Memorializing Peace May 25, 2009
Posted by Matt in peace.Tags: Memorial Day, peace, quotes
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Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God. – Matt 5:9
We will not build a peaceful world by following a negative path. It is not enough to say “We must not wage war.” It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but on the positive affirmation of peace. We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody that is far superior to the discords of war. Somehow we must transform the dynamics of the world power struggle from the negative nuclear arms race which no one can win to a positive contest to harness man’s creative genius for the purpose of making peace and prosperity a reality for all of the nations in the world. In short, we must shift the arms race into a “peace race.” If we have the will and determination to mount such a peace offensive, we will unlock hitherto tightly sealed doors of hope and transform our imminent cosmic elegy into a psalm of creative fulfillment. – Martin Luther King, Jr.
We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children. – Jimmy Carter
Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience. – Thomas Merton
The followers of Christ have been called to peace…and they must not only have peace but also must make it. And to that end they renounce all violence and tumult. In the cause of Christ nothing is to be gained by such methods. His disciples keep the peace by choosing to endure suffering themselves rather than inflict it on others. They maintain fellowship where others would break it off. The renounce hatred and wrong. In so doing they overcome evil with good, and establish the peace of God in the midst of a world of war and hate. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
please help me to understand. What is the Christian to do when faced with evil? Aren’t we to stand and oppose it? Since you quoted so well, I feel inadequate in not knowing the speaker, but I know the quote “All it takes for evil to reign is for good men to do nothing.”
Look at Martin Luther King. He was not just a passive spectator to the wrongs he saw being perpetrated yet he refused to resort to violence.
And he was far more effective than a person with a gun.
Patrick. Where did Jesus say we need to “stand and oppose evil”? Is that His quote about good men doing nothing? No. He didn’t say such things. He spoke about loving and turning the other cheek.
But I understand where you are coming from. This is the same rationalization that leads to Christians overwhelmingly supporting torture practices in our holy war on terror. Is that really what the message of Christ is about?
No, Patrick. It isn’t.
Union Ave. Don’t you think the Christian life is about standing up against evil? Maybe I’m pragmatic, but I don’t know how I could stand before God and have let millions of people die if I knew information that would have stopped their killing. If I didn’t, I don’t know how I could look the loved ones in the eye without shame. It is easy to point fingers when we have the luxury if peace provided by those who were willing to die.
Do you mean evil like the genocide in Sudan? Rwanda? Like child prostitution?
What does “standing up to it” mean? By taking lives? By force? Is that the only way to stand up to wrongdoing?
Or do you mean like when an empire invades a nation so they can preserve their way of life through access to fossil fuels?
Quick question, Patrick: Do you support the use of torture in this nations “war on terror”? Yes or No.
Yep. Evil just like that and extremism that hates your way of life and is willing to exterminate
I support the use extreme measures to protect the nation. Do you deny that the information obtained saved lives? Is that love? Is it loving to know how to save people’s lives but to not act? I don’t think so. I’m willing to answer for one life rather than thousands.
Here is a question. Assuming you are married, what would you do if a man had kidnapped your wife and child and associates were going to kill them if you and/or the authorities could not rescue them. The man knows where they are. What are you going to do? Is it love to not do everything in your power to rescue them? I don’t know if I could live with myself if I didn’t do everything. I don’t know if I could live with myself if I did torture, but I’d rather do that and try to rescue my loved ones than live with myself not having tried to rescue my loved ones.
patrick. i would get on my knees that jesus would supernaturally
save his soul
and then i would take out my ak47 and blast that mother freaker for touching my supermodel wife and immaculately conceived son.
how can god live with himself after knowingly allowing a bunch of roman thugs to carry out a hit on the only begotten one? why couldn’t the almighty allow for, say, a horrible fishing accident where jesus went overboard or something? why the whole mel gibson passion of the christ bloody mess? for dramatic effect?
if god just waited a few years he could have used the US government to torture and kill the divine. if the pharaoh could get his heart hardened, don’t you think it would have been easier to infiltrate dick cheney’s weak ticker?
I’m not God.
no. but you seem like a nice guy. i like chatting with you. and i still think brian pannell is a chode.
so you are pdx again. quit hiding!
lol. i am omnipresent. but not the god-kind.
i respect your ideas about god. i don’t share them. but i would bet we have a lot in common. i would definitely drink a beer with you. or if you don’t believe in strong drink, an ice cold glass of sweet tea would do just fine.
ps. god is in all things and of all things. god is not something. it’s everything. god is.
we probably do have a lot in common. I’m not fond of beer, but a good tequila sunrise, I’m good for a conversation.