“ISIS claims responsibility for Egypt’s Palm Sunday church bombings”

For mainstream Christians, today marks the beginning of Holy Week (to which I wish Latter-day Saints paid at least a bit more attention).  Specifically, today is Palm Sunday, commemorating Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when throngs of pilgrims spread palm fronds out before him as he rode into the city on (Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:28-44; John 12:12-19).

This morning, in Egypt, the so-called “Islamic State” marked Palm Sunday by detonating bombs at Coptic Christian churches in the large coastal city of Alexandria and in the still-sizable town of Tanta, in the Nile Delta.  Islamist murderers killed at least 43 people and injured many more.

I do not understand what they imagine such actions will accomplish.  Do they really think that their attempts to make Islam a synonym for nihilistic violence against innocent people will make it more attractive in the eyes of non-Muslims?  Do they seriously imagine that a better society, a better world, will be built upon the shredded bodies and splattered blood of devout Arab Christians?  Surely they cannot be so stupid.  But, clearly, they can be that evil.

In any event, I could not help but think, today, of the palm as a historic Christian symbol of martyrdom, commemorating the triumphal entry into Paradise of Christians who have been slain for their faith.

I mourn the Coptic Christians who paid for their beliefs this morning with their lives.  They were peacefully assembled at their churches, worshiping their Lord, and in and for that act they were torn asunder by murderous wickedness.  May the Lord bless them, their families, and their memories.