| Monday, March 20, 2006 |
| A Softer Look |
First and foremost, I must apologize to my readers for being either too lax or too trepidatious to post for over a month. Due to some... much heated debate, I decided to take a little time off. But I am back; to the cheers of my fans and the chagrin of those I have not yet convinced.
Furthermore, I feel that I may (according to Mr. Wright-not "Right"- jokes, Kevin, you are one of my links on the side) have painted with "broad strokes" pacifism. That may be true but my question in regard to the larger roll of pacifism remains. Some of my readers may view my last writing in such a way that would paint me as a war-monger.
In my soul-searching month off I decided to read some other blogs and see where people were on this whole issue. I ran across one in particular whose name I shall forego in which he addressed the banal and often-raised question of, "If a man was raping your daughter/wife what would you do?" To which the blogger responded, "I would try to stop him without killing him and whether I succeeded or not that man would walk out of that room." Really? I think we as people often place ourselves mentally in situations that we do not really know how we would act. This is one of the foremost problems with North American pacifism- of any strand- very few of us have ever been in a situation that demands that type of response- thank God.
For instance, ideally, I would love to state that if someone was gave me the choice between my life and my faith that I would, without fight, give my life to show my faith. Do I know that I could do that? No.
The second problem with avoiding the fight is that the choice we make to do nothing is a violent choice within itself. We allow the killer to kill again, the rapist to rape again, the child molester to destroy another child, the terrorist to blow up another building (although they usually take themselves out), the warlord to conduct another "ethnic cleansing", and on and on we go. What do we accomplish when we allow violence to continue by becoming fodder for the slaughter?
Of course this is all hypothetical for all of us except for how we vote- conservatively or liberally- because we do not directly take out any of these people (most of the time and God forbid we are placed in that situation).
Recently I viewed a movie entitled "Lord of War". In the movie Nicholas Cage is an arms dealer who is unwilling to make any real moral decision because he is more concerned with money. In the end he is caught and released because the United States uses him as a front man in their illegal arms deals and he says; "The saying used to be, 'Evil prevails when good men do nothing,' it should be changed to, 'Evil prevails,'." This may be true because too few good men do nothing and thus choose to pass the responsibility and duty to someone else who may also try to pass it on until there is no good men left.
What is the tension that we must hold as Christians between being willing to die to gain in Christ- as the Apostle Paul was and eventually did- and not being an inactive participant in the perpetuation of violence in our world? Paul was concerned because he knew that the Kingdom of God would be better served if he stayed. When we continually "walk away" are we better serving the Kingdom? Or would we better served, at least some of the time, if we weeded out some of the evil so the good could flourish? These are decisions that we must personally make to affect and train our minds in how to respond like Christ in situations. It is not easy- but whatever we do, may we prevent evil from prevailing. |
posted by D.M. @ 10:18 AM  |
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| "Memento Mori."- Remeber that you will also die. |
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| Saying what needs to be said but everyone is afraid to say. |
| About Me |
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Name: D.M.
Home: Overland Park, Kansas, United States
About Me: I've lived at least 5 years in the last two but come out. After trials of fire and flame we are marching on and if we don't take the world we'll sure as heck die trying.
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After one of the most difficult ministry years of my life I made it back to another fall. I hope my posts find you well and encourage thought and discussion. |
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