In Syria, A Modern Day Story of the Good Samaritan

Like many others, I've been keeping track of the Arab Spring as it has spread from Tunisia to Egypt and beyond.  Now that the rebels have seemingly taken control of Libya from Gaddafi, the situation in Syria becomes all the more pressing.  I came across this story on CNN of a famous Syrian cartoonist abducted by thugs, beaten to a pulp (with a focus on his hands to prevent him from ever drawing again) and then thrown in the ditch of a Syrian city.  Some fellow countrymen found him and brought him to the hospital.

While this horrific story has been repeated all too often in far too many countries, it made me realize what a poignant and interesting twist it is to the Good Samaritan story.  What if the robbers who leave the man for dead weren't just thugs looking for an easy steal... but were in fact agents of an oppressive state?  In occupied ancient (or modern, for that matter) Palestine, it's not too far-fetched.

Often people must come together to do what is right when the will of the people has been hijacked by a secretive state.  Sedition has many forms.  So does freedom.  Let freedom ring, not just in Syria but wherever the oppressed are beaten to a pulp for exercising their right to freedom of speech.

the least, the lost, and the left behind

I've always been a big fan of alliteration, probably even before I knew what the word meant.  So whenever I read a particularly good one, I like to share it.  I was on the website of The Fellowship of Presbyterians (trying to find out more of the gathering they've had these past few days) when I came across this description in their mission statement: "the least, the lost, and the left behind."  What a beautiful alliteration of "the poor, the widow and the orphan" we find in the Bible... even if it has some conservative theological allusions (ooo! another big 'a' word).  Perhaps if there's a Message Take 2 it can use this phrase...