Any relation to Charles and Daniel Fuller? Fuller Theological?

I think that is even a part of what Tolkien attempted to communicate by the mechanization of war in his Lord of the Rings. It gave expression to what he felt about his service in the Great War. To mechanize it is to make it impersonal and therefore so much easier and immoral.

Augustine was not creating an ethic for a nation that had the capability of wiping Africa off the face of the earth with one push of a button.

I have read that the economic sanctions applied to Iraq before the 2003 US-invasion had the unfortunate and tragic result of killing thousands of people even before the actual combat was underway.

Yeah, that’s the Missus. She’s incurably east coast, therefore blunt, but it’s something you get used to. Hell, by now it’s one of the things I love most about her.

We’ll keep reading to see how you wrap this up.

Tony I think that you hypothetical assumes a lack of faith. I believe that the Christian is called to extreme “pacifism” because of faith that God is in control. Look at Jesus for an example. It was quite logical for him to assume that the probable conclusion to his death on the cross would be an annihilation of his message. After all it seems he was leaving his message in less than capable hands. However, he seems to have acted out of a strong conviction that God would oversee the continuation of his message.If one can surmize, as Reed has, that the New Testament ethic is one of peace not violence, then the Christian response should be in spite of the seeming logical failure of the position.

Also I would like to point out that Gahndi lived out much of the pacifistic ideas that we throw out, in a very practical way. Everyone said that he would fail and that his ideology would be killed by those who were willing to fight for the opposite view. While it ultimately cost him his life, it ended up working. He never picked up a gun to fight for peace. He stood radically in defiance of human logic which told him to resort to violence. He proved it can work. It seems that violence to stop violence is often the easy approach. But it never works. We as Christians are called to a more radical approach. Fight violence with kindness. Stand firm but do not attack. Fighting fire with fire will never work. To truly bring about a broad incarntion of the kingdom of God radical pacifism is the only solution.

Jeremy

love includes the truth. It doesn’t meen i love you so i will let you plunder and destroy countries. Violence can be needed to satisfy truth and is therefor needed for love. Sometimes.

peace and love,

http://toldandretold.com