Chapter 33: Terror-Free Islands
Does a person have to affiliate with a terrorist organization or fly planes into skyscrapers to be a terrorist or could an abusive spouse or parent be labeled terrorist? Is a disgruntled employee who badmouths his company a terrorist? Were the Indians who killed four settlers in Grafton, Utah on April 2, 1866 terrorists? Are bullies who bully or adulterers who break covenants terrorists?
Narrowly, a terrorist is a person who unlawfully uses force to gain political or social objectives. Broadly, a terrorist is a person who purposely causes terror in another. Powerthesaurus.org lists forty-nine synonyms for terrorists such as: frighteners, bullies, butchers, thieves, guerillas, and evildoers. Survivors define terrorists by the physical and emotional losses, scarring, and pain they suffer. Families who lose loved ones to terror are never the same. Every terrorist act victimizes and dishonors humanity. Terrorism cannot be tolerated in the family, workplace, public venue, or anywhere else, ever, but how to stop it is the question.
Vigilance: Watchful and wary citizens who report suspicious people and behaviors to authorities can help thwart attacks.
Apprehending and Punishing: All individuals involved in planning, abetting, financing, and carrying out terror must receive the maximum penalty under the law to satisfy justice and as a deterrent.
Rehabilitating: While in prison, efforts must be made to counter terrorists’ beliefs that terrorism is justifiable by teaching principles of liberty.
But can individuals inclined to terrorism ever really change? The scriptures relate how two terrorists were reformed. Saul and Alma both “made havock of the church…. breathing out threatenings and slaughter” (Acts 8:3, 9:1; Alma 36:6). Both men experienced a vision and received “a mighty change of heart.” To Saul, Jesus said: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me” (Acts 9:4)? To Alma, an angel said: “If thou wilt of thyself be destroyed, seek no more to destroy the church of God” (Alma 36:9). After their conversions they spent their lives teaching the gospel of peace.
Educating: Young minds must be taught the value of life and be helped to understand their duty to protect and care for fellow humans and to obey the laws of the land. This education begins in the home where parents teach their children to love and serve each other and to feel connected to God’s children everywhere.
Linda K. Burton, former Relief Society General President, felt this connection as she visited refugee camps. She thought: “What if their story were my story?” In a similar way, children can be taught to feel empathy for others and to try to understand what it would feel like to be someone else. Teens can internalize the concept: “There but for the grace of God go I.” Tradition is that John Bradford spoke that phrase in the mid-fifteen hundreds as he watched prisoners being marched to execution. The phrase recognizes the humble truth that whatever happens to others could happen to you.
When you look at yourself in the mirror, you could see a person of any age, ethnicity, or nationality looking back at you. You coula have been born of “goodly parents” or left on the doorstop of an orphanage. You could have been born into the twin curses of extreme wealth or extreme poverty. You could be a genius or have a debilitating low capacity to learn. You could be beautiful, plain, healthy, sickly, disfigured, or handicapped. Anyone’s fortune or misfortune could be yours, but for the grace of God.
The prophet Jacob taught: “Think of your brethren like unto yourselves." “Be familiar with all and free with your substance, that they may be rich like unto you” (Jacob 2:17). “Clothe the naked… feed the hungry… liberate the captive… administer relief to the sick and the afflicted” (Jacob 2:19). King Benjamin and King Mosiah labored with their own hands so their people “should not be laden with taxes” (Mosiah 2:14; 6:7).
These virtues are stated as commands in the Old Testament: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18), and in the New Testament: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Matt. 7:12). Doctrine and Covenants 121 states that fear and force are not God’s way, that power or influence over others should be maintained only by persuasion, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, love unfeigned, and kindness. When families, neighbors, and nations live these principles, they co-exist peacefully.
Only heaven knows if angelic visits will change the hearts of any terrorists today, but each of us can be examples of and teach correct principles of liberty and respect among our peers and to the next generation. Though wickedness and violence may swirl around us, we can strive with purpose and diligence to make our homes and communities terror-free islands.
(c) Marilynne Todd Linford, 2018
Narrowly, a terrorist is a person who unlawfully uses force to gain political or social objectives. Broadly, a terrorist is a person who purposely causes terror in another. Powerthesaurus.org lists forty-nine synonyms for terrorists such as: frighteners, bullies, butchers, thieves, guerillas, and evildoers. Survivors define terrorists by the physical and emotional losses, scarring, and pain they suffer. Families who lose loved ones to terror are never the same. Every terrorist act victimizes and dishonors humanity. Terrorism cannot be tolerated in the family, workplace, public venue, or anywhere else, ever, but how to stop it is the question.
Vigilance: Watchful and wary citizens who report suspicious people and behaviors to authorities can help thwart attacks.
Apprehending and Punishing: All individuals involved in planning, abetting, financing, and carrying out terror must receive the maximum penalty under the law to satisfy justice and as a deterrent.
Rehabilitating: While in prison, efforts must be made to counter terrorists’ beliefs that terrorism is justifiable by teaching principles of liberty.
But can individuals inclined to terrorism ever really change? The scriptures relate how two terrorists were reformed. Saul and Alma both “made havock of the church…. breathing out threatenings and slaughter” (Acts 8:3, 9:1; Alma 36:6). Both men experienced a vision and received “a mighty change of heart.” To Saul, Jesus said: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me” (Acts 9:4)? To Alma, an angel said: “If thou wilt of thyself be destroyed, seek no more to destroy the church of God” (Alma 36:9). After their conversions they spent their lives teaching the gospel of peace.
Educating: Young minds must be taught the value of life and be helped to understand their duty to protect and care for fellow humans and to obey the laws of the land. This education begins in the home where parents teach their children to love and serve each other and to feel connected to God’s children everywhere.
Linda K. Burton, former Relief Society General President, felt this connection as she visited refugee camps. She thought: “What if their story were my story?” In a similar way, children can be taught to feel empathy for others and to try to understand what it would feel like to be someone else. Teens can internalize the concept: “There but for the grace of God go I.” Tradition is that John Bradford spoke that phrase in the mid-fifteen hundreds as he watched prisoners being marched to execution. The phrase recognizes the humble truth that whatever happens to others could happen to you.
When you look at yourself in the mirror, you could see a person of any age, ethnicity, or nationality looking back at you. You coula have been born of “goodly parents” or left on the doorstop of an orphanage. You could have been born into the twin curses of extreme wealth or extreme poverty. You could be a genius or have a debilitating low capacity to learn. You could be beautiful, plain, healthy, sickly, disfigured, or handicapped. Anyone’s fortune or misfortune could be yours, but for the grace of God.
The prophet Jacob taught: “Think of your brethren like unto yourselves." “Be familiar with all and free with your substance, that they may be rich like unto you” (Jacob 2:17). “Clothe the naked… feed the hungry… liberate the captive… administer relief to the sick and the afflicted” (Jacob 2:19). King Benjamin and King Mosiah labored with their own hands so their people “should not be laden with taxes” (Mosiah 2:14; 6:7).
These virtues are stated as commands in the Old Testament: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18), and in the New Testament: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Matt. 7:12). Doctrine and Covenants 121 states that fear and force are not God’s way, that power or influence over others should be maintained only by persuasion, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, love unfeigned, and kindness. When families, neighbors, and nations live these principles, they co-exist peacefully.
Only heaven knows if angelic visits will change the hearts of any terrorists today, but each of us can be examples of and teach correct principles of liberty and respect among our peers and to the next generation. Though wickedness and violence may swirl around us, we can strive with purpose and diligence to make our homes and communities terror-free islands.
(c) Marilynne Todd Linford, 2018
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