I must admit to being a hopelessly romantic optimist: I think that expecting little of people doesn’t really offer them the opportunity to surprise you.

When you say that hearts are evil and unbending before their real Lord, I think that there’s another way to look at it. Is it possible that the noblest of thoughts in a man, echoing lost days when the image of God was less marred, might agree with you about the best ways to improve worlwide living habits? Is it possible that an unending grace of man to fellow man might offer the possibility of someone putting aside their selfishness? If this were so, is it possible to see Christ living in their hearts aside from what our traditional evangelical theology tells us?

I can’t see any way that our habits in “investing” in developing nations justify these terrible attacks (simply because I see no way that we can truly ever justify killing another person). I think that George Carey’s recent remarks (panned by the UK media and Muslims for seeming anti-Islamic sentiment) describe some of the history of the struggle as the World Islamic Front see it. This article was eye-opening.

In case this enflames discussion of the media response to the talk, there’s a selection of links and discussion of such here (by an imposter who stole my name ).

Take care.
love Ken.