome and dramatic execution. When I hear the boasts and taunts of God’s enemies, I am reminded of the words of the psalmist:

“O Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult? They pour out their arrogant words; all the evildoers boast. They crush your people, O Lord, and afflict your heritage. They kill the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless; and they say, ‘The Lord does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive'” (Psalm 94:4-7).

When I hear Christianity and Islam lumped together under a banner of Religions Founded on Hatred of Others, I am reminded of the words of Christ, whose words sound rather different from the words of militant Islam:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:43-45).

The plain reality is that we’re not all the same, and the West is hated so widely throughout the world because of the distinctively Christian flavor of our culture. Our Western culture’s laws, our founding documents, our founding fathers, our customs, our music and our favorite house colors have all been influenced and flavored by Christianity. The diversity that has made the United States a melting pot has a Trinitarian flavor; it smacks of unity amid diversity in a shadow of the Triune nature of God. This is not to say that everyone in America is a Christian; that would be absurd. A minority are Christians, to be sure. Nevertheless Christianity has been instrumental in the shaping of our whole culture.

So the world’s hatred of Christians is a slice of the pie; more broadly they hate what Christianity has produced, here in the West. So what are we to do when discouraged by the evening news? We should laugh. Let me explain.

This is distinctively – though not uniquely – Western.

Now many Americans feel like it’s the job of the military to fight this battle for us, here and abroad, if need be. It’s our job to be good, informed voters, pay our tax dollars, and put the right people in place. I agree with all of that. I do. And a certain part of Christians’ fight is against actual flesh and blood. But this only goes so far. No clear-thinking suicide bomber fears bullets from his enemies. No kamikaze pilot fears being shot down. Guns and bullets are insufficient weapons for a spiritual battle. Do they have their place? Yes. Is it justifiable to shoot a suicide bomber before he depresses the detonator? Yes, in order to preserve life. But Christians will be hard-pressed to shoot somebody into the Kingdom of heaven.

Rather, if Christians want to make a difference in the global war on terror, we should laugh. We should make merry and delight in the kind provision and care of a sovereign and good Triune God of the Bible. He has blessed us with prosperity individually and culturally. He gives us the food we eat (that Sonja photographs). He blesses us with freedoms as Westerners that makes the world appropriately jealous. It’s supposed to make them jealous, because it’s the sort of thing that they should want. Because our blessings come with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we can give them that…and it’s accompanying spiritual (and often physical) blessings. There is a freedom in the gospel that is foreign to haters of God and haters of the West…in general. (Of course there are millions of Christians from outside the Western world; I speak in general terms here.)

We do NOT laugh because the beheadings of James Foley or Steven Sotloff or David Cawthorne Haines or Shiite soldiers are comical. We do not laugh because the primitive methods of funding terror with ransom dollars and confiscated territories has gone by the wayside; rather it’s alive and well.  We laugh for different reasons.

• We laugh because God is sovereign and good and in complete control. (Romans 8:28)
• We laugh because he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 1:3)
• We laugh because the Christian life is to be marked by joy. (Galatians 5:22, John 15:11, Psalm 98:4)
• We laugh because God would have us happy, and our happiness ought to be a powerful witness in the world. (The books of Philippians and 1 Peter)
• We laugh because joy amid hardships will pique the curiosity of the world around us and we can tell them about Christ. (1 Peter 3:15)

I believe this is easier for Christians than for unbelievers, but the immediate principle here applies to all of us Westerners: We should be happy, and our happiness is a weapon. We should be glad for our blessings, where we live and where we’ve come from. Our happiness is a taunt to our enemies.

May your dinner time gatherings with your family be dripping with joy and gratitude. May your watching of football games this fall involve extra delight in every touchdown. May your playtime with your kids involve lots of tickling and laughter.

And may this be the case not because we are oblivious to terrorism in the world and hatred of the West, but because of our full awareness of it. May we laugh and delight with our heads up and our eyes wide open.