March 22, 2011
There is no question that the Christian church of the first three centuries regarded itself as a nonviolent community. It makes perfect sense. Jesus clearly taught and modeled the nonviolent love of friend and enemy, and his earliest followers tried to do so.
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"Your Christians are so unlike your Christ"
- Mohandas Gandhi
John Puma
So true. Rabid evangelicals, homeschoolers, inward-looking prejudiced violence-loving "christians" seem to bear little relation to Christ. The neighbour is very limited, not the whole of humanity, as I suppose Christ meant. what a difference real Christians could make.
Ambrose Bierce said it best:
CHRISTIAN, n. One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor. One who follows the teachings of Christ in so far as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin.
I dreamed I stood upon a hill, and, lo!
The godly multitudes walked to and fro
Beneath, in Sabbath garments fitly clad,
With pious mien, appropriately sad,
While all the church bells made a solemn din—
A fire-alarm to those who lived in sin.
Then saw I gazing thoughtfully below,
With tranquil face, upon that holy show
A tall, spare figure in a robe of white,
Whose eyes diffused a melancholy light.
"God keep you, strange," I exclaimed. "You are
No doubt (your habit shows it) from afar;
And yet I entertain the hope that you,
Like these good people, are a Christian too."
He raised his eyes and with a look so stern
It made me with a thousand blushes burn
Replied—his manner with disdain was spiced:
"What! I a Christian? No, indeed! I'm Christ."
Since 313 Constantine empowered Christians throughout his empire. The result has been persecution of all non-Christians, genocide, and insane claims of miraculous support for such tragedies from Jesus himself.
The convenient promise of an eternity with God and the absolution of sins salves the guilty and profits the Church.
There ARE Christians who are not like the war-mongers mentioned in this article. One really good writer is Lawrence Vance, his work often appears on Lew Rockwell. He has written a book titled Christianity and War, I agree with every word in it. I'm a Christian and "conservative/libertarian", homeschooler, pro-life, and anti-war.
Many of his writings are here:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance-arch.html
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