"When you're pushed...

...killing is as easy as breathing." ~ John Rambo

I don't know exactly if I can express how excited I have been to see the new "Rambo" movie. I don't know if it has anything to do with my being a male, but there is something so deep inside of me that resonates with the character and mission of John Rambo.

It has been 20 years since the last Rambo movie and it begins with his life in Thailand, keeping to himself, shutting out the rest of the world, trying to quiet the haunting memories of the lives that he has taken. A man who is content to let things be, to step back and live simply while the world goes on.

And the world does go on. Oppression, abuse, rape, slavery, genocide, they all continue to go on in the country right next door, Burma. Some Christian missionaries want to go and help, they wish to step into the line of fire and are willing to sacrifice their safety to bring supplies and encouragement to those living in constant fear of death, or worse.

What would Jesus do?

What would Ghandi do?

Yet Ghandi did not live in Burma. An environment of British Imperialism saturated with media exposure is not quite the same as an environment of uncontrollable and ignored civil war with soldiers psychologically desensitized to killing women and children without thinking twice.

It's not the same, and it's never the same.

It's not so black and white.

One of the central scenes in the movie involves Rambo killing three men who had stopped his boat, which contained the missionaries he was taking. The men saw that there was a woman on board and they wanted to take her. Rambo offered them money. They wouldn't take it. They should have.

One of the missionaries loses it on Rambo, saying it's never okay to take a life, that what he did was wrong. Grabbing the guy's throat Rambo throws him up against the boat and says, "Who are you? Who are you?!? They would've raped her 50 times and cut off your heads!" Oh man, Rambo is so awesome. Stupid Christian missionaries.

Ironically, the guy who was angry at Rambo ends up killing an enemy soldier anyway. Somehow idealism falls apart when the ideals are sought to be lived as laws. The world is not such a cookie-cutter shaped place.

So how does God see all of this? What happens when diplomacy fails, petitions are ignored, and injustice still thrives?

To quote Sean Connery in 'The Untouchables',

"What are YOU prepared to DO?"