“The hand that held the Eucharist must not be sullied by the bloodstained sword.”
-St. Cyprian
Insignia of the U.S. Infantry Training School
Fort Benning, Georgia, worn by military personnel
assigned there, including Christian chaplains
The Constantinianists in the Church have turned it into just another religious public relations arm of the state. No level of logical or theological or interpretive absurdity is beyond the pale for them. They have turned the institutional Churches into schizoid operations. “Follow Jesus,” “Follow Jesus,” “Follow Jesus,” “Don’t follow Jesus,” “Don’t follow Jesus,” “Don’t follow Jesus,” is their daily discordant and cacophonous proclamation of the Gospel—Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and Evangelical.
“Follow me,” “Follow me,” “Follow me,” brazenly broadcast their bishops, priests, ministers and pastors to the Christian Community, “and I will permit you to morally participate in the cruelty and carnage of war. If you follow Jesus no such permission is available to you. Follow me and I will also give you the macabre word-play you need to quiet your Christian conscience and to believe in the preposterous idea that you are following the Nonviolent Jesus of the Gospels and His Way of Nonviolent Love of friends and enemies by following my way of holy, moral, necessary, justified, Christian homicidal violence.”
Who will you follow? Choose. But don’t kid yourself, do not deceive yourself, these are logically and operationally contradictory alternatives before you. To say, “Yes,” to one is to say, “No,” to the other. There are two masters here vying for the commitment of your will and your time on earth. If you are a Christian there is no choice not to choose. If you are a Christian, if you have encountered Jesus as the Word of God Incarnate, as your Lord, God, Savior, this is a moment of decision, a moment of judgment, a crisis moment in your short life on earth. ( Greek krisis is judgment). Whether you are a bishop, priest, minister, pastor or lay person, don’t kid yourself. “X” and “not X” cannot both be true.
-ECM
