After fifty-one days the stand-off with Branch Davidians’ leader David Koresh in Waco is finally over. FBI agents began an assault this morning with tanks, battering down the walls of buildings in the compound, then delivering “non-pyrotechnic” tear gas into the compound. Although the cult members had gas masks authorities said the masks would only remain effective for approximately eight hours. Eight cult members escaped the blaze which grew to an inferno with the aid of thirty-mile-an-hour winds. Cult members shot at firemen as they tried to put out the fire, so all that could be done was to sit and watch the buildings go up in flames. Anywhere from 17 to 25 children were in the compound and I believe two of them were among the eight that escaped death.
Senator Arlen Specter (R-Penn) has already called for an investigation into the whole affair. It will be interesting to see what becomes of it. There’s been stories that of the four federal agents killed in the raid, three were killed by friendly fire. If all were killed by friendly fire then this could become an enormous scandal.
There’s no doubt that this will be compared to the Jim Jones People’s Temple mass suicide of the seventies. It will be fascinating to read books concerning this, books that compare this to the Jonestown massacre.
I’ve been working on an idea for a story about Abraham. I’ll put my notes in here now.
Abraham couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The creator of the cosmos, the sustainer of life, the only omnipotent and all knowing being in the universe had just told Abraham to kill his own son. God was supposed to be all good and all loving. Above all, God did his own killing. When towns needed wiping out, God did it himself; an earthquake, fire from heaven or a flood; whatever it took, but God did take care of it himself. He was his own hit man, and he did his own dirty work. And he certainly never asked someone to compromise their morals.
Yet here was God telling Abraham to kill his own son. The very concept seemed so far fetched.
Abraham had always been a loyal follower of his God and did whatever he thought was God’s will. Now he wasn’t so sure. God had just told him to kill his only son, his pride and joy for which he had waited a full lifetime. God had promised that child to him, and now he was asking Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham had never killed anyone in his life. And now his God was expecting him to kill his own son.
God always did his own killing, though, and that’s what bothered Abraham. It certainly wasn’t something God was comfortable with, or enjoyed doing. At least Abraham hoped so. He was having some doubts about that, though. After all, here God was, asking a man to kill another human. Not just another human, his own son. Did God get some sort of sadistic pleasure out of blind faith such as he was asking? Had God given Isaac to Abraham just to provide an innocent victim to test Abraham? Certainly that’s what God was doing, testing Abraham. But that seemed so unlike God. God was omnipotent. God knew the strength of Abraham’s faith. He also knew the strength of Abraham’s morals. God didn’t need to test Abraham. Sadism seemed the only logical conclusion, then.
Abraham was caught in a dilemma. Which did he compromise? God’s direct command or his own morals. Here begins Abraham’s consideration. Does one have a responsibility to God so great that it over-rides all moral considerations? Are morals more important than a command by God? And what would God have done if Abraham had refused to sacrifice Isaac? Would he have found someone else? Would he have honored Abraham’s decision, maybe even finding favor in Abraham’s moral strength? Was it an open ended test, so that no matter what Abraham chose it would have been right in some way? Or was God looking for an unquestioning follower who had such faith in him that he would even adjust his ethics to obey God? Which is more important: ethics or faith? And would God have even asked Abraham to do such a thing? Would God test someone like that? And then this leads to a questioning of the story of Lot.
I’ll have to do some thinking about this, but I think this has definite possibilities if I handle it well. I can just see this turning eventually into a best-selling novel that is just received incredibly well…the Nobel Prize…the Pulitzer… :)