Step back and look at the big picture.  The view is disturbing.

Last Friday morning in an interview on Good Morning America, President Obama crowed about the killing of Jihadi John in a U.S. air strike and announced, “ISIL is contained.” 

That evening ISIS terrorists struck six sites in Paris, killing 129 people and injuring 350.  The Paris attacks came on the heels of ISIS blowing up a Russian airliner over the Sinai and a massive terrorist attack in Beirut.  Contained, indeed!  Never has an American president appeared so foolish or so inept. 

The French, however, responded decisively.  Before their dead were buried President Hollande declared war on ISIS and France launched massive retaliatory air strikes in Syria.  Message sent and received.  Meanwhile, the American President assured the world that the Paris attacks would not change the tepid American strategy toward ISIS.  He stubbornly refused to label the attacks “Islamic terrorism,” announced that the United States would continue to receive ten thousand Syrian refugees (including undetected terrorists), and in the most telling act, his administration released five of the worst Islamic terrorists held at Gitmo and sent them to the United Arab Emirates.  What message do you think ISIS received from America?  ISIS boldly reissued its threat to strike the United States.

Now, swing to the unrest on college campuses that began two weeks ago at the University of Missouri. The contrasts and comparisons are interesting. First, understand that the protests at Mizzou and at a growing number of campuses across the country, are not about race.  They are orchestrated by a small number of radical leftist revolutionaries, the same people who ignited the protests in Ferguson and the riots in Baltimore.  Their aim is to foment widespread social unrest and ultimately bring the downfall of the hated American society and its guarantees of freedom.   Race is merely a handy and useful vehicle, and they have co-opted a large number of gullible and clueless young people who are eager to do their masters’ bidding.  We are witnessing the ugly rekindling of the radical revolution of 1968.

There was real terror in Paris.  A hundred people corralled in a theater were picked off one by one and slaughtered.  That is legitimate reason for fear.  The protesters at Mizzou, however, have declared, “We don’t feel safe, we’re afraid,” merely because people disagree with them and dare to state their contrary views.   The protesting students are pathetic and cowardly in the extreme.  And now they are miffed that real terror has swept them from the front pages. 

The campus protesters are committed to absolute power for themselves.  Like their terrorist cousins, they insist that those who disagree with them must not be allowed to speak or hold an opposing opinion.  The free speech guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment exists only for them and them alone. 

Strip away the façade and both groups are totalitarians.  If the college protesters had the opportunity ISIS possesses, would they use the same tactics?  The witness of history from the Stalin’s Soviet Union and Mao’s China and Hitler’s Germany tells us yes, they would. Those philosophical relatives used the same tactics to come to power.  So we detect a straight line that connects Paris to Mizzou and beyond: the only difference between the campus protestors and Muslim terrorists is one of degree. 

There is another comparison that is informative.  For decades American higher education has indoctrinated students with the mantra that America is and always has been evil and needs to be radically changed.  The leaders of the large American universities call themselves “liberals,” but they are less noble than that.  They appear moderate only because their intolerance has not yet gained ascendancy. As a consequence, when their students employ against them the same things they themselves taught, their response is weak.   They respond as President Obama has: When confronted by “terrorist” demands, they cave: the Missouri president and the chancellor of the university resigned without a whimper. Appeasing terrorists and protesters only emboldens the radicals.  And they follow with greater threats.

What may we conclude?  Consider the prophet Isaiah.  He foresaw the terrorists of his day—the Assyrians and the Babylonians—and foretold what they would do to God’s people.  He said, “They [the righteous] will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness.” (Isaiah 8:22)  That is ever the purpose of those who hate God and the freedom He has given men.  They will not cease until they drive others into darkness.  They will not stop until they themselves are forcibly stopped.  This is the danger we face and it is not to be minimized.

But all is not dark and despairing.  Two verses later Isaiah promised, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.” (Isaiah 9:2)  It is one of the beloved passages often quoted at Christmas.  Isaiah was prophesying the coming of Christ who declared, “I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12)  It is Christ and his glorious gospel alone that gives hope. 

Fortunately there is a positive reality to our current situation.  Isaiah says, “When the earth experiences Your judgments the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.” (25:9)  In other words, when we encounter the deeds of terrorists and protesters, and discern their aims and intentions--as now revealed in Paris and in the aftermath of the protests--many people wake up and begin to appreciate the value of righteousness.  And when we behold the contrast between evil and righteousness, we find the necessary courage to stand and grasp the good.

Dr. Rick Perrin is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and Chairman of the Board of World Reformed Fellowship..  He writes a weekly blog called ReTHINK which may be accessed at www.rethinkingnews.wordpress.com. He may be contacted directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. .