The two horrific killing sprees, a day apart, with 10 murdered on 10 March in Alabama and 15 on 11 March in Germany, prompt one to reflect over the painful "transitional" character of the age we live in. Shoghi Effendi writes:
"...the interval which must elapse ere [the present] Age yields its choicest fruit must, it is becoming increasingly apparent, be overshadowed by such moral and social gloom as can alone prepare an unrepentant humanity for the prize she is destined to inherit. Into such a period we are now steadily and irresistibly moving... [U]s, the "generation of the half-light"...stand on the threshold of an age whose convulsions proclaim alike the death-pangs of the old order and the birth-pangs of the new. ...this New World Order may be said to have been conceived. We can, at the present moment, experience its stirrings in the womb of a travailing age—an age waiting for the appointed hour at which it can cast its burden and yield its fairest fruit. "The whole earth," writes Bahá'u'lláh, "is now in a state of pregnancy. The day is approaching when it will have yielded its noblest fruits, when from it will have sprung forth the loftiest trees, the most enchanting blossoms, the most heavenly blessings.
(World Order 168-9)
A New Vision for Humanity's Future - the need for moral transformation
The humanity of our planet's future will be characterized, Bahá'ís believe, by a new system of values necessary for the development of a global civilization. Such an ethos--where each member of the human race is regarded as a trust of the whole--is guided by an inner ethical orientation relevant to the challenges of the next stage of human development--an orientation that does not come only from legislation and education but from a divine source. Evidence that such a transformation in moral behavior is possible can be found in the response to Bahá'u'lláh's teachings in Bahá'í communities around the globe.
The Promise of World Peace
Source: http://info.bahai.org/article-1-7-0-1.html
Notes:
Exerpt from an article in the The Times on the case in Germany (available here):
(Blogpost mirrored from here)
"...the interval which must elapse ere [the present] Age yields its choicest fruit must, it is becoming increasingly apparent, be overshadowed by such moral and social gloom as can alone prepare an unrepentant humanity for the prize she is destined to inherit. Into such a period we are now steadily and irresistibly moving... [U]s, the "generation of the half-light"...stand on the threshold of an age whose convulsions proclaim alike the death-pangs of the old order and the birth-pangs of the new. ...this New World Order may be said to have been conceived. We can, at the present moment, experience its stirrings in the womb of a travailing age—an age waiting for the appointed hour at which it can cast its burden and yield its fairest fruit. "The whole earth," writes Bahá'u'lláh, "is now in a state of pregnancy. The day is approaching when it will have yielded its noblest fruits, when from it will have sprung forth the loftiest trees, the most enchanting blossoms, the most heavenly blessings.
(World Order 168-9)
A New Vision for Humanity's Future - the need for moral transformation
The humanity of our planet's future will be characterized, Bahá'ís believe, by a new system of values necessary for the development of a global civilization. Such an ethos--where each member of the human race is regarded as a trust of the whole--is guided by an inner ethical orientation relevant to the challenges of the next stage of human development--an orientation that does not come only from legislation and education but from a divine source. Evidence that such a transformation in moral behavior is possible can be found in the response to Bahá'u'lláh's teachings in Bahá'í communities around the globe.
The Promise of World PeaceSource: http://info.bahai.org/article-1-7-0-1.html
Notes:
Exerpt from an article in the The Times on the case in Germany (available here):
Detectives who seized Kretschmer's home computer discovered violent video games and pornography. Friends said that he regularly played the computer game Counter Strike and had become increasingly fascinated with horror films.Recent related stories of killing sprees:
...teachers in the region have been trained to use [an alert system] in case of a school shooting.
December 27, 2008, California:
'Santa' Bruce Jeffrey Pardo shoots nine dead and torches in-laws' home
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5400786.ece
September 24, 2008', Finland
YouTube' gunman kills 10 in shooting spree at Finnish vocational college
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4808358.ece
(Blogpost mirrored from here)
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