When is the use of force valid?

The subject of war is one that is a complex one, and the validity of it will likely always be debated.

There is no single Christian view of war, even though some would lead folks to think that all Christians are "right-wing war mongers".

There is no one verse that can be used to define the Bible's opinion on the matter.

The Bible does say, "Thou shalt not kill", but that applies to individuals and relates to murder. The Bible also depicts the histories of several wars and never condemns them (at least from the standpoint of being wars themselves).

My view is that you look at how various scripture themes tie together to determine if the principle of force is valid. There are Christians who have always been pacifists; there are Christians who have always stated that scripture permits force. I personally think those Christians who are pacifists are naive. We live in a fallen world, and to maintain justice sometimes force has to be used. In one sense, war is a logical extension of law. Pacificists would have to contend (in order to be logical) that police should never kill people in the line of duty. Society would break down in a heartbeat if the principle that force can never be used were followed.

Nations have different responsibilities from individuals. People are exhorted in scripture to hold to live peacefully. Nations and governments have the responsibility of keeping the peace, which is different.

Romans 13 says ¹Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. ²Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. ³For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. ⁴For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. ⁵Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. ⁶This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. ⁷Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. (I put in the underlines.)

This is implying that governments, in order to maintain a peaceful society, sometimes have to use force to do that, and that could be against citizens who commit crimes or against nations who do wrong. It is not saying that governments are direct institutions of God--but that in the scheme of things God uses human institutions to keep peace. Remember, too, this was in the letter to the Romans. The Roman government put Paul in jail for preaching and he still believed they were a legitamate government!

Another approach that has been developed to determine the validity of war is the "Just War Theory" that was developed by Augustine and expanded on by Thomas Acquinas. A good summary of this is at:

http://www.monksofadoration.org/justwar.html

The problem is, people will always disagree on the conditions of when war is just. There are Christians who actually have trouble with the fact that an incredibly brave German pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, participated in a plot to assassinate Hitler. He was captured and executed for it.

Another view is the priniciple of moral gradation. This is the idea that sometimes something that is not great must be done to stop something that is worse. There is a phrase (admittedly not scriptural, but I think sensible) that says, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." So even though some might contend that is was wrong for Bonhoeffer to want to kill Hitler it was appropriate because to stand by and do nothing would permit much more evil.

If you want to die happy

Go to the Thai Diner in the west end of Richmond, VA and have the spicy noodle soup. Get it American Hot. You will then be able to die happy.

Rumination – What’s the Point? Is thinking worthwhile, or not? It depends on whether or not you have a point!

In the movie, “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”, Steve Martin says to John Candy: “You know when you're telling these little stories? Here's a good idea: have a point. It makes it so much more interesting for the listener!”

Sometimes people deride thinkers as muddled and impractical, and I understand this because many are. To me the worst thing is thought without a point. There is a difference between ruminating to obtain clarity and thinking just to think.

Ruminate. dictionary.com says:

v 1: chew the cuds; "cows ruminate" 2: reflect deeply on a subject; "I mulled over the events of the afternoon"; "philosophers have speculated on the question of God for thousands of years"; "The scientist must stop to observe and start to excogitate" [syn: chew over, think over, meditate, ponder, excogitate, contemplate, muse, reflect, mull, mull over, speculate]

It’s a great word, and I believe, an important quality to develop. I heard a pastor once say that “ruminate” was the word that the psalmist had in mind in Psalm 1:2, when he wrote, “But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates (or ruminates) day and night.”

The example that dictionary.com used, “philosophers have speculated on the question of God for thousands of years” is evidence that perhaps even the dictionary doesn’t get it. I may be moving from definition to connotation here, but there is a huge difference between rumination and speculation.

The purpose of bovine rumination (to echo Dave Barry, ‘Bovine Rumination’ would be a great name for a band) is to get the food to the point where it is energy, where it provides life to old Bossie. Speculation can go on forever with no result; rumination ends with digestion. Rumination should beget clarity (and maybe some gas…); speculation may beget nothing but more speculation, or it may result only in the speculator feeling pretty darned good about what a thinker he thinks he is…

Speculation becomes a mental treadmill if it leads to nothing but more speculation, or worse, it becomes mental masturbation if it just leads to the speculator feeling good about his thoughts. In neither is clarity gained.

Speculative thinking is widespread today because relativism (all points are equal) and cognitive dissidence (the ability to believe two opposing views at the same time and not seeing the contradiction—e.g., being a moral relativist and also believing in something as “wrong” or “right”) are the order of the day and inconclusive thinking is the natural result.

Rumination leads to clarity because it has an object (a point) and a process. The process is the refinement of the object until it breaks down into useful components (e.g., as food into energy). It is gradual, but purposeful. Even the gas has a purpose.

The ruminator needs to start with: “I know there is a point, and I trust I will find it.” That makes all the difference.

No more pontifications...

The end is here for the days of spoofing the news coverage of the Pope’s health. Anything written at this point would be tasteless, although some might say, “And how would that be different?”

I’ve had several questions on these items. Some just didn’t get it; others didn’t understand “the fascination with the Pope”. And for some, pope jokes just aren’t funny, no matter what.

To close out this chapter, it might help to tell what this has drove all this. It wa about him as celebrity, and as pop icon. The pope was the object, but the media was the subject.

It all started one slow news weekend in February when Fox News began running almost continuous coverage of his condition.
“The Pope is at the window. “Ooh, look. Now he’s waving.”
“Well, Frank, what do you think of that wave? Is that the wave of a healthy Pope, or a sick one?”
On and on and on and on for days!

It was weirdly reminiscent of the coverage of Princess Diana, and oddly juxtaposed against the coverage of the Michael Jackson trial. And it was the irony of so many people who disagree with the pope on so many things, behaving as though they actually cared. The pontiff is a man whose detractors quote for their own advantage; he’s prolife and anti-war, so many can find one sound byte they can use to legitimize their position, even though most couldn’t stand up to the totality of his beliefs.

This all made it clear that the pope is more than just a modern modern religious leader (in the mold, say of the Archbishop of Canterbury or Billy Graham), he's actually a celebrity! Hence the stories mixing the pope with MJ, American Idol, and the Ocars.

The coverage reached total absurdity yesterday when the Fox camera was trained on the two lights of the papal residence for hours, with the caption on the screen reading “Pope still alive”! The reports were speaking in hushed tones, as if reporting on a golf tournament, grasping for fresh words to say.

Today Matt and Katy are in Rome wearing tasteful black wardrobes and asking somber, serious questions. (Have you ever seen buzzards circling?)

Soon after he’s gone, they’ll be back to Michael Jackson, and The Next Big Thing.

Mercifully, now that his death is near, the coverage is turning. They have moved beyond his wavering wave, and whether or not he’ll speak at the window, and are addressing what his life has meant to the church and to the world. Only good can come of that.

(No one has found the hidden joke yet. It's pretty subtle, and sort of gauche, and maybe not that funny. You'd probably have to know too much about the Pope to find it. No more clues.)

Vain attempts at meaning

This has been a week of tragedies...the Minnesota school shootings, the Jessica Lunsford sexual abduction and murder case.

Terrible events, all. Yet every time events such as these occur, the same things follow. News talk shows ask “experts” what the government can do to guarantee that tragedies like this will never happen again. A misguided affected person or a legislator with a desire for name recognition will introduce some worthless piece of legislation intending to correct a symptom related to the tragedy. This week’s news brought an onslaught of debate on, “Do we need more cops in schools?” “How do we protect our children?” Maybe we all need bars on our windows.

A recent pathetic example of this is of a mother whose son died on his 21^st birthday from binge drinking. Sheis dedicating her life to getting a law passed that would declare that the 21^st birthday doesn’t occur at midnight, but rather at sunrise the following morning. The premise is her son died because he went to a bar at midnight when he turned 21 and he might still be alive if he hadn’t been able to do that. Sad, because it’s flawed thinking, wasted energy, and ultimately a law that has no purpose other than to someday appear in a book of stupid laws. Maybe the reason you can’t whistle underwater in Vermont is a misguided mother’s love. (I do wonder how that one came about!)

The truth is one can never guarantee that these things will never happen again. Just this morning the news gave us a story from Iowa similar to the Jessica Lunsford case. People will always commit crimes, people will always do wrong. “The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.”

The real tragedy is seeing people put hope and trust in those vain attempts to find meaning.

Toby, faith and weed-post it here.

In the post "Things I Don't Understand", I made the statement that I don't understand "How Toby sings about his faith and about getting high with Willie."

- One person asked me who Toby is.
- Anonymous said, "Does that mean he doesn't have faith? "
- And then Anonymous said, "No, some people put their faith in things that go up in smoke...not in eternal things...too bad."

Either Anonymous was having an argument with himself, or there were really two Anonymous'. I sure hope it's the latter.

A1 seems to think that weed and faith are consistent
A2 implies that Toby puts his faith in weed

What I was really getting at is that Toby Keith sings and talks about being a Christian, so A2 missed the mark. Toby doesn't claim to put his faith in weed. At the same time, he sings about getting high with Willie Nelson. And A1 says, "what's wrong with that?

"Faith" can mean anything, so they could be consistent. But if you are referring to the Christian faith, are they really? I'd like to hear back from A1, or anyone else, what Scripture has to say about it...

Hidden Joke

Somewhere in the papal posts is a hidden joke. See if you can find it...

Are the Pope's Peeps Keeping Something From Us?

Enquiring minds have been clamoring for news of JPII!

First there was news of the Pope everywhere, and then all of a sudden nothing! A huge news vacuum; the world goes from hanging on to every word about his condition to nothing! How are we supposed to take this? What was happening? Were the Pope’s peeps hiding something?

Well finally today a news story appeared! The Vatican released the Pope’s new video. It’s not up to par with his “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” video, but true fans will love it. To quote wire service report, it’s “the pontiff speaking a few words in a husky voice….seated during a Mass …the small chapel in his hospital suite.”

But rumors abound. Some sources say the Pope left this earth about a year ago and the staff has been using stunt doubles and old videos to cover for him.

Others say that’s not true at all, but stated that the Holy Father was just down after being kicked off American Idol, and decided to keep a low profile for a while. The presence of the video makes that story seem plausible, since JPII wants to please his fans and he likely released the video to do just that.

Still others say that he has been totally engrossed in watching the coverage of the Michael Jackson trial and has not left the TV since it started. Larger room service orders of KFC and beer give plausibility to that story!

I’ll guess we’ll just have to stand by.

Scottish Joke

An Englishman, and Irishman and a Scotsman walk into a bar and each orders a pint of Guinness. When the drinks arrive they notice that all three pints have a fly in them. The Englishman looks pained but picks up a teaspoon and uses it to carefully scoop out the fly then proceeds to drink his beer. The Irishman sticks his fingers into his beer, picks out the fly, throws it on the floor and then drinks his beer. The Scotsman picks the fly out of his pint, and holds it over the drink, shaking it and saying, "Spit it out ye bugger! I know ye swallowed some!"

Know any good ones? Post them here....

What Makes You Happy?

So post a comment...

Things I don't understand

• People who think June Carter Cash can sing
• Michael Jackson's nose
• People who think Man is basically good
• Star Jones' appeal
• Interest in Donald Trump
• How cats think
• People who care what Bono says
• Paying to see the Bob Dylan of today
• People who hate Walmart
• Katie Couric's appeal
• For the last twenty years, Social Security was a crisis, and now it's not. How'd that happen?
• People who support the troops, but not what they do. How does that work?
• People who think only whites can be racists.
• City people who look down on country people, but want a house in the country
• Steve Erkel
• Pancakes and eggs for supper
• The appeal of apple juice (just look at it)
• Not liking spinach, liver or lima beans. What could be better?
• How flounders got their name?
• Kenny Chesney
• How Toby sings about his faith and about getting high with Willie
• Pathological animosity towards Garth and Shania (all they did was succeed)
• What is that on Michael Jackson's chin?
• Bloggers

So tell me what puzzles you...

The Pope and I both say "Hi!"

Frozen Smiles

Botox is a wildly popular cosmetic therapy. People have it injected into their faces and it makes them look younger. It’s not a one-time thing, though; the injections must be repeated every 4-6 months for as long as the patient wants the effect.

From a spiritual perspective, Botox is intriguing. Don’t get nervous: this is not back-to-nature indictment of cosmetic surgery; something about Botox just seems ironic.

If you’re not sure what Botox is, it’s a drug made from botulism, a deadly bacteria that paralyzes and kills people. The CDC says that “[a]ll forms of botulism can be fatal and are considered medical emergencies. Foodborne botulism can be especially dangerous because many people can be poisoned by eating a contaminated food.”

Several years ago, scientists figured out that botulism could be refined and developed into medicine. It has been used to successfully treat various spasmodic disorders. Somewhere along the line, scientists also figured out it could also be used to remove the appearance of wrinkles. As one doctor’s website says, “[the] repeated muscle contractions from years of smiles and frowns and surprises…deepen facial lines. Once Botox is injected, it seeks and finds just the right nerve endings that cause the contraction and halts the spark that contracts the muscle by blocking the release of a neurotransmitter. The nerve is then incapacitated by the Botox until it starts to awaken again in about 4-6 months. Then another shot of Botox restarts the process.”

If you didn’t catch that, it freezes the nerves in your face. People inject a disease into their faces to freeze the effects of smiles and surprises!

Smiles, frowns, surprises; the effects of a life lived. Injecting a disease in your face to wipe out the sleepless nights holding a sick child, or a dying mother. No, repeatedly injecting a disease in your face to eliminate the laughs at the dinner table, and the surprise of a 40^th birthday party.

Halting the spark of life so you can look good. And as Saturday Night Live’s Fernando says, It's better to look good than to feel good."

Many of us have our own spiritual Botox. We have our own ways to inject low-levels of death into our lives to freeze the effects of life. It seems better to be frozen than to feel the smiles, frowns and surprises. For non-believers, this is the normal course of things; life is Botox. Even believers, though, can be fooled into believing that numbness equals contentment, and that contentment equals peace.

A prayer for today might be, “Lord, let me find your grace in the stuff of life, in the passion of smiles, frowns and surprises. Let me not seek to freeze them out of my life with my ways. Amen.”

The Pope's Condition, 2/28/2005 10:44:26 PM Eastern Standard Time

The Pontiff experienced somewhat of a setback today. He was snubbed by the Oscars and will likely be voted off American Idol. His role of "Vicar of Christ" was not deemed the best supporting actor, especially by Protestants, who said "they could go straight to the man" and "didn't need no stinkin' vicar." He received several votes for a lifetime achievement award, but not enough to make it.

American Idol was particularly embarrassing. The Holy Father has had several hit albums, as listed on Amazon.com.
Rosary
Abba Pater(an album of Abba cover tunes)
The Gold Collection
Papal Blessing
From Rome to America

But tonight was not his night. He sang his new release, "Joseph, Buried Feet Up", a dark, gothic rocker in an incredibly strained tone, which was actually astounding for a guy who had just had a tracheotomy. Paula told him he had really "stepped up his game" and noted that she "was proud of you for really showing up since you've just had a chainsaw run through your vocal chords". Randy said "the dog was walking backwards" and Simon said, "There are hundreds of aging Polacks who sound better" than the pontiff.

It is expected that he won't last the week on AI. A note to readers: The Pope was a runaway winner at least year's "Vatican Idol", but apparently the USA looks for something else in its pop(e) stars...

The Pope's Condition, 2/27/2005 7:21:57 AM Eastern Standard Time

In a move that surprised the faithful today, the Pope waved to the crowd from his hospital window. Through a Vatican spokesmane, he attributed his new found strength to Vitamins M and J.

Next, though, in a move that stunned the whole world, right after waving to the crowd, the Pope grabbed an infant from the arms of a nearby nurse, dangled it out the hospital window and then disappeared into the room. A man with an umbrella stood nearby.

The Pope's Condition, 2/26/2005 6:56:39 PM Eastern Standard Time

The Holy Father breathed heavily, slept, and coughed so hard his little hat fell off. You can email him at john_paul_ii@vatican.va

The Pope's Condition, 2/26/2005 12:03:14 PM Eastern Standard Time

The Holy Father is resting. Doctors have advised him not to speak for several days as he recovers from surgery to insert a breathing tube in his throat. You can write to him at:

His Holiness,
Pope John Paul II,
Apostolic Palace,
00120 Vatican City