Terror in Norway

I soon learned that something horrible had happened when my uncle came to pick us up at the local airport outside the town of my birth, Moss. "A bomb has exploded in Oslo", was the scant information he could provide just then. Only later would the true scale of the attack, and the carnage, be disclosed.


As I am writing, the number of deaths has been pinpointed at 76 in all, 68 being massacred at Utøya, and a further eight losing their lives in the bomb blast in downtown Oslo. The perpetrator is a young Norwegian self-styled nationalist, claiming to be on a mission aiming at ridding Norway of "cultural marxists and the (thret of a) Muslim take-over". Some mission. Some crusader.


I have never been able to comprehend the machinations of warped minds. I only hope that is because I don't possess such a mind myself. Thus I cannot bring myself to unravel the enigmas surrounding not only the inception, but also the cold-blooded execution of a massacre on civilians. How can an individual justify the meaningless  taking of so many lives? How can he fall prey to such delusional thinking, imagining himself to be both judge and jury and executioner? What utter madness. What hellish preposterousness.


This fool took it upon himself to cut short so many young lives, simply because he wanted a racially 'pure' Europe - in which the so-called infection from other faiths, other ethnic groups cannot be found. In his complete blindness, armed with death and the total absence of empathy, he wanted to upend the social order, and intimidate us into embracing his vision of a properly working society.


The massive throngs gathering in the public squares around cities and towns in Norway tonight is massive testimony that people aren't going to be swayed so easily. Mr. Anders Breivik, 32, has produced a prevalence of grief and anger around the country, but he will never produce the downfall of compassion, tolerance, and justice. Because those things are dear to us. As dear as they are to God who made the young ones missing from their local communities across Norway. 


And please remember: God changes societies, and people, through the persuasive power of love, not the cowering weight of violence.