trying to follow

Wednesday, October 19

thoughts on pacifism

so over the past couple of months i have become somewhat of a pacifist. i say "somewhat" because i part with pacificists on some issues. more specifically, i support the death penalty, i do not bemoan our government's involvement in iraq (while i do disagree with it), and my reason for opposing war in the modern era is different than pacifists (it's not simply "war is wrong.")

over the past couple of days, however, i've been asking questions to myself about whether it is justifiable. i suppose it's necessary to divulge my main opposition to war. that's easy enough. i object because there's no directive from on high as i believe there was in the old testament. furthermore, it seems to me that a general principle of the new testament is submission as opposed to retaliation. (i am aware of the difference between an individual Christian and the secular state.) an issue that is not completely clear to me, on a personal level, is the issue of violence for the protection of others. that is, i believe that i would act in a violent manner, if necessary, to protect someone from another person. while it is my decision to not retaliate if someone attacks me, it is not my decision to deny others that choice. it was in thinking about this that i wondered again about war. was it not the case (or could it at least be argued) that the united states' actions in iraq were to prevent one group of human beings from harming others? is the war analagous to me resorting to violence to protect someone from a rapist or a murderer? i don't know.

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