What made it ok for Americans to take human life? Why do we think we can do this? Do we think we will escape God’s judgment for the atrocities? Do we think we can? Do we think anyone can?

And yes, we are Americans. I am. You are. Dr. Cook is. Dr. Naugle is. Jim Dennison is an American.

Are we to forgive those who do this? The question is flawed, for how shall we condemn when we partake of this sin? Or are we not Americans? Do we not breathe this free air, buy Cinemark tickets with dollars, pray for George W. Bush, and write our income tax checks? It is we who do this, all of us! Or is it not?

Are we not all murderers? Or do we think we can partake of the nations material riches and virtues without partaking of its sin? Do you think you can actually intercede for the president without absorbing, by your own choice, the sin of the nation! Can you buy SUVs and televisions without partaking of our country’s sin? Can you breathe free air because your brothers and cousins died in Iraq for your freedom (and paid for by your tax dollars?)

Since we are all murderers, our garments dripping with the blood of our victims, what shall we do? Does it help to remember that the small sin and the large sin are as one in God’s eyes, both separating mankind equally from his holiness? Or must we remember that the difference between stealing chewing gum and slaughtering civilians, remains?

Can you see the blood? It’s everywhere! We bathe in it in the mornings, drink it for breakfast, and walk through puddles of it on the way to class.

Can you smell the blood, the scent of human death wafting on the wind? Or is there no wind? Is the air stagnant? Does the stench of blood stifle us?

Can you taste the blood? Can you taste it? The blood is everywhere! It is in the air! We cannot but open our mouths without inhaling it and feeling the taste of human death roll across our tongues?

Can anything but blood atone for us? No. Only Christ’s blood can.

Is that enough for this life? Only God knows! Was Christ’s blood enough to atone for the atrocity of slavery, in this life? Or was the war where we slaughtered each other the blood-price of atonement for our nation’s judgment?

Can we avoid that today? What will save us? Who will save us? Can our nation be saved? We have already partaken of too many murders to imagine! We are the darkest of criminals! Shall we not flee to the mountains from the coming judgment?

Or shall we kneel, kneel and beg for mercy? But there is no mercy without repentance! Shall we beg for mercy for our sins before we stop them? What shall we do? God, God, God, help us now, for we are all lost! We are drowning in the blood of our victims, and we cannot stop killing them!