So simple, so clear, and yet….what the heck are people thinking? In fact, this is a matter that truly justifies the original form of that “What the hell are they thinking? Exactly. Not as in afterlife hell. But hell as in the opposite of the Kingdom of Heaven”

The folllowing article I found via Jesus Politics

http://www.episcopalpeacefellowship.org/4-Resources/Articles/walters05.htm

The Gospel is crystal clear that Christians are not to return evil for evil. We are to work mightily in the world for justice, but we are never to use violence and coercion, the world’s methods of choice. The tools Jesus commands us to take up are love, patience, nonviolent resistance, and a willingness to suffer for the sake of others. These are non-negotiable. If we rationalize them away, how can the salt retain its savor? If the Church refuses to live the Sermon on the Mount, what distinguishes her from the world?

Yet today young Christians willingly serve in the armed forces and take up the murderous weapons of war. Older, stay-at-home Christians plaster their vehicles with belligerently pro-war “Power of Pride” stickers and insist that war against terrorism is godly. Clergy even use their pulpits to defend slaughtering instead of loving and praying for those who consider themselves our enemies. Christian nonviolence is mocked as cowardly and irresponsible. Loyalty to Christ is subordinated to patriotism.

Instead, we piously talk about the unfortunately necessity to resort to arms in the protection of the innocent. And so the myth of redemptive violence is reinforced, the killing continues and our hands are bloodied.

Should we really continue to call ourselves followers of the Prince of Peace? If there’s one sin that Jesus loathed, it’s hypocrisy. Until we repent of our willingness to accommodate to a world overtaken by fallen powers and principalities, the least we can do is find another label for ourselves.