Showing posts with label pacifism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pacifism. Show all posts

October 15, 2008

Politics and stuff

Today the blogs I frequent were full of good stuff. Below are some links and descriptions of some of the better entries and articles I found. Below that are some of my own rants and raves about those topics.

Here is an article by Princeton professor Robert George called Obama's Abortion Extremism, detailing the extent to which Obama supports abortion. He refers to Obama not as pro-choice, but as pro-abortion, because he seems to oppose anything that would even attempt to curb the number of abortions in this country. It's a little scary.


Here is a blog post by Dr. Ben Witherington III on pacifism. Dr. Witherington, whom I respect immensely, is a pacifist, and I really loved reading about his position.

A post from Denver Seminary Philosophy of Religion professor Dr. Doug Groothuis that was written back in March. It's about what he calls "fetus fatigue," or evangelical Christians who are sick of abortion being the only issue other Christians care about.

Another Justin Taylor post that picks up on the "fetus fatigue" idea and has some ideas from Al Mohler on the same topic.

Regarding Dr. Witherington's post on pacifism. I completely respect his position, and I don't strongly disagree with very much of what he's written. However, his main argument seems to be that Christians should not act violently against those who act violently toward them. If I'm being beaten I should still take it and be kind to my enemies. I actually don't have much of a problem with that. Witherington, though, doesn't address what we're supposed to do when violence is taking place against others. If I see a woman getting raped or beaten across the street, am I really supposed to let it happen because I'm a Christian? Or when rebels in Africa invade a village and torture all of its inhabitants before killing them, should we stand by and let it happen because we're Christians? Or when a German with a funny mustache is systematically exterminating millions of humans, should we allow it to go on because we're Christians? This is where I don't understand the extent of pacifism. I think even pacifists would probably say that we should intervene in those situations. Does it just mean that we don't kill the perpetrators but instead put them behind bars?

Regarding Obama on abortion. I've been bombarded by pro-lifers pointing out his terrible views on the issue, but today's blog post and article linked above pointed out even more to me. Obama did not support a Democrat-sponsored bill referred to as 95-10 legislation, that would seek to reduce the number of abortions in America 95% over the next 10 years by strengthening the social safety net for poor women. This bill would in no way make abortion illegal, it would simply make it rarer. I could respect a Democrat who believes abortion should be legal but acknowledges that it's tragic and undesirable, and who seeks to make abortion rare. This, however, seems to illustrate the fact that Obama does not want fewer abortions. It's like he wants more of them. Like it would be better for a poor woman to get pregnant and have an abortion than it would for her not to get pregnant at all. Utterly ridiculous.

And regarding the "fetus fatigue" stuff. I understand that Christians shouldn't care about only one issue. We should be committed to peace and to feeding the hungry and being kind to our environment and other very important things. However, as Al Mohler says in the last Justin Taylor post (linked above), "Our vote will determine whether millions of unborn babies live or die. The Freedom of Choice Act [which Obama plans to pass as president], if passed, would lead directly to a radical increase in the numbers of abortions. The abortion industry has told us that themselves. The question comes down to this: How many lives are we willing to forfeit -- to write off as expendable -- in order to 'move on' to other issues of concern? There is no way to avoid that question and remain morally serious."

September 20, 2008

Pacifism

Can someone help me understand pacifism?  I'm just a little lost.  First of all, I don't know how extreme the word is.  If you're a pacifist, does that mean that you simply disagree with declarations of war?  Or does it mean that you believe all violence is wrong (including punching a guy in the face who's beating or raping a pregnant woman in the alley)?  Either way, I'm pretty positive I'm not a pacifist (watch Tears of the Sun and try to make a case for it), but I feel like it's one of those where I know a lot of people that I consider to be smarter than me who are pacifists, and that makes me wonder if I should be one.  So I want to be a little more informed.

April 18, 2008

Pacifism

I cried a few minutes ago.

The original reason was because I watched one of my favorite movies which is called Tears of the Sun.  It stars Bruce Willis, who plays a Navy S.E.A.L. Lt. who has orders to extract an American missionary from a war-torn part of Africa.  The missionary won't leave the mission without the indigenous Africans who live there with her, and Willis and his team basically have to opt into saving these people from certain slaughter at the hands of rebel troops.  It's a pretty graphic movie, but incredibly moving.  It's also the movie I talk about when I'm describing to people why, even though I try very hard, I cannot be a pacifist.  (Please feel free to try to change my mind.  I often feel like I ought to be "corrected" on this issue of pacifism, so I welcome any challenges to my views -- of course, there are like 1.5 of you out there who read this... so I might not get anything.)

I kept crying because after the movie I looked at some pictures of my 6-month old nephew, who's adorable.  Thanks to my sister-in-law, Pamela, who does an amazing job of posting pictures of her little guy all the time so that those of us who can't see him very often (sad!) can at least see him in photos.