Steven Derfler

Palmyra Steven Derfler

One of the great tragedies of the twenty-first century has been the rise of religious intolerance and the disrespect of other faiths that has been associated with it. Around the world, bias, bigotry, religious venom, and violence have led to the wanton destruction of sacred shrines across the planet. Nowhere has this intolerance been as virulent as in the Middle East, which is the heart and soul of the three great Western religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In lands where millennia of peaceful of coexistence had, for the most part, prevailed, a rabid spiritual darkness of intolerance has fueled the wanton destruction of religious sanctuaries of all three of these children of Abraham. The hatred has not been limited to any one of the traditions. But there have been glimmers of hope, seen in the clandestine efforts of recovery and restitution of our collective past. Archaeologists have followed in the footsteps of military action against these religious fanatics, and in the process, they have recovered bits and pieces of everyones religious heritage. This is a story indicative of these efforts, although it is fiction. It can give hope to the future, when they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore (Isa. 2:4).