God Sees Our Hearts, but We Must Learn to Discriminate

Yesterday's Fox News report brings great challenges for all of us. Only God sees and knows what is in our hearts and minds, but we still have to use discretion, discernment, and discrimination in order to figure out what is going on around us, and what we are supposed to do about what we think we see. Who is "in the right", in this report, the gun range owner or those who are saying she is doing the wrong thing?

www.foxnews.com/us/2015/01/28/gun-range-ban-on-muslims-draws-fire/?intcmp=latestnews


To this author, those who threaten the range owner appear imprudent and blind, as they so glibly ascribe religious discrimination to the cautious firearms and range management practices on which that range owner has insisted. Obviously, those who are threatening that range owner have little or no realistic interest in the truth about the ongoing violent history of Islam, or in the real denotative meaning of the word "discrimination". Those who threaten her throw that word about as if to strike her down in anger, as if their use of that word should be sufficient to destroy her and her clearly stated intent.

What her detractors neglect to acknowledge is that discrimination is something that everyone does daily, in a myriad of situations. We all make a host of discriminating decisions, and are the better for it. Why? Our reasons, motives,  and objectives are what distinguish reasonable discriminatory practices  from unreasonable discriminatory practices. Without using wise discriminatory practices we would live in continual chaos and confusion, and our lives would all be at far greater risk. Discrimination, in and of itself, is nothing more or less than choosing among a host of options, so that we can try to make the wisest possible choice. After all, that is why God gave us the ability to choose between right and wrong.

However, in the realm of those who give knee-jerk support to "politically correct" agendas, and to the likes of the ACLU, it has become common practice to twist the meaning of words into unpalatable connotations instead of using and accepting the common denotations. The twisting of words devalues language and communication, so that it increases the difficulty of citizens to effectively assess and caution one another about potentially dangerous people or events. 

Those who habitually or professionally twist words for their own convenience or gain, then, play into the hands of unsavory people who have anti-social, amoral, or immoral objectives.  Too often the "word-play" of legalistic and "politically correct" groups voids the spirit of law, violates the commandments of God, and in general, greatly harms society and social order. By contrast, when concerned citizens believe that there is something wrong in their sphere of influence, those citizens have a responsibility to use their reasoning ability to discriminate, sorting through information in order to discern the best course of action for themselves and for those around them. Despite the "politically correct" corruptions that imply that all discrimination is bad, Law itself, especially God's Law, requires that every citizen be able to discriminate good from evil, and that we all should act accordingly, based on our ability to discriminate wisely, to pick good instead of evil.

Given the ongoing 1,400 year violent history of Islam,  from its inception to the present, including all of this century's jihadist attacks and violence around the world, is it any small wonder that that gun-range owner is concerned about trying to screen out potential terrorists? And, given her willingness to stand against potential terrorist  activity, is it really surprising that Islamic apologists are threatening this range owner, as similar Islamic apologists have threatened, maimed,  killed,  and mutilated so many other people throughout time and in our present day?