The difference between ISIS and a Rattlesnake? Not much.

Last night I was speaking with a friend of mine, and the topic of ISIS came up.  As you may know, over the course of the last two days, ISIS has abducted at least 150 Christian villagers from Assyrian Christian villages in the northeast region of Syria. We wondered when – or if – the current U.S. administration would start taking seriously the threat these jihadists pose.

Our conversation reminded me of the following email which I first received via my colleague Lisa-Lisa’s brother-in-law Jim, who lives in Syracuse. It’s been making the rounds on the internet for a while, but I thought I’d share it with you in case you haven’t seen it.

It’s called “Rattlesnake Logic.”  …And it talks about fighting radical Islamists with a clarity our President will probably never muster…

“After the Boston bombing, the news media spent days and weeks trying to determine why these men did what they did. They want to know what America did to make these brothers so angry with us. They want to know why these men were not arrested before they did something so terrible. The media was in a tizzy about this new era of homegrown radicals and about why and how they can live among us and still hate us.

A friend of mine from Texas explained it all to me:

Here in west Texas, I have rattlesnakes on my place, living among us. I have killed a rattlesnake on the front porch. I have killed a rattlesnake on the back porch. I have killed rattlesnakes in the barn, in the shop and on the driveway. In fact, I kill every rattlesnake I encounter.

I kill rattlesnakes because I know a rattlesnake will bite me and inject me with poison. I don’t stop to wonder WHY a rattlesnake will bite me; I know it WILL bite me because it's a rattlesnake and that's what rattlesnakes do. I don’t try to reason with a rattlesnake or have a "meaningful dialogue" with it…I just kill it. I don’t try to get to know the rattlesnake better so I can find a way to live with the rattlesnakes and convince them not to bite me. I just kill them.

I don’t quiz a rattlesnake to see if I can find out where the other snakes are, because (a) it won’t tell me and (b) I already know they live on my place. So, I just kill the rattlesnake and move on to the next one.

I don’t look for ways I might be able to change the rattlesnake to a non-poisonous rat snake...I just kill it. Oh, and on occasion, I accidentally kill a rat snake because I thought it was a rattlesnake at the time. Also, I know for every rattlesnake I kill, two more are lurking out there in the brush. In my lifetime I will never be able torid my place of rattlesnakes.

Do I fear them? Not really. Do I respect what they can do to me and my family? Yes!! And because of that respect, I give them the fair justice they deserve....I kill them... As a country, we should start giving more thought to the fact that these jihadists' are telling the world their goal is to kill Americans and destroy our way of life. They continue to post graphic videos on the internet showing them beheading Americans. They are serious. They are exactly like rattlesnakes. It is high time for us to start acting accordingly!

I love this country. It's the government I worry about!”

Isn’t that the truth?

If there’s one difference between the current ISIS threat and a rattlesnake, it’s this: Sometimes, when faced with an obviously superior, insurmountable foe, a rattlesnake will back down and slink back into its hole.

That hasn’t been the case with Islamic militants. Faced with the overwhelming military might of multiple countries, they’ve only gotten angrier, more depraved, and more violent.

It’s time to treat them the way this rancher treats the snakes on his property.

In the meantime, take a moment to say a prayer for those 150 Assyrian Christians. It’s hard to imagine the horrors they’re being forced to endure.