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Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Wednesday, November 18, 2015 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW OTHER VIEWS AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin A sign welcoming Syrian refugees is placed at the entrance to the office of the Arizona governor during a rally on Tuesday in Phoenix. Finding peace within the holy texts W¶VHDV\WRWKLQNWKDW,6,6LVVRPH ISIS, but we need ideas to establish sort of evil, medieval cancer that a lasting peace. Secular thought or somehow has resurfaced in the moral relativism are unlikely to offer modern world. The rest of us are any effective rebuttal. Among religious pursuing happiness, and here comes this people, mental shifts will be found by fundamentalist anachronism, spreading reinterpreting the holy texts themselves. death. There has to be a Theology of the %XWLQKLVERRN³1RWLQ*RG¶V1DPH 2WKHUDFRPSOH[ELEOLFDOXQGHUVWDQGLQJ Confronting Religious Violence,” the RIKRZWRVHH*RG¶VIDFHLQVWUDQJHUV David brilliant Rabbi Jonathan Sacks argues Brooks 7KDW¶VZKDW6DFNVVHWVRXWWRGR that ISIS is in fact typical of what we The great religions are based on Comment love, and they satisfy the human will see in the decades ahead. need for community. But love is The 21st century will not be a problematic. Love is preferential and particular. century of secularism, he writes. It will be an Love excludes and can create rivalries. Love DJHRIGHVHFXODUL]DWLRQDQGUHOLJLRXVFRQÀLFWV Part of this is simply demographic. Religious of one scripture can make it hard to enter sympathetically into the minds of those who communities produce lots of babies and swell embrace another. their ranks, while secular communities do not. 7KH%LEOHLV¿OOHGZLWKVLEOLQJULYDOULHV The researcher Michael Blume looked back Ishmael and Isaac, Esau as far as ancient India and and Jacob, Joseph and Greece and concluded that his brothers. The Bible every nonreligious population crystallizes the truth that in history has experienced SHRSOHVRPHWLPHV¿QG demographic decline. themselves competing for Humans also are parental love and even meaning-seeking animals. FRPSHWLQJIRU*RG¶VORYH We live, as Sacks writes, in a Read simplistically, the century that “has left us with %LEOH¶VVLEOLQJULYDOULHV a maximum of choice and a seem merely like stories of minimum of meaning.” The victory or defeat — Isaac secular substitutes for religion over Ishmael. But all three — nationalism, racism and Abrahamic religions have political ideology — have sophisticated, multilayered interpretive DOOOHGWRGLVDVWHU6RPDQ\ÀRFNWRUHOLJLRQ traditions that undercut fundamentalist readings. sometimes — especially within Islam — to extremist forms. Alongside the ethic of love there is a This is already leading to religious violence. command to embrace an ethic of justice. Love In November 2014, just to take one month, is particular, but justice is universal. Love is there were 664 jihadi attacks in 14 countries, passionate, justice is dispassionate. killing a total of 5,042 people. Since 1984, an Justice demands respect of the other. It plays estimated 1.5 million Christians have been on the collective memory of people who are killed by Islamist militias in Sudan. LQFRYHQDQWDOFRPPXQLWLHV<RXUSHRSOHWRR Sacks emphasizes that it is not religion were once vulnerable strangers in a strange itself that causes violence. In their book land. “Encyclopedia of Wars,” Charles Phillips and The command is not just to be empathetic toward strangers, which is fragile. The $ODQ$[HOURGVXUYH\HGFRQÀLFWVDQG found that less than 10 percent had any religious FRPPDQGLVWRSXUVXHVDQFWL¿FDWLRQZKLFK involves struggle and sometimes conquering component at all. \RXUVHO¿VKLQVWLQFWV0RUHRYHU*RGIUHTXHQWO\ Rather, religion fosters groupishness, and appears where he is least expected — in the WKHGRZQVLGHRIJURXSLVKQHVVLVFRQÀLFWZLWK voice of the stranger — reminding us that God people outside the group. Religion can lead to transcends the particulars of our attachments. thick moral communities, but in extreme forms The reconciliation between love and justice it can also lead to what Sacks calls pathological is not simple, but for believers the texts, dualism, a mentality that divides the world UHDGSURSHUO\SRLQWWKHZD\6DFNV¶JUHDW between those who are unimpeachably good contribution is to point out that the answer and those who are irredeemably bad. to religious violence is probably going to be 7KHSDWKRORJLFDOGXDOLVWFDQ¶WUHFRQFLOHKLV found within religion itself, among those who humiliated place in the world with his own XQGHUVWDQGWKDWUHOLJLRQJDLQVLQÀXHQFHZKHQLW moral superiority. He embraces a politicized renounces power. religion — restoring the caliphate — and It may seem strange that in this century of seeks to destroy those outside his group by technology, peace will be found within these apocalyptic force. This leads to acts of what ancient texts. But as Sacks points out, Abraham Sacks calls altruistic evil, or acts of terror in had no empire, no miracles and no army — just ZKLFKWKHVHOIVDFUL¿FHLQYROYHGVRPHKRZLV a different example of how to believe, think and thought to confer the right to be merciless and live. unfathomably cruel. Ŷ 7KDW¶VZKDWZHVDZLQ3DULVODVWZHHN David Brooks became a New York Times Sacks correctly argues that we need military Op-Ed columnist in September 2003. weapons to win the war against fanatics like Keeping our humanity I in times of terror After a day of being reality of Syria and the background noncommittal on the matter, Oregon of all those seeking asylum means Governor Kate Brown said Tuesday the doors to our country should be the state would continue to accept closed. Syrian refugees. We would argue that “The words on the Statue of generalizations on an entire nation Liberty apply in Oregon just as of people, and to an entire faith, they do in every other state,” wrote are fraught with inaccuracies and Brown. prejudice. They are no way to The point is a noticeably inform policy. minor one in the global cause of :H¶UHUHPLQGHGRIWKHKDVKWDJ compassion, as well as the global #porteouverte that trended on Twitter war against in Paris after the terrorism. The It translates A 1938 Fortune attacks. United States, at this to “open door.” time, is expecting Magazine poll Parisians from every to resettle 10,000 arrondissement were noted only Syrians, compared asking stranded strangers to knock to more than 5 percent of on their door and 500,000 expected respondents said ¿QGDSODFHWR to seek asylum in safely for the Europe. About 100 the U.S. should stay night. It became a of those refugees raise quotas to sign of humanity are expected to call civilization on Oregon home. (A make room for and what was surely a mere diversion to %URZQ¶VGHFLVLRQLV more refugees terrifying night in the still outstanding City of Lights. If —mainly Jews the legal debate over it can be done then whether a state and there, surely the — trying to has any say at all rest of the world can escape a hellish do it, too. in federal refugee programs.) The United Europe. The vast majority States must do of refugees are what it can to be ÀHHLQJDWRWDOEUHDNGRZQRIWKH safe and secure. Each and every Syrian state, where whole cities have refugee should be vetted — but they been turned to rubble, lawlessness VKRXOGQ¶WEHEDUUHGHQWU\VROHO\ UHLJQVZKHUH,6,6¶V6KDULDODZGRHV because of their country of origin. not, and beheadings and bombings This fear is nothing new. In a are a constant threat. An economy 1938 poll by Fortune Magazine, is nearly nonexistent, jobs that 67 percent of respondents said we GRQ¶WUHTXLUHNLOOLQJDUHWRRDQG should try to keep German, Austrian education is all but an impossibility. and other political refugees out of The future remains dark, considering the U.S., while only 5 percent said that the majority of moderate, decent we should raise our quotas to make people left the country. Only the room for more people — mainly extremists remain — those in favor Jews — trying to escape a hellish of despotism, and those in favor of a Europe. Again, as the Vietnam caliphate. War came to an end, 62 percent of respondents to a Gallup poll ,W¶VQRZRQGHUWKDW3DULVDQG disapproved of allowing more Portland are preferable. But in the wake of the latest refugees from Indochina. The desire for revenge and war terrorist attack, dozens of governors and destruction is real and heartfelt, and nearly all the Republican presidential candidates have said but we must resist the urge. A war in Syria, Iraq and the Middle East is in the United States cannot take the the long-term interest of ISIS. It is risk of allowing any more refugees from Syria. It seems the spark for not in ours. this position came from a Syrian Both the United States and Islamic State have a military. Both passport was alleged to have been found at the scene of the violence. have proven the ability to blow things up, but neither has proven the The suspected leader of the attack, ability to hold territory in the Middle authorities revealed Tuesday, was a Belgian national who had been in East for a long period of time. What makes us different is our 6\ULD¿JKWLQJRQEHKDOIRI,6,6,WLV currently unknown how he reentered heart, the decency to open our doors the European Union. Some argue to the downtrodden and terrorized. That we cannot lose. this lack of knowledge about the Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. Alongside the ethic of love there is a command to embrace an ethic of justice. YOUR VIEWS Story of black cops killing white boy not getting attention On Nov. 3 at about 9 p.m. Christopher Few was driving his white SUV with his 6-year-old son Jeremy strapped into the seat belt on the passenger side. Suddenly, they were being pursued by black Marksville, Louisiana, city marshals Norris Greenhouse and Derrick Stafford. 7KHRI¿FHU¶VRZQERG\FDPVVKRZWKH689 coming to a dead end and trying to back up. The video shows driver Few with his hands XSZKLOHWKHWZRFRSV¿UHWLPHVLQWRWKH YHKLFOH7KHUHZDVQRZDUUDQWIRU)HZ¶V arrest, he was unarmed, and there was no apparent reason for chasing or stopping the SUV. The father was critically wounded, but the 6-year-old autistic child was killed when hit in the head and chest with 5 of the 18 bullets. The father was so badly wounded he FRXOGQRWHYHQDWWHQGKLVRZQVRQ¶VIXQHUDO Maybe by the time this is printed there will be some answers, but there are none at all so far. The state police chief calls it the most disturbing thing he has ever seen. The two black cops are now charged with murder and being held on $1 million bail. Can you imaging the outcry if this had been a black father and son and two white cops? Al 6KDUSWRQZRXOGKDYHEHHQRQWKH¿UVWSODQHWR Marksville along with Rev. Jesse Jackson. The black mayor of Ferguson would be leading a march, and Quentin Tarantino would be preaching his cop hatred from the podium. 3ULQFHZRXOGEHGRLQJDEHQH¿WFRQFHUWZLWK the black federal prosecutor in Ferguson up on the stage, and the “Black Lives Matter” IRONVZRXOGEHHQFRXUDJLQJPRUHGH¿DQFH and anarchy. We would see people marching in the streets with more looting and burning of stores and vehicles. More police would be shot at and spit on. President Obama would go on national TV to say if he had a son he would look just like little Jeremy Few. Media outlets would have a 24-hour-a-day barrage of reports from Marksville. More college presidents would be forced to resign. The media coverage has been quick and quiet. I guess no one has been willing so far to come out and say that “White Lives Matter Too.” There should now be thousands of 7VKLUWVSULQWHGVD\LQJ³+DQGV8S²'RQ¶W Shoot” — except that this time it is actually true. David Burns Pendleton LETTERS POLICY The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.