IMAGINE A WORLD with no element of vengeance in it.  

Between slow sauntering strolls through redwood groves and more demanding hikes on trails that hug the western edge of Northern California around Mendocino, I am reading slowly the final chapters of Reimagining God by Lloyd Geering, the New Zealand philosopher-theologian.  I am reading slowly because Geering is a fearless heretic who challenges the orthodox absurdities that stand in the way of achieving anything resembling world peace.  Gearing reminds me of my friend the late Joseph Fletcher whose Situation Ethics debunked absurd orthodoxy that reinforces the myth of a vengeful, angry God.  Geering cites Joe Fletcher’s work in Reimagining God.  

Toward the end of Geering’s chapter 11, “Christianity without Christ,” he reminds us, “It was the vengeful spirit of the Allies in drawing up the Treaty of Versailles that provided the very conditions that enabled a Hitler to arise.  The Second World War was the grievous penalty we paid for not learning how to love our enemies.  Just think how different the world would be today if there had been a different response to the destruction of the Twin Towers on 9/11.  Imagine what the outcome might have been if, instead of invading Afghanistan, the President of the United States had offered to meet with Osama bin Laden at a place of mutually guaranteed security in order to defuse Al Qaedas hatred of America and together seek a solution that would benefit all peoples.”

Gearing will be heartened when he hears that Bill and Denise Richard whose young son was killed and whose daughter lost her leg in the Boston Marathon bombing are imploring federal prosecutors to drop their request for the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsaernev. 

This afternoon I walked around the Mendocino Headlands with the walking stick that serves also as tripod and got more practice using the SONY QX100 with my iPhone.