The Recovering Legalist

Colorado

You may have already heard about what happened in and around a Colorado Planned Parenthood facility. Three people were killed, including a police officer, by a shooter by the name of Robert Lewis Dear, age 57.

My heart is broken by the loss of life. Even though I believe abortion is the taking of an innocent life, I don’t condone attacking a Planned Parenthood office. If that was all Robert Dear was doing, then he had no justification for his actions. What he did was murder.

But right off the bat, even before the whole story had been released (and we still don’t know all the details as of yet), accusations started flying; talk of gun control ramped up once again; and anyone and everyone with a Facebook or Twitter account made their own two cents known.

Cue Montel Williams…

I don’t know what to think about Montel Williams. For the longest I have always viewed him as more of a moderate, likable, patriotic kind of guy. However, what he posted on his Facebook page after the Colorado shooting left me stunned and disheartened.

The face of terrorism in America is Robert Lewis Dear, 57, who today felt it necessary to take a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs hostage while using the police for target practice in some sort of dramatic pro-life statement (which is ironic since the vast majority of the pro-life movement correctly interprets pro-life to mean not killing anyone).

Multiple people are dead, including one police officer who died as he lived – bravely. My prayers go out.

There is nothing more dangerous than a nut with an idea – in this country, those nuts often look like 57 y/o Robert Lewis Dear. Let’s not forget the face of evil often looks pretty darn American. – Montel Williams (from a post on his Facebook wall)

One common thread holding Mr. Williams’ statement together was what he considered the “face of terrorism” and the “face of evil” in America.

The Face of Terrorism and Evil

Montel Williams stated that the “face of terrorism in America is Robert Lewis Dear” who wanted to make a “dramatic pro-life statement…” He also stated that there is “nothing more dangerous than a nut with an idea…” Really?

So, if we were to parse out Mr. Williams’ statement, what characteristics should we be looking for in order to help us spot the poster boy of terrorism and evil in America? Based on Montel Williams’ profiling skills, from what kind of person should we be hiding?

• A middle-aged white male (with a beard).
• A white, male pro-lifer.
• A middle-aged, white, male, pro-lifer with who owns guns.
• A middle-aged, white male with an “idea” that is not pro-abortion.

Essentially, “nuts” that kill innocent people are most often white, male, middle-aged Americans with guns, and who are pro-life.

Seriously?

Contextual Terrorism and Evil

In a broad sense, the most common face of terrorism and evil in the world today is not American, not Caucasian, not Christian, and it doesn’t care a rat’s a** about the dignity of human life.

However, the true face of terrorism and evil in America is hardly the average middle-aged pro-lifer with a gun. The true face of terror – well, it really depends on the context.

If you are an average American citizen, the true face of terror is the one that makes you lock your doors at night, especially if you have anything worth taking. It’s the face that makes you nervous to walk down your street at night, or carry your groceries to your car.

For the average American, the face of terror and evil is the one that makes you wish you owned a gun, and if you do, get a permit to carry it. The face of evil the average American fears is the one who keeps you from picking up hitchhikers or giving a dollar to a stranger. It’s the face that makes you have to do background checks for nursery workers.

But in another context…if statistics were the only issue…it’s the unborn children in America, who die by the thousands every day, that should be scared. If they could see that face, how would they describe it?  I guess it’s because it uses forceps and scissors, instead of guns, that its face isnt’t associated with evil?

The TRUE Face of Terrorism and Evil

Let’s be honest, the average American is not afraid of middle-aged white guys with ideas any more or less than the black or Hispanic teen in a hoodie; we’re fearful of everyone!

The average American has no idea what the next drunk driver, mugger, identity thief, rapist, or child molester is going to look like. So, to say that there is a “face” that is more poster-worthy than the next is nothing more than racist fear-mongering.

The true face of terrorism in America (and the world) wants what it wants, hates it when you say no, and will stop at nothing to take it. That face is attached to every heart guided by hate, envy, jealousy, lust, a lack of forgiveness, and pride – not simply a nut with a gun.

Transform the heart and you’ll transform the face, regardless the context.