Posting Regrets

This web site officially expresses sympathy for the family of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and the other U.S. citizens murdered by protesters in Libya.

Karen DeYoung shares a photo of the late Ambassador Stevens and a story that's more a report on the protest than a memorial to the victims:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/news-agencies-us-ambassador-to-libya-killed-in-attack-outside-consulate/2012/09/12/665de5fc-fcc4-11e1-a31e-804fccb658f9_story.html?wpisrc=al_national

[Update: The official memorial piece for the Ambassador is posted here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/john-christopher-stevens-us-ambassador-to-libya-dies-at-52/2012/09/12/b1c00cee-fcd0-11e1-8adc-499661afe377_story.html?wpisrc=nl_most

And it's not that anyone regrets the loss of the private citizens less; it's that their families have chosen not to publicize their names.]

Well, the story does provoke rants in American readers...

So, one guy acting on his own bad idea makes a movie, described by the most sympathetic as tacky tasteless trash, that insults someone you respect--"you" here being a Libyan, with apologies to readers in saner countries--and you don't go and find this guy and have a little talk with him. (And I do mean talk...the experience of being talked to by twenty or thirty men expressing strong disagreement and disapproval has a very high rate of changing the behavior of Americans. Even American guys.)

You're not strong, smart, brave, or well organized enough to have a talk with him. You're not strong, smart, brave, or well organized enough even to make a movie about him that caps his insults, and be satisfied with that. In view of those things you probably wouldn't even have the fortitude to challenge even a movie geek to a fair man-to-man fight, either. No, you have to show that you're a bully and a coward and a fool by killing a lot of people who had nothing to do with the movie, whose intentions and behavior toward you have been decent and respectful. Nice going, Libyan Muslims.

I'm not convinced that Muhammad was a true prophet of God, but I am convinced that he was an intelligent and honorable man. As such, he would have denounced and disowned the lunatics in Libya.

End of rant. Sorry, Americans and others. I started to post condolences, on behalf of all Americans and Christians who contribute to this web site, and then as an American I got carried away.