Forty-Fourth Annual Time of Prayer and Fasting for
The Truth of Gospel Nonviolence
July 1-August 9
Our Lamb has conquered. Him let us follow.
FAST FOOD 2026, Twelfth Helping
“General Norman Schwarzkopf was a practicing Christian. He was a man of faith who often spoke about prayer, his belief in God, and the importance of Judeo-Christian values. He famously declared, ‘I am a religious man,’ during his military career and is often remembered for his strong support of military chaplains.” Wikipedia
Below, he proclaims the truth and the meaning of the Gospel that is today held by him and by 98% of all Catholics and Christians.
“A very great man once said you should love your enemies and that’s not a bad piece of advice. We can love them but, by God, that doesn’t mean we’re not going to fight them.” By which he means, non-euphemistically, kill them, not merely fight them.
- S. Army General Norman Schwarzkoph, Commander of the Conquest of Granada, 1983, and Commander of Desert Storm in Iraq 1991. A member of MENSA
If and when we want to better understand the teachings of Jesus, it can help to look at the lives of the earliest Christians. The Apostles, of course, learned much more from watching and listening to Jesus than could be included in the Gospels. While the writings of these earliest Christians don’t have the ecclesiastical authority of Scripture, they give us valuable insight into how the Apostles, and those who learned directly from the Apostles, understood and practiced Jesus’ teaching.
So, while we certainly want to avoid giving the earliest Christian teaching on violence and war the same authority as the Gospels’ rejection of violence, we’d better have strong evidence before we conclude that we more accurately understand the teachings of Jesus and His Apostles than those who were taught directly by them. In fact, one of the oldest texts to denounce Christians using violence, the first century, Didache, considered to be directly from the twelve Apostles, totally rejects Christians using violence in the most emphatic terms!
Maybe Norman Schwarzkoph and 98% of his Christian contemporaries have it right and the Didache and the first three hundred years of Christianity have it wrong. Personally, I wouldn’t want to bet my life on it—my eternal life.
Would you?
-Emmanuel Charles McCarthy
www.emmanuelcharlesmccarthy.org
https://www.youtube.com/@emmanuelcharlesmccarthy3292
“Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Love.
Heaven and earth are full of Your glory!
