- Girls (who can?)
- How water is clear
- Girls
- How a chicken can walk with its head off for a few minutes
- Females
- Why my moms cooking is so ridiculously good
But here are a few things I do understand:
- The bible is from God (2 Timothy 3:16) open your bible, and look it up!
- Jesus would not shoot anyone!
- I want do be in the Infantry Division of the Army
One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, "What commandment is the foremost of all?"
29Jesus answered, "The foremost is, HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD;
30AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.'
31"The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these." Mark 12: 28-31
A large part of joining the military is about helping people. Its not helping like people would in the peace corps, but it is still definitely helping people. People in Iraq or Afghanistan need help. Here is where the issue is: If I join the infantry division that position ya know...Kills people. Its not a soldiers reaction to just shoot someone, they have to be shot at first typically. At this point they are now just trying to defend themselves. So what is the "good christian thing to do." I've gotten some interesting answersI've had a few people tell me that killing is killing and there is no way to get around it, its clearly a sin? Its pretty hard to argue against that one. Jesus got hung on the cross and didn't attempt to fight back at all but here is a different way to look at it.
What if someone was to break in your house, and you absolutely knew they wanted to kill you and your family (and you conveniently had an automatic assault rifle) wouldn't you return fire? How is that any different from being in Iraq or Afghanistan? Wouldn't you protect yourself? Wouldn't you protect your family, or the ones you really care about? I understand God called people to love your enemies, but I don't believe its right to just accept death from anyone who wants to kill us for any reason. I DO BELIEVE IN DYING FOR YOUR FAITH, Jesus did it. This is different.
Here is the problem: How do you LOVE a terrorist? Christians are called to LOVE your enemies. I don't think shooting them is loving them. Imagine if we didn't do anything about the terrorists and tried to love them? Then what? I think things like 9/11 would be common on US land. There are people who will do what it takes to bring down the world with terror. So are we suppose to just not fire at all to love them? Or defend ourselves and the world?
This is one of those moments where I wish I could have a sit-down with Jesus.
One Love,
Evan
5 comments:
i believe what your arguing for is situational morality, which is an argument that if said by anyone else in any other circumstance you'd probably argue against. Did Jesus change his moral beliefs everytime a different situation arose?
And as for your robber in house allegory, you have to realize that WE are the ones going in THERE... so instead of being the homeowner who shoots an invader into his house, you will actually be the invader rather than the home owner.
And sure terrorists aren't good people, and even though Jesus says love them, I'm not preaching that you should. But it is also keen to take in mind all of the collatoral damage that is taken during this war and when wars like these are raged; what did those children that we living in the houses in baghdad we bombed? Or that mans son that was killed before he even turned one?
And as for your fighting back allegory... the US is often first to shoot; as with the case in Iraq in general. Our invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with terrorism and 9/11; it was a sepeate operating entirely to remove a government and implant a new one. Even ask Mrs. Stenman on this one, she even argued with me saying that the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with terrorism and was sepearate, after I said we had no reason to attack them after 9/11.
Just some thoughts.
i expected comment from you nick...
thanks for the feedback though, i appreciate it! Im not one sided though im kinda putting both situations in there to get both perspectives.
Well, let me clarify Nick's "paraphrase" of what I said. I think the reason we went into Iraq was about terrorism. It may or may not have been directly related to 9/11 but the reason we went in there was to prevent another 9/11 type of event from happening. We had intel that they had WMD's and that they planned to use them. Once we got there the mission changed but it was always about terrorism.
I know that wasn't what your initial post was about but I felt the need to "defend" something that was attributed to me.
I love you, nick and Evan. FYI
WMD's that never existed and a war declared on a soveregin nation... :)
sorry for paraphrasing, when I was talking about terrorism I was talking specifically of Al-Queda and the terrorists involved in attacking the United States. Sorry I left that unclear.
love you too!
This is a really hard question to answer.
I guess you have to ask the really hard questions.
Do you agree with what our military is doing around the world?
- You wouldn't ever join some group of club that was doing something that you didn't believe in.
Would Jesus ever kill anyone?
-No, but is that too simple of an answer... yes. I don't think Jesus would necessarily be there to begin with... well.. actually I guess he would be, because Jesus was from Iraq-ish. But that is besides the point.
Jesus was about finding another way to do things. It is really hard to help people who you kill... Here are a couple of verses from when Jesus was getting arrested
Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. 51With that, one of Jesus' companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.
Matthew 26:52 "Put your sword back in its place," Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.
Jesus lived a life of submission, humily and love.
But then you have to ask yourself this question, if we had the chance to stop a genocide using force, would it be wrong to end life then, if ultimately you will be saving more lives?
I think our big question lies in that question.
I think If what you are doing will save more lives than it will take. Then it is a good thing. If what you are going to do is counterproductive to expanding the Kingdom, then that would be a bad thing.
That is why this situation sucks extra hard. You always hear the stats about how many US soldiers have died on the news, but you seldom hear the number of how many Iraqis have died.
Latest estimates put the number of Iraqi civilians killed anywhere from 60,000 to 200,000. Even at a minimum that is the Philadelphia Eagles Stadium filled up with innocent people, including children. This isn't even touching actual Iraqi men who have died.
So then ask yourself this question again. I know it sucks to ask but would Jesus really kill, and do you believe in what this military is doing?
It is very possible you believe they are doing more good than harm. And that is cool, but I would be praying about that every single day before you enlist.
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