Always hard to shed light on something after Keith speaks…silly me. And so I would only say the following. I think that it is difficult and dangerous to take the words of Christ such as ‘turn the other cheek, blessed are the peacemakers etc’ when speaking of war and national politic. For examply, none of us question the right or wrongness of the overal nature of the laws and expectations which govern our ‘together’ life in society. No one would say, “you should simply turn the other cheek when someone murders or steals”. Most of us agree that this would be a dangerous posture to take when attempting to keep order in our society. Instead, we agree that there are laws and consequences that need to be upheld if we are to live together in peace.
Please remember though…that this is no commentary on the rightness or wrongness of this particular war. It is simply an observation about the words of Jesus.
mwooten
Apr 04 2003
12:24 pm
Always hard to shed light on something after Keith speaks…silly me. And so I would only say the following. I think that it is difficult and dangerous to take the words of Christ such as ‘turn the other cheek, blessed are the peacemakers etc’ when speaking of war and national politic. For examply, none of us question the right or wrongness of the overal nature of the laws and expectations which govern our ‘together’ life in society. No one would say, “you should simply turn the other cheek when someone murders or steals”. Most of us agree that this would be a dangerous posture to take when attempting to keep order in our society. Instead, we agree that there are laws and consequences that need to be upheld if we are to live together in peace.
Please remember though…that this is no commentary on the rightness or wrongness of this particular war. It is simply an observation about the words of Jesus.