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April 16th, 2013
01:28 PM ET
My Take: Light will conquer darkness in Boston
By Danielle Elizabeth Tumminio, Special to CNN Boston (CNN) — At 4 a.m. on Patriot’s Day, I huddled in the cold and dark on the Lexington town green that’s across from the church where I work as a priest, awaiting the reenactment of the first battle of the American Revolution. As the sun rose, a small group of haggard colonists assembled. None were in military uniform; they seemed to have difficulty forming a straight line. And when the British marched towards them with their elegant uniforms and disciplined formation, they outnumbered the colonists more than 2-1. It looked to be a slaughter. As the “shot heard 'round the world” fired, the colonists scrambled, some dying in the skirmish and others retreating, running away to safety. To the casual observer like myself, it looked like defeat — defeat of their hopes for freedom, liberty and democracy; defeat of goodness and light. But that defeat turned out to be the call that brought out reservists from all over the Boston area. Ordinary colonists left their homes to hide behind trees with their weapons, haunting the British as they marched back to Boston. The efforts of those ordinary men and women eventually led to victory for our country and the ideals it sought — and continues to seek—to embody. Less than 12 hours after I attended the reenactment, I heard a different “shot heard 'round the world,” this time a few miles from my home where I was working. The Boston Marathon bombing shook me, as it shook many of my fellow Bostonians. It was a reminder that our world carries hazards and injustice. An 8-year old boy dies. Marathon runners have their legs amputated. Since the blast, I’ve heard some people say this changes everything for Boston, for the marathon, for Americans’ sense of safety in the world. I don’t agree. Our world is scary, unstable, dark as 4 a.m. on the Lexington town green. In the collective history of humanity, it’s been a long time since there hasn’t been tragedy — a life taken too soon, a body hurt by a bomb or a gun or a crippling disease. The Boston bombings are nothing new. They are simply one more reminder that, at some level, our world is not secure, even though, as comedian Patton Oswalt famously posted on Facebook Monday, “If it's one person or a HUNDRED people [who bombed Boston], that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out.” It creates a paradox for me as a religious leader to acknowledge the seemingly eternal presence of this darkness while I stand with the fundamental Christian tenet that light overcomes it. That paradox can test any person’s faith, rendering hope complex, messy. That paradox challenges me as I think about this Sunday morning, and what I will preach to my congregation as I stand in the pulpit of my Lexington church. So what I will tell them is this: I will not deny the darkness. I will not deny its power. But I will remind them — and perhaps myself a little bit too — to think about tragedy the same way our forebears did. It may seem we are outnumbered in our battle against evil. It may seem we’re standing alone and haggard, outgunned like those militiamen who fought for our country’s independence 238 years ago. Yet just as in those early battles of the Revolution, there are reservists who want the light to win. There are ordinary people who step out into danger, into darkness, to shine a light. On the day of the marathon bombings, bystanders who could have protected themselves rushed to help the injured. Doctors, nurses, and their assistants worked overtime to make sure that those affected received the care they deserved, while law enforcement officials sought justice on the city’s behalf. Bostonians came out to offer marathoners juice and a bathroom, even as officials told them to stay indoors. A nearby restaurant called El Pelon Taqueria gave out free food, drinks, cell phone charger outlets, and the 9-year old daughter of the owner, Addison Hoben, decorated to-go bags with the words, “It’s going to be alright” and “We’re not afraid.” Those are some of our nation’s reservists, though not all of them by far. Many of us shine light into the dark in quieter ways: by volunteering at a soup kitchen or a prison, by donating blood, by sitting in the waiting room during a friend’s surgery, by caring for an aging parent. Not for naught did the famous Mr. Rogers — who was also a Presbyterian minister — say the words that have been so often quoted in social media since the bombings: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ ” What I will tell my congregation Sunday is that I believe in the power of darkness, and I believe that humans can do horrible things. But I also believe that light will eventually outshine the dark, that the reservists among us are fighting a war to defeat violence and evil, and that one day they will permanently win it. That is what makes me a Christian, and it is also what makes me an American, the descendant of the patriots who gave their life on the Lexington battle green so many years ago.
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Editor's note: Danielle Elizabeth Tumminio is an ordained Episcopal Church priest and author of "
its probably some christian radical neo-Nazi bitching about taxes.
that's where I'm putting my money.
You have money?
I'm still waiting for exact examples of the prez being a tyrant.
yeah enough so i don't have to worry about working, and spend my days playing Video games, and bullshitting on line.
right now I'm playing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9pLsoqLKnU
love the retro
ioh sorry ken
here you go
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwNsXC6OWKE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKDF9x-1GZA
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/04/obama-has-prosecuted-more-whistleblowers-than-all-other-presidents-combined.html
their is so much more go find it
I'm at work, so I can't see your videos. Considering the prez isn't a prosecutor, he cant prosecute whistle blowers. Please show me how the "tyrant" stops YOU from living your life.
I'm on a no fly list for sending money to Earth First, Doctors without borders, and speaking out against Israel.
i prefer boat ay ways. oh ow about this one.
http://socialistworker.org/2012/10/17/anti-anarchist-witch-hunt
imprisoning political dissidents, seems tyrannical to me.
I think you are really over estimating your importance. If it is true, you're on a no fly list. I'm pretty sure the prez didn't personally put you on it. There are tons of people who may have a gripe with the govt and get to go where ever they want and say what ever they want. Why don't you take your story to faux news. I'm sure you'll be the lead story!
Like,,, GOD is in the details,,, details small and ever so tiny. Fractal Cosmology gives places for Life within the very fabrics of all living formations of cellular shaped universes. Celestial Life is ever birthed via cellular universes in living formations anywhere within the cosmos of innumerable celestial universes.
MORE zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
And out come the religious vultures, their fangs dripping with lies, their droppings are proclaimed as "inspired" as they seek to twist any and all aspects of daily life into their own worthless spiels...to get money, s3x, power, etc.
So some sleazy female priest slings some mealy-mouthed "feel-good" nonsense, paints everything like some glowing feminine hygiene product, paints flowers on top of the steaming mass of shlt, wraps it up and hands it to CNN, who gladly publish it because they have no standards, no ethics, no professionalism, no taste, and no shame....
CNN. Your place for worthless religious dreck.
Don't be shy. Please express yourself 🙂
YOUR A PATHETIC BUNCH I THINK PAUL AND LIONY LAMB ARE THE SAME AND IS A FAKE ISLAM LIVES IN MOTHERS BASEMENT
Somehow, some twisted religious individual is probably behind all this..No God ..No Devil.. Just another misguided monkey grown into man..
You mean a hindu, believer of hindu, stupid evolution, a hindu secular, stupid self centered, son of a hindu monkey, stupid secular by nature.
where is your pressure cooker Mohammad A. Dar? check who used it last time, I mean your wife or your terrorist friends.
@Colin " "God made science" hey. Funny that he would create the very kind of critical, observation based reasoning that proves beyond all sane doubt that he does not exist."
@Chad " A. Science disproved God?? wow, can't believe I missed that 🙂
B. Science is merely the examination of the world around us. Without God having created a universe that obeys laws, the laws upon which science is based, there would be no science.
"Because science begins with the laws of the universe, it can not ever disprove God. Science can never explain why the laws exist, because to do so would require the existence of another law." - Leonard Mlodinow, co-author with Stephen Hawkings of "A Briefer History of Time"
There is no known explanation of why the universe follows laws.
Science by definition cannot EVER explain it, as science is predicated on the existence of those laws.
Science by definition can not ever disprove the supernatural, as it is concerned only with the natural
Science is nothing more than A medium to learn constant of matters, truth is constant, without quantification and truth absolute is LORD AND GOD OF UNIVERSE., BECAUSE NOTHING IS OUT OF REACH OF TRUTH ABSOLUTE GOD.
Wasn't it Hawkins who said those who believe in god believe in fariytales? You have totally misconstrued what he was saying. You might as well claim science cannot disprove the Easter Bunny. But, it gives us enaough analysis to say his existence is beyond all sane doubt..
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/17/heaven-is-a-fairy-story-scientist-stephen-hawking-says/
"Laws" of the universe are not like traffic rules that must be obeyed. They are descriptions of natural events that best enable us to predict future, similar events. The way you consider them, is like saying a certain team won the Superbowl because a journalist later described the gamei n a report and the game "obeyed the rules of this journalist."
And you have never proven the supernatural, either, Chadly, so just say it's faith and quit starting arguments that you never finish. You've run away from the free will one, you'll run away from this one, too. Grow the hell up, already. You embarrass yourself....
GOD is in the details,,, details small and ever so tiny. Fractal Cosmology gives Life within the very fabrics of all living formations of cellular shaped universes. Celestial Life is ever birthed via cellular universes in living formations anywhere within the cosmos of innumerable celestial universes.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ)-SPLAT-(zzzzzzzzzzzzzz)-SWOOSH-(ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ(-SPLAT!!!
" Chastise the tormented femurs..."
I haven't laughed that hard in ages.
midwest rail,
I aimlessly wane to please be it as a toad speaking frivolously toward a crowded civility of comely genitalia looming upon the disinterested cracks fondling fervently and with much duress their next mealtime suckers.
Believers have a choice. Either God controlls all thing, including the death of the little boy, the loss of his sister's leg and the life of pain his parents will now suffer or he doesn't. But, you can't have it both ways, attributing all things bad to "darkness" or "human nature" but crediting some hokey sky-fairy with the "good," like heroic acts floowing a tragedy. All that does is reduce your god to nothing more than a metaphore for "good luck."
Truth absolute GOD, does Not condone hinduism, criminality, product of human hindu secular ism, criminal self center ism, but HE keeps HIS promise of human authority over their action in limited form, eventually to be held account able for. No need to push your hinduism, denial of truth absolute GOD, HE holds authority over every action of every human being. By the way, CAN YOU CHANGE CONSTANT OF YOUR BREATHING CYCLE, AND SURVIVE, HINDU SECULAR, IGNORANT SELF CENTERED.
god is an errand boy for the believers wandering desires
ONLY IN HINDU DARKENED MINDS OF HINDU SECULAR S, STUPID ANIMALS. HINDU IGNORANT FOLLOWING THEM IN THER HINDU SECULAR ISM, IGNORANT Judaism.
trust me no light is coming from this, unless buy light you mean furthering the police state, which is kinda what Yahweh all about. the us government is going to use thus to spread the terrorist agenda; of keeping every one scared and thus subservient to them.
Paranoid huh? All you are doing is spreading delusional fear BS. It's talking like that which creates the numb nuts that do these crazy things.
Time to put on your tin-foil hat to stop the mind control waves the US government is beaming at you. Your paranoid and pathetic,
now i never said they did it, just there going to use it for their own gain. I'm not paranoid just not stupid . i know how tyrants work, and Obama is a tyrant. I'm the god of rebels after all ♥
don't were tin foil,.. it will o nothing but cause your head to explode when they point those MEDUSAs at you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1w4g2vr7B4
Give me an example of the prez being a tyrant.
Yah. You can pretend to predict all you want. You don't know what tyrant even means, let alone able to demonstrate just how Obama has oppressed anyone. If you want to talk about rights being taken away, start with your beloved Bush's Patriot Act, okay? Start there.
Ah, nothing like a religious article to bring out the Atheists. You guys just can't stay away from God no matter how hard you try to deny Him. Insults, denial ..... doesn't matter. True atheist would not even bother to comment...you guys are searching for salvation.
You are searching for brain.
no, we're not. we are finding amusement in the gullibility of believers
only slaves need salvation
...oh stop invoking this "Jesus Christ" character! He NEVER existed so do not believe in him!
ah, don't you just love springtime? the idiodic twolips are in full bloom......
God rejoices in death and suffering. Do not fight it. Enjoy it as is His will.
I see you too have read the Bible.
No need to lay it on truth absolute God, foundation of American "const itution", mayhem is result of hinduism denial of truth absolute GOD, by hindu Judaism, criminal secular s sons of hindu Lucifer, criminal atheist of all around the globe.
Oh my, what a cheerful person! What do you do to get through your day? Let me guess, hug porcupines maybe.
didn't even have to say it.
about the porcupine... they give the best hugs,... Jesus said so.....}:-)
What I will tell my congregation Sunday is that I believe in the power of darkness, and I believe that humans can do horrible things. But I also believe that light will eventually outshine the dark, that the reservists among us are fighting a war to defeat violence and evil, and that one day they will permanently win it. - Danielle Elizabeth Tumminio
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. - Jesus Christ
Science creates planes. Religion makes people fly them into buildings.
God made science
Radical Islam makes people fly airplanes into buildings
Is Jesus actually telling people to put up with violence?
Yes indeed! 🙂
There is hope for the father that lost his lil son. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those who are hurt and suffering tonight as a result of this. My favorite verse for all those hurting is Isaiah 40:31
Chad
Radical Christianity makes people kill doctors, beat up gays, force women to carry unwanted pregnancies, deny good science, burn children's books, and a mult.itude of other stupid and harmful things. What's worse is that there appears to be an amazing number of these radical Christians here in the USA.
I'm sure the good old days are preferable when Christians used horses were used to invade and destroy villages, right Chad? Religious bigot.
Now goosestep into church like a good kittle Christian soldier, Chadly.
Agreed, Mary!
There were an awful lot of radical Christians manning the ovens in Germany, also. Readical Christians rounding up people and putting them into stockcars to take to camps.
Vlad the Impaler was a radical Christian, too! 🙂
Shut up, Chad. Your Christianity is every bit as bloodthirsty.
Chad, god made nothing at all. Christian god doesn't exist. This latest incident is just more proof.
"God made science"
Yet more conjecture from Chard
@ Chad. "God made science" hey. Funny that he would create the very kind of critical, observation based reasoning that proves beyond all sane doubt that he does not exist. "God made science" is like saying Frosty the Snowman made the sun that melted him.
maybe that "prick" is filling suicidal.
@Colin " "God made science" hey. Funny that he would create the very kind of critical, observation based reasoning that proves beyond all sane doubt that he does not exist."
@Chad " A. Science disproved God?? wow, can't believe I missed that 🙂
B. Science is merely the examination of the world around us. Without God having created a universe that obeys laws, the laws upon which science is based, there would be no science.
"Because science begins with the laws of the universe, it can not ever disprove God. Science can never explain why the laws exist, because to do so would require the existence of another law." - Leonard Mlodinow, co-author with Stephen Hawkings of "A Briefer History of Time"
There is no known explanation of why the universe follows laws.
Science by definition cannot EVER explain it, as science is predicated on the existence of those laws.
Science by definition can not ever disprove the supernatural, as it is concerned only with the natural
Chad can and will never prove the supernatural, no matter how many times you ask, because it is not there.
nice screen name, dash
REPORT MOHAMMAD A. DAR, PAKISTANI TERRORIST WANNABE TO FBI, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.
Do not bother, leave their number, I will call them myself to inform them of hinduism terrorism of hindu secular s, criminal self centered by faith. Take your hinduism threats and shove it in your hindu sanatan, filthy goon man god Lucifer, secular hind, hindu crook from hindered gutter of hinduism terrorism by faith india.
GO BANG YOUR GOATS LAST TIME BEFORE FBI GET YOUR HIND, MOTHER F KING TERRORIST, YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED MOHAMMAD.
After you , son of baboon, secular.
@MOHAMMAD A. DAR, GO BACK TO YOUR TERROR CAMP IN PAKISTAN, AND STAY AWAY FROM AIRPORTS FOR NEXT FEW MONTHS, WE DON'T WANT UNNECESSARILY SECURITY TO GO OFF
sorry STFU you shouldn't stifle free speech, he has done nothing wrong until he does something.
שמיחזה
You dont know who this guy Mohammad Dar is; he is exercising his free speech rights here on CNN, but he is igniting fires on Pakistani news sites with his hateful posts, like American born anwar al awlaki in Yemen; I hope you don't consider anwar al awlaki's speeches free speech !!!
The light of the world is brilliant in its truth: THERE IS NO GOD !!!
Shining more light with a creed:
The Apostles'/Agnostics’/Atheists' Creed 2013: (updated by yours truly and based on the studies of historians and theologians of the past 200 years)
Should I believe in a god whose existence cannot be proven
and said god if he/she/it exists resides in an unproven,
human-created, spirit state of bliss called heaven??
I believe there was a 1st century CE, Jewish, simple,
preacher-man who was conceived by a Jewish carpenter
named Joseph living in Nazareth and born of a young Jewish
girl named Mary. (Some say he was a mamzer.)
Jesus was summarily crucified for being a temple rabble-rouser by
the Roman troops in Jerusalem serving under Pontius Pilate,
He was buried in an unmarked grave and still lies
a-mouldering in the ground somewhere outside of
Jerusalem.
Said Jesus' story was embellished and "mythicized" by
many semi-fiction writers. A descent into Hell, a bodily resurrection
and ascension stories were promulgated to compete with the
Caesar myths. Said stories were so popular that they
grew into a religion known today as Catholicism/Christianity
and featuring dark-age, daily wine to blood and bread to body rituals
called the eucharistic sacrifice of the non-atoning Jesus.
Amen
(references used are available upon request)
Atheists are those people that, given the divine origin of that which does not exist, are perhaps in power of not believing in that which does not exist but must. It holds then that sacrifice and prayer are the natural bed partners of each frozen moldy rapist in a tie but god dwells within them both and if you can towel off before honey I’m home it tickles less when it hurts.
Soft granite is not hefty hefty enough for the rigid human brain. Too soft! To grainy. The fine pimples of this derelict country sleep heads in the case.
But please understand happy understanding geologic time. There are no people. No creatures, no sun. There is an exchange of positive and negative. No more. Fear the nun.
A smart and experienced beverage connoisseur knows to grip the chalice in three places. NO no tears for spilling or breaking or shaking. There is but only one small channel though which we can navigate. Fortunately, we are very small indeed.
There is no scam of any nature on this planet as perfect as religion. All reward and punishment, hope and fear is built in. You simply cannot lose (or win).
Dare the drudgery vineyards toward the running a fowl bittern. Breeches tenured to but slow the bleeding ones fail foolhardily. Everest does the one a mount from which to lay a sleigh.
Albeit a commonwealth in pansies there are hoisted suns a flowering all the ways, ever keeping the hoses of distinction daringly wary and even forlorn. Chastise the tormented femurs and lay down the simpleton's gauntlets. The scalawags are hearty figments of imagery making for capable egress but nary dares do any greatness nor afforded offerings.
I am what once was and will become as a passerby in the moments of first meetings.
Dare the drudgery vineyards toward the running a fowl bittern. Breeches tenured to but slow the bleeding ones fail foolhardily. Everest does the one a mount from which to lay a sleigh.
Albeit a commonwealth in pansies there are hoisted suns a flowering all the ways, ever keeping the hoses of distinction daringly wary and even forlorn. Chastise the tormented femurs and lay down the simpleton's gauntlets. The scalawags are hearty figments of imagery making for capable egress but nary dares do any greatness nor afforded offerings.
I am what once was and will become as a passerby in the moments of first meetings.
Let us Love,
Lettuce Love.
Love, Let Us.
Love Lettuce.
G.O.D.
" Chastise the tormented femurs..."
Most unintentionally funny post of the day.
midwest rail,
Humorous scribbling is a far better tangent than arguments regarding societal bickering. Both though are a familiarity and sometimes flagrantly used. I digress. My bad!
Apeaking of drudgery, lionlylamb is back with more slaughter of the English language. Happy happy, joy joy.
Gawd dang bugs! They go splat and leave a speck on one's screen after being chased around for nary an hour!
Yeah LL is our belief blog pseudo intellect, just laugh and move on.
SPLAT!!! 🙂 Gotcha you dweeb of a speck ever trying but only dying on screens everywhere,, SPLAT for next time!
There is no excuse for murder, violence or any harmful act against humanity! No one, believer in God or not, has the right nor responsibility to judge, condemn or sanction anyone! Any such act is the work of evil!
To the perpetrators: The Boston Tea Party (1773) lives on and is coming for you! You can run but you can't hide!
Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims and their families and to Boston, the City of Champions!
Learn to live with it, before preaching, millions innocent have been mimed and killed by american war of hinduism terrorism around the globe, hinduism, terrorism breeds hinduism, terrorism. Follow consti tution of USA your self, before lecturing others to justify hinduism, terrorism by playing victim.
Fuck off, Mohammad. No one wants to hear it.
The GOD of all Gods and their gods and every goddess is the One that created from nothing-'the all of everything' which is Life's embodiments from the very of smallness toward the lusty of allness for such a decree is GOD!
OK, quiet down, LL, you're scaring the other patients. Finish your applesauce now.
Tell that to everyone who ever mentioned the likelihood of someone else going to Hell, OK?
Hey folks its clear to me that its time churches paid TAXES!
Before every thing, they need to learn to follow truth in life, than to preach hinduism fabrications of hindu secular s, criminal self centered as faith.
YO MOHAMMAD A. DAR, MAY BE YOU SHOULD ADOPT A NEW HANDLER LIKE "ISLAM FOUNDATION OF BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING", GOON
Ah, I see the Harry Potter scholar-chick has all the answers again. Shallow shallow shallow!
"The god that I don't believe in has told me that it is good to blow up innocent people"
That's why you don't see atheist terrorists.
Atheism is self center ism, otherwise known as Judaism, Every one in hinduism denial of limit of truth absolute is a hindu terrorist.
We are the religion that goes BANG!
hnduism, absurdity of a hindu, ID thief.
Islam mother was a hamster, and Islam father smells of elderberries.
More hinduism ignorance of a hindu ignorant by his his hindu secular ism, stupid self center ism.
Be more like the prophet and molest a child today!
@derp
Bill Ayers Weather Underground!
"Islam mother was a hamster, and Islam father smells of elderberries."
I fart in your general direcetion.
@Vic..........What does bill Ayers have to do with this? This is the REAL problem. Whack jobs like yourself pushing conspiracy BS. Then other mindless F00LS do what you don't have the courage to do yourself. VIOLENCE.
Vic,
I could find no correlation with the Weather Underground and atheism.
What he represented was most decidedly *not* atheism.
I don't know why you even brought him up.
Bill Ayers is a convenient hot button to send my sniveling toadies into the rage I want them in. All I have to do is say "Bill Ayers" or "liberal media" or any of the usual yokel-chummer phrases, and they howl and rage and earn me lots of advertiser dollars.
The WUO advocated communism!
Vic.....what has atheism got to do with bill ayers?