Abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph is gladly going to jail, sure that the murders he committed were righteous because he had killed for a just cause.
The 9/11 terrorists went to their deaths with joy, content in the knowledge that the ensuing slaughter was a strike against the Great Satan.
George W. Bush proudly calls himself The War President and is willing to see tens of thousands of lives snuffed out, burned and maimed because it's a necessary price to pay in the fight against terrorism.
What do these people have in common? The belief that, if the cause is just, using deadly violence is justified and even a good thing.
In the end it comes down to this:
Will we do nothing? That's what the pro-war crowd says about Peacemakers.
Or will we oppose evil with evil? That's their solution.
Or will we oppose evil with a just defense?
I believe we can do better than war.
6 comments:
Amen, brother. If war "worked" the way it was supposed to, we would have defeated evil a long time ago and then there would be no more war, right?
There has to be a better way.
And, in fact, we know there is. We can send in Peaceable Observers as Witness for Peace did in Nicaragua to stop the Contras. We can stand in front of tanks as the Chinese protestors did at Tiananmen Square. We can call upon soldiers not to shoot, as Romero did. We can organize boycotts as we did against South Africa.
These ALL work at least as effectively as war, if not better, with the added advantage of not resorting to the same sort of violence that the "bad guys" have.
Excuse me for preaching.
Hey Deb,
I've been unable to link to the inimitable Sand Creek blog the last two days. Is it up and running?
The last time I checked it was! Here's the URL just to double check: http://whitepines.blogspot.com
Dan,
I agree. WWII was supposedly a just cause, and a lot of arguement can be made for that, but I am struck by how the Allies won the war but the world became a more dangerous place. War breeds more war. New weapons never make us safer because the other side always gets them, too. It never ends.
Many argue that peace will not work. I would counter that war certainly doesn't.
I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is
only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.
-Gandhi
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