http://pnews.org/ Progressive News & Views (since 1982)
To add a word here, I am trained in theology as well as philosophy. I left the former domain because it was apparent that institutional religion was going into decline and might become increasingly destructive -- which it has as we can see today with all our Christian soldiers once again marching off to war. It was manifestly obvious that Christianity was co-opted early on by the martial values and practices of the Roman Empire and, thus, became the most deadly and destructive of the western religions. The Gospels of Jesus were early on -- before they were converted from oral tradition into written forms in fact -- trumped by St. Paul who redirected Christians in radically destructive directions -- anti-Semitism which culminated in the Holocaust, anti-gay biases that similarly stimulated millennia of anti-gay brutalities and/or hypocrisies that also produced a little Nazi holocaust, denigration of women, and worst of all synchophantic obedience to the worst of political leaders -- the Roman emperor for Paul, himself, the Nazis for the Papacy during their reign. I have packed much into this paragraph. Read Paul's letter to the Romans in which his hates are explicated for confirmation. Elsewhere you will find the outrageous charge that the "Jews killed Jesus" that has rung down the ages. Ed Kent P.S. I am with you on Gandhi's (Thoreau's originally) civil disobedience -- with exceptions only in extreme cases). Gandhi was non-violent by credo, but his successes lay in goading the other side into embarrassingly violent overreaction. Were the Palestinians to get his tactics, they could make much progress in their struggles for independence. Note that Israel is now being criticized for its retaliatory moves causing the deaths of innocents. They would do better by protesting rather than blindly shooting back. RDL wrote: > http://pnews.org/ > Progressive News & Views (since 1982) > > You ask for my estimate of the percentage on non-violent Muslims. My own > non-violence is not calculated on the amount > of commitment of a perceived enemy. I came out of a Christian environment > (though I am not technically Christian now) and embraced non-violence not > because the position is strong among Christians. (It never has been). I > embraced it because I believe that it is right, first of all. I also > believe that when it is embraced consistently, that it is also practical, > but that is not the primary consideration in my case. Christianity is > non-violent by creed, yes, but by application it fails as much as Islam > does....or Judaism. > Thought for the day: "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the > attribute of the strong." > ~Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) -- "A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli) -- Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/ http://www.bloggernews.net |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| pnews-news - (NEWS) - Send "subscribe" or "unsub" in subject to pnews-news-request(at)inyourface.info pnews-views - (VIEWS) - Send "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" as subject to pnews-views-request(at)inyourface.info |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Everything begins at The Worm Hole: http://pnews.org/ ----- Something Really Nice for your Honey - http://blackhillsg0ld.com/ Something Really Sexy for Her for Holloween: http://tinyurl.com/q878y --------------------------------------------- NEVER pay for a podcast again: Check it out - http://tinyurl.com/mnr7r -----
