Hamas Is a Plague

Bishop Paul Lanier  |  November 28, 2023

Writing at the Christian Post, The Fellowship’s Chairman of the Board of Directors, Bishop Paul Lanier, explains how “there is a responsibility for those of us who remain to look and listen,” talking about the attacks on October 7:

No one can deny the massacre of October 7, especially since the murderers themselves recorded the atrocities. Yes, Hamas is so committed to its barbarism that its members took video of their invasion of a sovereign territory. They filmed its rage, which they took out on not only against the military, but innocent civilians. They bludgeoned, burned, beheaded babies. They raped women before murdering them. They wrenched an 85-year-old woman, a grandmother, from her home and took her to be held hostage in Gaza along with more than 200 others.

These are not the acts of an “enemy combatant.” Hamas is a plague. There’s lot of talk about ceasefire. But as long as Hamas is firing weapons and holding hostages, as long a germ of that contagion exists, a ceasefire is entirely incongruent with reality.

Many have asked the question of these videos taken by the murderers, “Is there value to watching such slaughter?” It is a reasonable question to ask. For me, the answer is: there is no value to any of it. But there is a responsibility for those of us who remain to look and listen. To step into the ruins, redemptively, and bear witness to the cruelty.