pro_universal:
Here’s an alternative: Faith that Jesus’s command to be peaceful is the truth, so we should adhere to it no matter what.
You are misinterpreting Bible verses. Peace does not mean absense of war but peace means obeying the Emperor as long as he is pro-Christian and not anti-Christian. That is what Lord Jesus meant by “Give unto the Emperor” for Emperor is Pharoah and Rome is Egypt. Only when Emperor gives us freedom to leave Egypt, we may leave. St. Constantine the Great changed the Romans from Egypt to Israel and restored to the Kingdom to Israel, ending rule of Egypt.
If you think politics and religion should not be one, let me ask why did Christians obey the decrees of the Ecumenical Council of Nicea? Because we give unto the Emperor, more so if the Emperor is a Christian.
pro_universal:
Last I checked, Reagan wasn’t Jesus and “we need to beat them!” isn’t a valid basis for Christian thought.
You checked from where? From Marxist and Islamist sources? Of course, the Emperor (ie. American President) has the right to use the sword against communists and muslims alike who engage in terrorism. As Christians in the American army, we have to submit to the command given by the Emperor to kill the evil-doer.
pro_universal:
Your continued whining about how there’s no alternative to nuclear weapons threats (a fact I dispute anyway) does not change the fact that, whether it’s the only method or not to win the “war on terror”, it’s forbidden by Jesus.
So you say. Yet you have got to prove that it is forbidden by Lord Jesus. I am surprised you say Jesus, not Lord Jesus. I suspect you are a un-observant Catholic influenced by Arian, Nestorian and Monophysite beliefs. Therefore, you are hardly Catholic, in fact not Catholic.
pro_universal:
If the choice is between dying or violating a sacred command of the Bible (thou shalt not kill), as a Priest, what do you advise your Parishioners to choose?
Let me ask you why those Monophysites in Egypt (which was within the Roman Empire) did not choose to die by the sword of Caesar? Why did they choose life over death? They loved to live that they betrayed the ruler of Egypt who was His Holiness Cyrus, Greek Patriarch of Alexandria (the Eastern Roman Catholic Patriarch) who used the sword to behead heretics. Why did they aid the Islamic invaders to conquer Egypt, rather the choose death by the Byzantine sword?
Pro_Universal, I see you do not even know the Bible when you mistranslate the verse “thou shalt not kill”. Its not “kill” but correctly “murder”. Even the CCC says death penalty is lawful as long as it is carried out by an Emperor and used as a last resort. Therefore, such killing is not murder in the eyes of Cathecism of Catholic Church and Bible.
To answer your question, I will choose to violate what you call “sacred command of the Bible” because we Christians are not Bible-only, in fact, we accept three sources of law: Bible, CCC and the 2,000 year old Traditions of the Church.
You may wish to go to a Protestant forum and tell them “thou shalt not kill”. Even they will laugh at you telling you that you are using a mis-translation of the Bible: its not “kill” but “murder”.