Larry Devich
Friday, June 18, 2004
This is my Free 55" TV one of the folks at work gave me today :-)
¶ 6/18/2004 04:37:00 PM 0 Comments
Peace
It's been a while since I updated my blog, so here I am.
I'm still studying Catholicism. Right now there is one issue that is really holding me up I think. That issue is WAR.
The Roman Catholic church has this concept called "Just War" that I find offensive and wrong. So far I have found no justification for it that sounds or feels right. There is simply no way to "resist not evil" and "love your enemy" while at the same time you tear him limb from limb leaving him screaming in agony and bleeding on the ground and slaughter his children by dropping bombs from 30,000 feet and saying, gee I sure hope I only hit soldiers.
The early church did not accept the idea of a just war. They rejected all use of force and refused to fight no matter what. Unless I discover some explanation for this that works I will never be able to be a Catholic. I could be a pacifist Catholic I suppose but that would not really work for me. I was attracted to the church on the basis that it is the real church, the One True Church founded by Jesus Christ and held from error by the Holy Spirit for the last 2,000 years. But if this church teaches something plainly evil and wrong, that cannot be. I will be trying to discover what explanations they have besides, "war is necessary for the state to survive." That is no excuse.
Obviously most Christian denominations agree with the Catholic church on the issue of war. The thing is, I don't. If the church is in error on this issue, then there is nothing really special about it after all and it is nothing but one more of the thousands of denominations of Christians and I can go back to picking and choosing one that suits me. On the other hand there may be something I'm missing so far and I will not give up on my investigation just yet. Especially since I really do feel like I have been commanded to do this investigation.
¶ 6/18/2004 06:05:00 AM 0 Comments
I'm still studying Catholicism. Right now there is one issue that is really holding me up I think. That issue is WAR.
The Roman Catholic church has this concept called "Just War" that I find offensive and wrong. So far I have found no justification for it that sounds or feels right. There is simply no way to "resist not evil" and "love your enemy" while at the same time you tear him limb from limb leaving him screaming in agony and bleeding on the ground and slaughter his children by dropping bombs from 30,000 feet and saying, gee I sure hope I only hit soldiers.
The early church did not accept the idea of a just war. They rejected all use of force and refused to fight no matter what. Unless I discover some explanation for this that works I will never be able to be a Catholic. I could be a pacifist Catholic I suppose but that would not really work for me. I was attracted to the church on the basis that it is the real church, the One True Church founded by Jesus Christ and held from error by the Holy Spirit for the last 2,000 years. But if this church teaches something plainly evil and wrong, that cannot be. I will be trying to discover what explanations they have besides, "war is necessary for the state to survive." That is no excuse.
Obviously most Christian denominations agree with the Catholic church on the issue of war. The thing is, I don't. If the church is in error on this issue, then there is nothing really special about it after all and it is nothing but one more of the thousands of denominations of Christians and I can go back to picking and choosing one that suits me. On the other hand there may be something I'm missing so far and I will not give up on my investigation just yet. Especially since I really do feel like I have been commanded to do this investigation.
¶ 6/18/2004 06:05:00 AM 0 Comments
