RE: The terrorism meme

From: Grant Callaghan (grantc4@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat 09 Nov 2002 - 15:48:14 GMT

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    >Date: Sat, 9 Nov 2002 04:04:12 -0500
    >
    >Jeremy, I have a couple of Bible-related questions, and am hoping that you
    >can help out.
    >
    >1. Can you quote a couple of determinative anti-war biblical sources?
    >
    >2. Can you explain the biblical connection between the Christian
    >fundamentalists and their Armageddon-related support for Israel?
    >
    >I hope this isn't asking too much, and would greatly appreciate your help
    >in
    >understanding this.
    >
    >Thanks in advance,
    >Lawry
    >
    >
    >
    >-----Original Message-----
    >From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On Behalf Of
    >Jeremy Bradley
    >Sent: Friday, November 08, 2002 10:27 PM
    >To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    >Subject: Re: The terrorism meme
    >
    >At 08:06 AM 6/11/02 -0500, you wrote:
    > >
    > >On Wednesday, November 6, 2002, at 12:12 , Grant Callaghan wrote:
    > >
    > >> the armies raised by these religious empires still use the words of
    > >> Christ and Mohamed
    > >
    > >Now, I'm not a biblical or koranic scholar, so, I'm just asking- what
    > >words of the new testament are they using? I can bring up about a
    > >thousand words from Deuterotomy that would skin you alive, but, I'm
    > >absent of anything reported to be said by Christ that could be used to
    > >foment war. Just the opposite.
    > >
    > >- Wade
    >
    >Spot on Wade
    >As a Biblical scholar, I can verify the above. Those in favour of war can
    >not, acording to the essential teachings, call themselves followers of
    >Christ. In fact, until politics and Christianity became intertwined at a
    >State level (300-400AD), it was antithetical to Christian ideology to be
    >actively involved with violence or war.
    >Cheers
    >Jeremy
    >
    This may be off the way this subject is being handled above, but I'd like to ask a couple of questions myself.

    1. How do the leaders of our country get people to follow their lead?

    2. Do they use religion to demonstrate their goodness and the right to lead?

    3. Is the stance of the U.S. on abortion, for example, the result of reason or religious fanaticism?

    What I see is a government ready to cut off the food of people in other countries who want to use abortion as a means of birth control while at the same time they are willing to bomb and destroy the infrastructure of a country, possibly killing many more people than the babies lost through abortion. Why is killing so wrong in the case of abortion and so right in the case of war?

    By claiming to be "good, God-fearing Christians, the leaders of our country try to convince us of their good motives for doing what they do. That, to my mind, is using the words of Christ to commit anti-Christian acts and promoting the memes of war. They are not claiming that Christ said we should go to war. They are claiming their motives are pure because they follow the words of God in the name of Christ. And therefore we should follow their lead in going to war. But they dont! They don't follow the words of Christ -- they just pay them homage to get what they want. They don't use them by saying them. They use them by claiming to follow them. By making promises they never plan to keep.

    They say that becuase they save fetuses they are doing God's work. But when they are killing people in Afghanistan and Iraq, they also claim to be doing God's work by liberating the people. They are using God as an excuse to drop bombs on people! They use the fact that they go to church and listen to the gospel as a way to prove their goodness and righteousness. Laura Bush teaches bible classes in part so her husband can get elected to the office of president. That's how they use the words of Christ to pursue a path of anti-Christian behavior.

    Grant

    Grant

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