re: didn't you support our *killing* in Afghanistan?
I make three basic divisions, among those who worship and follow the God of:
1. Jesus (love your enemy)(also Lao Tsu, Buddha)
2. Moses (eye for an eye)(also Mohammed, Confucius)
3. Joshua (kill them all)(also innumerable other tribal war gods)
I try to follow #1 (no examples here, as nobody practices it).
I will not criticize those who follow #2 (overthrowing the Taliban, after the WTC attack).
I will label as evil, the worship of #3 (overthrowing the Iraqi government, when they had not attacked us, and did not even have the capability of threatening our national security).
What label people apply to themselves, has little relation to which of the above Gods they actually follow. For instance, most Muslims seem to follow #2 or #3, even though the message of Mohammed is entirely #2. Likewise, the message of Christ is entirely #1, yet those who call themselves Christians, mostly practice #2 or #3. That is, the practice of the world's 1.2B Muslims, compared to the practice of the world's 2B Christians (and all their governments), is indistinguishable.
The eventual goal, is for everyone to worship God #1. But, for now, it would be a great improvement, and a more practical goal, to convince the Joshua-worshippers to abandon their doctrine of unlimited aggression, and wage only defensive wars. (As always, I mean the dictionary definition of "defensive", not the elastic stretch-to-cover-anything Orwellian definition which is so popular with militarists.) |
