For clarification, if the people I know that call themselves Wiccans exhibit better fruits more consistently than the people I know who call themselves Christians, then I should be judging Wicca superior to Christianity, right?
You must ask yourself, what do you strive for in Christianity and what do you strive for in Wicca, in other words what is pleasing in Wicca and what is pleasing to God in Christianity and by their fruits you shall know them.
I really don’t understand where you are coming from, Josh. You seem to advocate an extreme position of non-violence, which has never been a Christian perspective, has it?
Not sure.
Would you say that standing up against Lucifer is wrong? That to resist Satan is to fight against our brothers?
When you say standing up against Lucifer, do you mean hacking our brothers and sisters to pieces on a battlefield? because I don’t think Lucifer would tremble too much at that, he thrives on hatred and violence.
If indeed there are fallen angels that wish to do us harm, I have no problem taking a stand against Michael’s former “brothers” who wish us ill will. In fact, I would (and have) done warfare against them on behalf of my brothers in the Lord, when the enemy has tried to thwart the work of God.
We cannot understand the mystery of the trinity until the afterlife, we are eternal beings in the afterlife, there is no threat of death, violence may be pointless in the afterlife. So when you say fight, we fight against Lucifer every day with our good works, with our love and mercy and evangelization.
I don’t know if your opinions are your own, or if they represent the general Catholic mindset. But many many wars have been fought by Christians over the ages, and you can’t possibly think all of them were unjustified, can you? That even when attacked, a Christian cannot do anything to physically defend himself?
It is hard for a lot of people to understand this, I like to think of it with Exodus.
The word of God is “Thou shalt not kill” period.
Remember when Moses killed the Egyptian in trying to save the Hebrew? Do you think God was pleased with him for that? God certainly wasn’t pleased with him, It was not “right” what Moses did, but he wasn’t condemned for it either.
God did not say “Thou shalt not kill … oh but it’s okay in some circumstances”
Sometimes we may have to take a life to save a life, but that doesn’t make it right nor justified. Anyone who feels justified or righteous in taking a life is gravely mistaken.
In some cases it may be understandable and forgivable to take a life (like when Moses did), however it is never righteous to take a life under any circumstance.
But what about the opposite experienced by your neighbor?
Does your life experience create reality, or does reality exist outside of you or what you think reality might be pending a kindness contest?
Exactly.
The other side we fight against in war think they are doing the exact same thing, often in battle they say “why do you go out and fight” to which the reply is “because of my friend next to me” if both sides are fighting to protect their friend next to them, than who is righteous, who is justified?
Love and mercy (forgiveness & compassion) are of God. Hatred and violence will never be of God.
I like very much what you wrote, but – from a Catholic perspective – you may be overplaying your hand here. I once exchanged emails with a friend, adopting your very position (almost verbatim, in fact), but was arguing on the side of pacifism. My friend, meanwhile, was arguing on the side of Catholicism, whereby one could be both a soldier and a good Christian.
My argument essentially was “when Jesus said ‘there is no greater love than this, to lay down your life for your friends’ it is not clear he intended it to encompass 'there is no greater love than this, to be willing to kill for your friends and to die defending them.” The killing aspect of the equation muddied the waters, I felt, but he felt that the a Christian sense of self-sacrifice could remain intact, even though – as you’ve pointed out – while your enemy was trying to kill you, you were trying to kill your enemy (and might just as well have succeeded).
Thank you.
Like I mentioned above, I like to think of it in the story of Moses.
When Moses killed the Egyptian in trying to save the Hebrew, God certainly wasn’t pleased with him for that, It was not “right” what Moses did, he knew it wasn’t right and was sorry for what he did, but he wasn’t condemned for it either.
God did not say “Thou shalt not kill … oh but it’s okay in certain circumstances”
Sometimes we may have to take a life to save a life, but that doesn’t make it right nor justified. Anyone who feels justified or righteous in taking a life in any circumstance is gravely mistaken.
In some cases it may feel necessary and be understandable and forgivable to take a life (like when Moses did), however it is never righteous nor justified to take a life under any circumstance.
It takes great strength to follow Christ and lay down our life as he did and his disciples did, it’s only out of weakness that sometimes we take a life to save a life, I don’t know what I would do given such a situation because I have never been tested like that, but if I did take a life to save a life, Id know it not pleasing to God and never to be Justified nor righteous, but sometimes it may be necessary to take a life in order to save a life.
God Bless
Thank you for reading
Josh
