On her Facebook page, Taryn Mattice links to a must read post by Jim Wallis on how to react to ISIS. Among other things, he argues that the kind of measures urged by Republicans are exactly the reactions that ISIS would welcome and would assist their recruitment efforts. Wallis argues that "To win the 'war' against ISIS, we must win the moral narrative – we must reveal ISIS’s distortions and lies and thus destroy their moral and religious legitimacy to those they seek to recruit. The best way to defeat bad religion is with good religion, and the better way to defeat religious fundamentalism is from within rather than trying to smash it from without." He argues that "Continuing to supply the narrative ISIS that clearly wants – dropping more bombs, invading more countries, refusing more refugees, offering our hate in response to theirs, and 'showing no mercy' as some of our political leaders now vow – is to play directly into the hands of ISIS. Instead of that old narrative, we need to create a new one that can indeed defeat ISIS. Fear is our vulnerability. Instead, we must learn the spiritual discipline and habit of the scriptural command, BE NOT AFRAID."
He has many more wise things to say. See here.
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