Misunderstanding The Love In This Book

"Put on the Lord of Jesus Christ and make no provision of the flesh." Romans 13: 14 - Every job we do is an act of love. If you love the way Christ loves you, then you love one another and you also love your enemy.

Dear Readers,

I think if readers are interested in reading true crime cases and had picked up my book, "Jahar The Lone Boston Bomber" to read but didn't realize it was a Christian book, they would not be the most satisfied readers. This has happened a couple of times now and I don't need another unsatisfied review.

On the other hand, I hope readers of true crime will read my book and find it interesting, despite the other thing...

I had some readers misunderstood the "love" in this book and not know what the purpose of my book is about, my background, and my intentions. I think if you have not read my book and are interested then I hope this blog will clear up the misunderstanding about love presented here. There is a blog posted in a Wix link at the end of the book description on Amazon, “Writing About Tsarnaev’s Trial,” where I shared my writing experience and how I came to write this story in more detail. I had ups and downs with this book, never really thought about publishing it but people were curious.

On April 15, 2013, right after the Boston Marathon bombings a prayer group for the convicted terrorist, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev began. It was called “Christians for Jahar.” This book was originally intended to be given to them, Christians. This book was first distributed at the blog site “Christians for Jahar.” Christians for Jahar was an active group during Tsarnaev’s pre-trial days and we followed the case all the way through and to mention many others who came together to follow this case. I wanted to write about how we had mercy for Dzhokhar. Many Christians didn’t know other Christians were praying for Dzhokhar and that is commendable. There is nothing wrong with this book to have a Christian view and agenda, throughout the factual information. There were so many Christians praying for Dzhokhar's salvation. It inspired me to write this book from my heart and share the testimony from Christians responding to the outcome and giving him hope. I wanted to write from a Christian perspective, and I had friends from the group who thought it was great that I wanted to write a book about Dzhokhar.

After I had written the book and gave it to my friends, one of them suggested publishing it, allow the book to reach a worldwide audience, and hopefully touch the hearts of many in the process. God knows Dzhokhar and the entire human race needs prayer in these kinds of times. If my book was only about the Boston Marathon Bombings, about the court case, and records of facts or evidence, then there is nothing substantially more to this book. This book has a purpose.

When I started to write a book about Dzhokhar I also wanted to write about the amazing support and prayers for Dzhokahr Tsarnaev. This case touched a lot of people to do the most unusual, unselfish things for him and to love their neighbor. It’s a testimony story about the love of Christians and what I learned about Dzhokhar. It’s unbelievable how anyone would want to pray for this murderer, but this is a testimony that showed some people can pray for their enemies. Of course, it did come with some emotions. The Bible talks about remembering the convicts as if we were prisoners with them. “Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners. (Hebrew 13:1). We took this command to practice. This verse means to have compassion for them, to pray, and to remember them in their circumstances.

I believe some readers may be confused or misunderstand the kind of “love” that I thematically presented in this book Tsarnaev is not my friend. I don’t know him. Rather than thinking the author had a fangirl obsession it should be that the author had a devotion to caring for Tsarnaev’s soul in spiritual Christian love. I want readers to be clear of this love. This “love” is not human love of being fond of someone, of infatuation, feeling affection, or expressing sexual love for someone.

It’s the love of Christ I am talking about.

It's God's love and his commandment to us.

God commanded us to love our neighbor. It's not our good neighbor. The commandment of love is to be compassionate and to pray for our neighbor.

People will only love those in their group.

However, God meant to love the ones we don't want to be neighbors with. He called them your enemies.

He meant us to love those who hate us or stick a gun to our heads. He meant us to love the bombers who bombed the marathon and killed/injured people.

THAT is SO challenging to do. I know. No, way, I have so much hate for anyone who kills innocents.

Tsarnaev disturbed me that I was glad there was this worldwide calling to help this man in spiritual love and hope that has never been seen before. I had to learn to say his name so I could pray for him. What I did to love a convicted criminal was to gradually have compassion for this person. Next, I made every effort to understand him better and to see him as a human being. Along with getting to know him, we did what was described in Christian terms the “mission to help and to serve Christ.” We had some Christians sent him books to read in prison. We wrote blogs, sharing with the world why we need to pray for Tsarnaev. Many Christians were called to pray for his salvation, his family, his lawyers, the judge, the jury, his convicted friends, his victims, the trial, Boston, and his health!

My book already has received much critical praise from the Christian community. As a Christian, it lifted me to help those who need Christ and showing human kindness and love that God commanded to Christians. Even though what we did maybe worth nothing to people who think Tsarnaev will never convert, at least we sowed the seed and he got the chance to hear the gospel. There will never be another book like this one.

I had a reader who told me she once hated this person in her life. But when she read my book, she was moved by the love I had for Tsarnaev that she learned to change herself and love the person she hated the way God wants us Christians to love our enemies.

This was a magnitude project for me to write but I had the enthusiasm to tell Tsarnaev’s story and trial. I knew in my heart there wouldn’t be another book that would detail the day-to-day basis of Tsarnaev’s proceedings, so I had the desire to write these proceedings in meticulous detail. I wanted to bring readers into the courtroom and behind the scenes and showed them what it was like when the Bomber was brought to justice. I hope people will have a better understanding of why the tragedy of the bombings happened in Boston and appreciate the overall message I have to say.

Aileen Lee

Here is the link to my blog.

https://abookaboutjt.wixsite.com/home/single-post/2018/04/19/Writing-About-Tsarnaevs-Trial