"For us let it be enough to know ourselves to be in the place where God wants us, and carry on our work, even though it be no more than the work of an ant, infinitesimally small, and with unforeseeable results."
-- Abbé Monchanin

Sunday, March 04, 2007

The Truth about War: on Tragedy and Sacrifice -- Andrew Tatum


Andrew Tatum has a powerful blog entry regarding the war. It's dated October 16, 2006, but I only discovered it now. The following is a quote that expresses powerfully the superior power of the Gospel over that of guns, bombs, and other instruments of violence.
Understand this: I have profound respect for those people who serve in the military. I never want to demean their lives or belittle their deaths. The reason that I respect military persons stems from he fact that they do actually live out what they believe is right - something that pacifist Christians can learn from. They fight for and suffer with innocent people who have no defenders. But in the end, the point is this: in the resurrection of Christ, their fighting is not necessary. This is why my respect for military persons is not rooted in the belief that they fight for me: because they don’t. God fought for me and won two-thousand years ago when he was beaten, humiliated, crucified, and raised from the dead thereby eliminating the need for war on our behalf. I have seen the poster that says, “A Modest Proposal for Peace: Let the Christians of the World Agree That They Will Not Kill One Another.” If this were to become a reality, then maybe the world would see the senseless nature of war and we could, indeed, have peace in the name of Jesus Christ.

There are things I personally am willing to die for. There is nothing I am willing to kill for. No one else is authorized to kill for me, either.

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