2.03.2005 | Utterly depraved

To any who may think that the "insurgants" or "resistance" are anything other than pawns of Satan, go no further than this story of a retarded man used as a living bomb (New York Post):

February 2, 2005 -- A 19-year-old Iraqi [Amar Ahmed Mohammed], who had the mind of a 4-year- old due to Down syndrome, was turned into a human bomb by guerrillas and then blew up near a polling place during Sunday's historic election.

"He was mindless, but he was mostly happy, laughing and playing with the children in the street," one of Amar's cousins told the Sydney Morning Herald.

His parents had left him alone at home when they went to vote.

The family believes guerrillas seized Amar, loaded him with explosives and sent him on his way to the polling place like a guided missile. But he apparently detonated the bomb before reaching the intended target, and no one else was injured.

There are two points besides the obvious depravity of those who would use such an innocent as a weapon. The first is that for once, the politically correct neologism of "differently-abled" may be just right.

It's been said that the mentally or physically handicapped have been truly blessed by God, that they are fuller in the gifts of the Spirit than those of us with all of our faculties. There's something to this, despite the old notion that the retarded were possessed by demons, or other dark, medieval notions. It can't be an accident that many, many of those who are unable to function in society are, nonetheless, described as "mostly happy, laughing and playing with the children."

This is not to claim that those with handicaps, mental or other, are, somehow, superior to those who are not. On the other hand, think of how difficult is sometimes is for any of us to just get through some of the things we must deal with as part of this life. Now, just imagine having to still go through with them, but without your full abilities.

God's blessing must surely be with those who do this, in all innocence. There's a story of a holy man, a great and learned rabbi, who, whenever he was in a room into which a retarded person entered, would stand in respect -- for the gifts, unknown to us, that God had surely bestowed on one made in His image yet seemingly lacking in intellect.

The second point is really an amplification and generalization of the obvious -- the depravity of those who would do this heinous thing to a defenceless boy. That point should also be evident to those who share my Christian faith: the total depravity of mankind, the certain knowledge that the world is, indeed, Satan's footstool. We are all fallen creatures, some of whom are saved through no virtue of their own. Events such as this in Iraq leave me ever more convinced of these truths.

Pray for the soul of that Down syndrome boy Amar, although I suspect that, in ways I can't understand (as he was nominally a Muslim), our Lord had already picked him for testing, and salvation, before His throne at the end of time. In the here and now, it is up to us to protect the defenceless. It's the Christian thing to do.

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