No amount of investigation about the weather or the mechanical condition of the Malaysian Airlines plane will yield the truth if that is not the problem. From where I sit, it seems to me that there was a hijacking, either by passengers on the plane or a choice by the pilot(s) to fly somewhere else. Now that possibility is finally being examined, lots of information is surfacing. It may be that investigating a pilot with radical politics will yield answers. Perhaps examination of lax security will yield answers, but it appears that radicalism is at the heart of the situation either way. Now as that is investigated, there are all kinds of tidbits of information surfacing. I suspect that not just radicalism, but probably Islamic radicalism, will emerge as the cause. At least it is now being examined.
In Northern Nigeria, no amount of inquiry into “ethnic conflict” will produce answers. It is not an “ethnic conflict.” It is jihad by radical Muslims against Christians. It is Christians who are being attacked and killed. It is the homes and businesses of Christians that are being burned. It is Christians who are having to flee to preserve their lives. It is not tribal, it is not ethnic, it is not economic, it is a spiritual war. It has to be addressed for what it is if there is going to be any answer.
So”¦what are we to do?
We need to remember that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood but but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Eph 6:10) We need to cultivate our relationship with the Lord through worship and time in the Word of God. We also need to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit by being obedient to what the Lord requires and commands us to do.
Vintage +Bill Atwood stuff. Insightful and edifying. Bishop Bill is a former Air Force pilot, so he understands aspects of the unsolved mystery of the vanished Malaysian plane as only a pilot would. I’m delighted to hear that his very painful hip problem has been solved, at last. Praise God for that major mercy.
But +Atwood is absolutely right, of course, that solving any complex problem requires accurate diagnosis of what the real problem is. And that’s precisely what is so glaringly missing in the Anglican world when it comes to our wearisome internal civil war. So many leaders of Global North Anglicanism are loath to admit that it’s a heretical (relativist) ideology that culturally popular but grossly unChristian that is the fundamental problem. The scandalous conflict within Anglicanism can'[t and won’t be solved until that grim reality is faced squarely, and dealt with resolutely by explictly and firmly banishing theological and moral relativism from Anglicanism, once and for all.
Similarly, secular Global North leaders and opinion shapers, not least among the knowledge elites in academia and the mass media, are loath to admit that by far the biggest and worst threat to the safety and security of the world is posed by militant Islam. That dire and urgent problem will likewise not be solved until that grim and ugly reality is squarely faced and dealt with firmly and resolutely. Alas, the whole world seems far more interested in the mysterious fate of that doomed Malaysian jet with some 239 people on board (2/3 of them Chinese) than the world is in the fate of many thousands of poor, uneducated African Christians in Nigeria. There is no unsolved mystery in that case, for there is absolutely no doubt that the notorious Boko Horam is to blame. But the Global North doesn’t yet have the nerve to confront the fact that such brutal and cruel Islamic terrorism must be squashed and eliminated from the face of the earth, no matter what it takes,
Hats off to +Bill and to the AAC, for this encouraging piece. Count me in the +Bill Atwood fan club.
David Handy+