Remember Nick Berg? He was an American captured in Iraq by Islamic militants. They cut his head off, and posted a video of it online.
What would I say if I were him, with the cameras on me, about to die?
Putting aside that I would not be allowed to ad-lib, and that even if I were, I would stammer and cry and beg for my life. Putting aside that my heart would be hurling itself against my chest, pounding in my ears and I would be too afraid to think. I would say:
Don’t let the sight of what is about to happen make you become them.
Thinking about what happened to Nick Berg, I feel something primal. I want to find the executioner, hold him down, put a knife to his neck, say to him:
You see now? You sick fuck. You see what it’s like?
But I think we have to stop going with our guts we won’t make it. I’m sure they feel they’re showing us what it’s like. We all have to try to get above the fray a little, look down at it, not as people on one side or the other, but as god would.
Because if there is a god, he is not a partisan the way a religious fundamentalist imagines. He is not a nationalist as nationalists imagine. He wouldn’t hate the other side, because to Him there would be no other side. He would see in all our hearts, understand our pain, want us to do better.
It is an awful child, who–while cutting off the head of a screaming human being–says, “God is great.”
Who imagines god is on his side in that moment? Who imagines that god is hateful and narrow and cruel. That has to be a greater heresy than my atheism.
If you imagine god is a small as you, then you are not religious or there is no point to being religious.
Don’t just say God is great to praise him. Say it to remind yourself. Say it to remember that there is more truth than your little eyes can perceive.
Say it to help you imagine that someone can love your enemies.
Even if you’re too weak.
