Should Christians Bless Israel?
@elston_ This is the truth! To me, it has always been fascinating to think about, that given the amount of christiansin the world, let's say a billion or so, it seems like none of them ever read the bible.
I mean the pope? Jesus Christ (pun intended!)! He has his own country and travels in his own private jet.
For me it is pretty difficult to come up with a worse image of gods representative on earth, given what Jesus was teaching.
There are some Christians and churches that reject the "Just War Theory". Certainly it has been over embraced by American Evangelicals.
Early Christian Fathers expressed strong reservations about Christians participating in violence or military service. Many then (& Anabaptists today) saw warfare as incompatible with the teachings of Jesus Christ, especially ideas like “turn the other cheek.”
This documentary/drama had a big impact on my own thinking.
I'm somewhere between Tolstoy and Solzhenitsyn.
I accept that force may sometimes be necessary (especially against totalitarian regimes).
I'm deeply skeptical of self-righteous claims that a war is “just”, because humans are prone to corruption and moral blindness.
More recent film by Malick:
@elston_ I would like to be a total pacifist, I think it is an enormously courageous position to take (if you live it, that is, and not just as a marketing label).
But being a libertarian, I do accept defensive violence at the personal level, and I would never engage in defensive violence for a nation. Only to directly protect family.
@h4890
I'm at a at a similar spot. Vocation & role of father involves protecting the family in a defensive manner that may involve force.
But that is a far cry from the justifications for war we hear today on national level that are built on future theoretical possibilities.
"Because of their rhetoric, We have to destroy them before they might be able to destroy us."
Bombings & killing of innocents NOW based on some perceived future possibie action by them against us.
Israel/USA do this.
@elston_ Thank you for sharing. The pacifist, non-fighting christian, is for me the only true christian.
I am not chrisitan myself, but I find a lot of good things in it. If I were a christian, I would probably be a quaker or an old school christian unitarian universalist.
@h4890
Very few.