FAST FOOD (2018): Fourth Helping
If you don’t want answers, you don’t ask the questions.
“The majority of men do not think in order to know the truth, but in order to assure themselves that the life that they lead, and which is agreeable and habitual to them, is the one that coincides with the truth. Slavery was contrary to all the moral principles which were preaches by Plato and Aristotle, yet neither saw this, because the negation of slavery would destroy all that life which they had and liked.”
–Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
Are violence and war necessary for Christianity to survive or for the eternal salvation of a single person?
“Do you really believe that Christianity will perish unless it be defended by war? If you do believe that, then you have deliberately passed a vote of no confidence in Christ. If Christianity needs this kind of defense then there is little that is really divine about it. We must conclude that a Christian faith which needs the defense of warfare is not a faith which even deserves to survive.” -William Barclay (1907-1978)
Questions looking for answers from popes, cardinals, bishops, priests, ministers, pastor and laity: Can you imagine the immediate disciples of Jesus joining a band of soldiers called a Roman Legion and going forth with Caesar to kill barbarians on the other side of the mountains? What does it mean morally for those who call themselves Christians that Jesus, whom they consider God incarnate, their Lord and Savior, their way, truth and life, lived and taught His disciples to live and to teach a Way of Nonviolent Love of all under all circumstances, whether they be friends or enemies? Is the unequivocal teaching of God Incarnate absolute or optional for a faithful disciple of Jesus? Can the explicit teaching of the “Word made flesh” be morally replaced or overridden by human conjecture regarding good and evil or how to respond to evil?
-Emmanuel Charles Mccarthy
