|
Re: When Pacifism Was a Tenet of Holiness.
Idealistically speaking, I agree with pacifism. In reality, it's a hard pill to swallow for anyone who cares about their family, property, community and country. I agree that it's the Christian ideal.
Then again, I don't if I would have it in me to stand by and not recant while my children were ripped to shreds in front of me like the early martyrs. I would like to think I could, but I don't *know* that I could. I would like to think that if someone broke into my house, I could trust God to protect us and get the intruder to leave by dropping to my knees and praying for his soul; in reality, I would probably grab the baseball bat by the door and hit him with it, assuming he didn't get me first.
What is ideal and what I can really do are two different things. The protection of life, liberty and property are important to us; should they be?
__________________
"God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. And sever any tie in my heart except the tie that binds my heart to Yours."
--David Livingstone
"To see no being, not God’s or any, but you also go thither,
To see no possession but you may possess it—enjoying all without labor or purchase—
abstracting the feast, yet not abstracting one particle of it;…."
--Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Song of the Open Road
|
Threaded Mode
