I find nothing to celebrate on the Fourth of July. It, like all nationalist holidays, is nothing more than the largest, loudest, and obnoxious propaganda program that has ever existed. Through all the parades, fireworks, and barbeques, people rarely ask what exactly are they so effulgently praising and whether or not the should be doing it. As a result, they reaffirm their loyalty to and love for one of the most violent, bloody, and dangerous regimes in the world, one responsible for murdering over 6 million civilians in the last 20 years. The great William Lloyd Garrison called such devotion, “the latest and the most terrible form of idolatry,” and he was correct. As this article explains, it is in direct opposition to the commandments of God and the direction of His prophets.
Tag: love your enemy
Nonviolence in Early Christianity, Part 1
Some of the oldest and most affirmed truths in all of Christendom are that Jesus Christ commands us to love our enemies, to renounce violence, and to reject all other worldly loyalties – be they nation, empire, or people – for the Church, the Gospel, and Jesus Christ Himself. These truths can been in the writings of the earliest surviving Christian leaders and writers. What follows below is the first part in an effort to share a small sampling of these statements which I have tried to place within a rough chronological order. Hopefully they will help the reader, whether Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, Pentecostal, Christian Scientist, Latter-day Saint, etc. to understand the role of what we now call nonviolence, civil disobedience, rejection of world powers -what we today call the State – and loving and serving your enemy as central beliefs in the long history of true Christianity, ancient and modern.
Christians, Guns, and Killing in Self-Defense
In the United States guns are an inescapable part of everyday life. Depending on what state you live in you could be surrounded by people either carrying a gun secretly or openly. Even outside the USA it is a rare country that doesn’t glorify its military and soldiers as armed heroes of the nation who do the work of fighting and killing which all within the country’s borders. The entertainment of the world is awash with violent heroes whose solutions to the problems of the world is to kill anyone who stands in their way and not even ask questions about it later. They’re just assumed to be right. Everywhere we turn violence is idolized as the ideal and justified in endless ways. But are these ways of the world also the ways of Christ?
The short answer is no, they are not. A Christian should reject killing, even in self-defense, and should instead rely upon the power of God as the only true source of safety one can have in the world. Guns, bullets, and bombs will never keep you safe. They are merely idols whose worship demands human sacrifice – your life or theirs. Instead of of focusing on killing or getting vengeance upon his or her enemy the Christian should be working to forgive and redeem his or her enemy.