If you're wondering what this has to do with Christianity then you may be in need of a refresher on History as well as the teachings of Christ, particularly the teachings that earned him the title "The Prince of Peace" as used by Isaiah to be taken as a sign of the Messiah. I wrote a piece about this sometime ago called "Why War is Against Everything the Gospel Stands For." which details the same themes here and in Rock Waterman's piece "Should a Mormon Join the Military."
Many Mormons argue that war is just fine by God, "Praise the Lord and pass the ammo!" But the question those Mormons never seem to answer is who did Christ ever kill? Not only did Christ refuse to kill the soldiers who came for him he rebuked Peter for lopping off the ear of one of those soldiers and then healed that soldier.
If you kill your enemy, how can you argue that you loved them as Christ said you should? If you yell epithets and condemn and treat those you claim to love with contempt how can you call that love? The same way the Westboro Baptist Church does I suppose but the only people that "logic," if you can call it that, fools is the Westboro Baptist Church members. No one else if fooled because just as Christ said "By their fruits you shall know them." And the fruits of hate are as obvious as the fruits of love.
So if terrorism in the name of a pacifist like Buddha strikes you ass an oxymoron, then so should violence in the name of a pacifist like Christ strike you as an oxymoron and counter to Christ's entire ministry, Life and Teachings.
Maybe we shouldn't be fighting to be recognized as Christians and instead call ourselves Christlikes if only to remind ourselves to be more Christlike, more peaceful, more loving, more compassionate and more forgiving.
Maybe we should be more concerned about standing up for those Christlike qualities rather than standing up for the purposes of American Militarism by flying thousands of miles away from America and into the borders of another sovereign Nation to kill and maim in the name of defending ourselves from a people that never invaded our lands, given that "we the people" fall for this every 15 years or so.
Maybe we should be more wary of war, terror and violence as being the tools of Satan than peace, love, forgiveness and anything resembling Socialism, ya know like free healthcare or the Law of Consecration even as practiced by Zion and as described in Acts 2:45? "And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." Or in Acts 4:34 "Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold."
What I'm saying is if we were to concern ourselves with being Christlike and put our Christianity above our Nationality, our race, our gender, our social class then maybe just maybe we could be that much closer to being Christlike and all the closer to The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit themselves.
Because far too many people are completely shocked that a Buddhist Monk is advocating violence but no one bats an eyelash when it is a Mormon who advocates going to war with yet another country, or when any individual within Christendom advocates violence.
And yet by their fruits shall ye know them. So in reality, people should be every bit as shocked when a Mormon advocates going to war, we should all be wary and we should all be shocked yet the fact that we are not means we have strayed from the example Christ set out before us in His ministry, His Life and His Teachings.
