Eroding Trust

I just finished reading this great op-ed by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times. He is writing about Al Qaeda and their strategy to create a closed American society by causing an erosion in trust.

"By turning human beings into walking missiles and instruments from our daily lives — cars, airplanes, shoes, cellphones, backpacks — into bombs, Al Qaeda attacks the very feature that keeps our open society open: trust. If you have to fear that the person next to you on a plane or in a theater might blow up, there can be no open society."

It is a scary thought that it is up to all of us to keep an open mind and an open heart regardless of how chaotic things become. Once we, as a society, allow fear and prejudice to separate and isolate us from each other, they win.

Easter Revelation

The first time I heard the song our choir director wanted us to sing for our Easter program I was shocked. Here are some of the lines:

"You are a lunatic prophet, deceived and deranged . . . Crucify, let the cross be your fate. Crucify, it's your lies that we hate. Crucify, there is no time to wait. Jesus must die! Crucify, Crucify, Crucify."

I marched straight up to the choir director and told him I would not sing such a song. He simply replied: "That is exactly the reaction I am looking for. I want people to really feel the hatred in the crowd." My steely resolve began to erode on the spot. After all, he made a good point.

Of course, I was not the only one that felt a bit uncomfortable with the song. Many other choir members protested, but little by little, we were convinced that everyone else was singing, so why not sing too.

By performance time I was bellowing out along with everyone else in the choir: crucify, crucify, crucify!

A couple days later I started to analyze what went wrong with my resolve. It suddenly dawned on me that I had experienced what many people might have experienced who were at Jesus' trial that day. I am sure there were dozens of people there that knew in their hearts that Jesus was innocent. Little by little, however, witnesses came forth, religious leaders accused, people around them began to cave, and by the end of the trial, they had joined in with the others in bellowing together:

Crucify, crucify, crucify . . .