tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post4380597724682385988..comments2024-03-24T19:55:32.537-05:00Comments on The View from This Seat: TTT #22 Jesus Expects His Followers to be PeacemakersLKSeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-83340421431920860312018-08-25T16:56:30.106-05:002018-08-25T16:56:30.106-05:001sojourner, you may be interested to know that Sim...<br />1sojourner, you may be interested to know that Simone Weil, the subject of today's (8/25) new blog article, was a pacifist throughout most of her short life, but toward the end of her life (in 1943) she rejected pacifism and supported armed resistance to the Nazis, even wanting to engage in military action herself.LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-86492736657084061142018-08-24T15:41:19.940-05:002018-08-24T15:41:19.940-05:00I believe martyr Jim Elliot said much the same. B...I believe martyr Jim Elliot said much the same. But I don't think I can stand by after what I have seen and experienced in my lifetime. The European Resistance offer a good model. I have a friend whose father was with the French Resistance. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was as well. As were some Jesuits (their story is a mixed bag). <br /><br />The Christians in Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Iran dwindle, and yet we do nothing, except maybe pray.1sojournernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-59457138663285156732018-08-24T15:21:22.283-05:002018-08-24T15:21:22.283-05:00There is much I could (and perhaps should) write i...There is much I could (and perhaps should) write in response to the above comments, but perhaps it will suffice to share what I wrote in response to an email from an old friend who wrote about the necessity of protecting "the innocent from tyranny and evil."<br /><br />" . . . thanks for engaging in serious thought about what it means for Christians to use, or not use, violence. -- Let me remind you that for the first three hundred years after Christ, his followers had few freedoms, many were martyred, yet this was the period when Christianity grew the fastest. And it was during those 300 years that Christians, with maybe a few exceptions, refused to fight. They practiced non-violence not because others were warring for them but in spite of others warring against them. Individually, and as a group, they no doubt sought to defend/protect themselves and their loved ones--but in nonviolent ways. Many chose to die (and go to Heaven) rather than to kill an enemy (who would most likely not go to Heaven)."LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-58236990215046650402018-08-24T14:22:03.354-05:002018-08-24T14:22:03.354-05:00I have enjoyed the chapters of this book. This ch...I have enjoyed the chapters of this book. This chapter is difficult. <br /><br />Life experience and observation. Pacifism seems great opportunity to stand back and watch martyrdom grow with a blessing. I wish a former Mennonite girlfriend from high school was still around, but she passed away 12 years ago. I would love to discuss this with her. My other Mennonite friend just considers pacifism a given - the religion he was raised in, even though his father was shunned by his family for leaving the Amish. All my Quaker friends have now either left that brand of Christian faith, or rejected faith entirely - none are pacifist anymore. They lived and saw the realities of life as well. Some went on to join the military to protect life and freedom.<br /><br />Some point to this or that person as an exemplar. The only one I changed my mind on was Nelson Mandela. He lived it in truth. But he is now gone, and so is his vision. I don't see it in Christ - He was balanced in His mission, and above singular aspects.<br /><br />I am glad you find a home for yourself in this calling.<br /><br />I find defense and war to be necessities of life to save the innocent from tyranny and evil. "Speak softly, but carry a big stick." Hopefully, speaking softly is sufficient. But personally, I have found the big stick to be necessary a few times, and should have been used a few other times instead standing by to witness martyrdom.<br /><br />I choose to follow the general scheme of life. Life and let live. But willing to offer a good defense for the defenseless. If necessary when confronting evil - live and let die.<br /><br />Let my motto be: GOODWILL <br /><br />ن +1sojournernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-39439362956199675342018-08-23T17:58:30.172-05:002018-08-23T17:58:30.172-05:00This was another article worthy of reading in full...This was another article worthy of reading in full as a chapter. It is indeed encouraging to see the many who went before us in full obedience to Jesus in the matter of peacemaking. <br /><br />We all need to decide who to listen to. Many are listening to those who say they can protect America by bombing the @#! out of our enemies. René Gerard tells us that “all violence has a mimetic character,” and being inherently imitative, violence exacts violence in return. <br />Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15701771893425250142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-64488519572567876342018-08-20T15:03:01.865-05:002018-08-20T15:03:01.865-05:00Thanks, as always, Larry, for reading and respondi...Thanks, as always, Larry, for reading and responding to my blog article this morning.<br /><br />I was happy to hear about Fr. John Dear coming to Kansas City again this fall. I heard him speak, and was able to chat with him just a bit, at Community Christian Church in KC back in 2014, and I look forward to the possibility of hearing him speak at Avila University in October.LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-61749386441881979782018-08-20T14:42:24.335-05:002018-08-20T14:42:24.335-05:00Peacemaking always needs to be done before there i...Peacemaking always needs to be done before there is any necessity of war, and the reason it has often seemed to become "necessary" to wage war is because peacemakers failed to adequately wage peace--and to pursue social justice, which is always necessary for true peace. <br /><br />Also, as Christians our loyalty must always be to Christ primarily and to country only secondarily--and we have the obligation to love not only our fellow Christian brothers and sisters in our own country but in "enemy" countries as well. <br /><br />As I have written before, most wars of the past could have prevented if Christians had refused to fight or even refused to kill other Christians. How sad that not only have so many Christians failed to love their enemies, they have not even loved their Christian brothers and sisters enough not to fight against them in war. LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-65935619383871132532018-08-20T14:28:59.732-05:002018-08-20T14:28:59.732-05:00Thanks, Debra, for your comments. Actually, I wrot...Thanks, Debra, for your comments. Actually, I wrote the original draft of this chapter in TTT before becoming a member of Rainbow Mennonite Church, but one of the main reasons I became a Mennonite is because I thought/believed in this way--and I am so glad to be a part of church now where peacemaking/pacifism is the norm rather than the (sometimes vilified) exception.LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-7748868520062654632018-08-20T14:25:43.190-05:002018-08-20T14:25:43.190-05:00Local Thinking Friend Larry Guillot shares these c...Local Thinking Friend Larry Guillot shares these comments:<br /><br />"Encouraging as well as insightful. Your examples across Christianity to current exemplars remind us to what we are all called to--at a time when civic strife is paralyzing, 'culture wars' are debilitating, and nuclear proliferation continues, now by updating nuclear devices. Trump would have us start planning for 'Space wars.' John Dear comes to KC, Oct. 25, at Avila, as part of their 'Buchanan Institute for nonviolence and peace'(Buchanan the name of a donor)."LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-27219763345910088572018-08-20T14:21:39.568-05:002018-08-20T14:21:39.568-05:00A Thinking Friend, and personal friend from way ba...A Thinking Friend, and personal friend from way back, sent me an email with this brief comment:<br /><br />"I don`t understand how we can prevent the overtaking of our country and our freedom to worship our GOD without going to war in some instances to insure that right."LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-41626620092415990202018-08-20T08:11:19.082-05:002018-08-20T08:11:19.082-05:00I just now received the first comments on this new...I just now received the first comments on this new blog article. It is from Thinking Friend, and church friend, Debra Sapp-Yarwood. I appreciate her talking the time to send these comments:<br /><br />"THIS is why I am Mennonite, and not any of the other Christianities (or UU), in which I have participated long enough to experience the driving center of their theology. In the other faith traditions, peacemaking is considered a nice vocation, if you choose it, but it's optional, like simplicity or hospitality. For Mennonites (and the other historic peace churches or the peace-centered offshoots of larger churches -- like Catholic Worker Movement), peacemaking is central and hence compels simplicity and hospitality.<br /><br />LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.com