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The Harmony of the Gospels, Book I Chapter 26. Of the Fact that Idolatry Has Been Subverted by the Name of Christ, and by the Faith of Christians According to the Prophecies. 40. For truly what is thus effected by Christians is not a thing which belongs only to Christian times, but one which was predicted very long ago. Those very Jews who have remained enemies to the name of Christ, and regarding whose destined perfidy these prophetic writings have not been silent, do themselves possess and peruse the prophet who says: "O Lord my God, and my refuge in...

If you happened to be in a crowded room at The Beacon Drive-In one Wednesday in late August, you would have heard a man in a suit reference Genesis Chapter 50, the book of Isaiah, and using two fish and five loaves of bread to feed thousands of people. It wasn't a sermon. It was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a 2008 presidential contender, during a stump speech in front of a room full of Republicans. Using biblical references on the campaign trail isn't unusual, especially in the conservative core of South Carolina. Often, they can be heard when candidates...

Our way of life is tolerant, spirited and full of humour. We should make no apologies for fighting the moral descendants of Stalin and Hitler who would destroy it On a rare dry evening last week I walked to a meeting in London. The streets were full and the pubs overflowing with drinkers, many of whom are on the pavements because of the smoking ban: people having a good time at the end of an average working day, smiling and joshing each other. Too often we forget that we have built a successful and good-natured society over the last 10...

When Ayn Rand wrote about the moral code she originated, the code of rational self-interest, she stressed that morality is a matter of life and death. The right ethics, she held, leads to individual (and societal) survival, prosperity, happiness; the wrong ethics leads to misery, poverty, death. This is true in every field but is especially true in the realm of war, as the present struggle has made clear. We are losing the war on Islamic Totalitarianism because our leadership, political and military, is crippled by the morality of altruism, embodied in the tenets of Just War Theory. The moral...

Don’t ask me what I think of the war. I’ll tell you anyway. I won’t tell you what you want to hear. I won’t tell you whether I am for or against it. I will tell you only that I think the same way G. K. Chesterton thinks about the war. Which war? Any war. I refer to his position because, curiously enough, it coincides with the Catholic Church’s position. We all know all the arguments against killing. And even against fighting. The Bible is pretty clear. Thou shall not kill. If your enemy strikes you on one cheek, offer...

Iraq War Debated at Asbury Seminary Ray Nothstine Two teachers at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky debated the Iraq War at a forum on the campus in early October. Philosophy of Religion Professor Jerry Walls defended traditional Christian just war teachings, and affirmed that those teachings could justify the Iraq War. Philosophical Theology Professor Charles Gutenson affirmed pacifism and opposed the Iraq War, even though he supports unspecified ?police? actions that involve lethal force. Asbury Seminary hosts more United Methodist students than any other school. Professor Walls emphasized the enormous danger of what he dubbed ?Islamic Jihadists? by quoting...

“I have come to light a fire on the earth. How I wish the blaze were ignited!” Luke 12:49 “Hombre’ – noun. A man. A fellow. A man among men.” There lived, and there live today, Holy Hombres. Since Holy Hombres will be the focus of this light reflection, we must first look at the greatest lady who stood behind the most important man of all time, and even non-time. “Behind every great man, there is a woman,” says the adage, and we can certainly apply this adage to the God Man, Jesus Christ. We Catholics recently celebrated a great...

As a Roman Catholic I believe the words of the Holy Father must be treated with the utmost respect, particularly when it comes to issues of faith and moral judgment. At the same time, respect for reason is one of the hallmarks of the Catholic tradition, which has never embraced the notion that faith involves the sacrifice of intellect. It must be a special challenge, therefore, when a statement by the Holy Father about the consequences of moral principle appears to fail the test of logical reasoning. According to media reports, when speaking to a gathering of pilgrims in St....

I’ve touched upon “just war” several times in this space, during the last few weeks. I will continue touching it today. The issue is already an urgent one; its significance can only grow in the foreseeable future, as the encounter between fanatical Islam and the West spreads from mere terror incidents to open guerrilla warfare on various fronts.We see in the Middle East just now, how the conflagration is spreading. Hezbollah enjoyed little support in the Arab world, when it kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, and began firing rockets at an unprecedented rate into northern Israel. The Arabs feared Hezbollah’s aggressive...

Judaism does not regard violence and war to promote justice as always wrong. It accepts that certain kinds of war will be ethically justified, and that it is sometimes morally acceptable to kill people. Before declaring war or starting a battle there must be a genuine attempt to make peace and avoid the conflict. Jewish law only permits combatants to be deliberately killed in war. Innocent civilians must be given every opportunity to leave the field of combat before a battle starts. Old Testament In much of the Old Testament God gives his clear approval to war. He is identified...

Fighting the wolves at the gate by John Krenson The shepherd tends his flock at night as the wolves are ever present. He increases his control of the space around his pastures to establish a buffer for his sheep; to keep the wolves out of range. Finally he yields some of that space back to the wolves only to see the attacks against his sheep increase to the point that he begins to lose them to the wolves. What do we expect shepherds to do? We expect them to protect their sheep - to provide tranquility for their grazing and...

Author Fouad Ajami Says US-Led Invasion of Iraq Was A Noble War By Judith Latham Fouad Ajami, director of the Middle East Studies Program at the Johns Hopkins University, comes from a Shi’a family in Lebanon. Professor Ajami is the author of numerous books on the Middle East, the latest of which is The Foreigner’s Gift: The Americans, the Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq - to be published in July. Unlike many Arab intellectuals, Professor Ajami is a strong advocate of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. He says the war in Iraq was a “noble war” and a “gift”...

Let us make war on the phrase "violence doesn't solve anything." It is a lie, and anyone who utters it cannot be taken morally seriously. Take, for example, the American use of violence against the Taliban. Thanks to it, Afghani women may get an education, attend public events without a male escort and otherwise ascend above their prior status as captive animals. Thanks to American violence in Afghanistan, Islamic terror has started to decline in prestige among many Muslims who had previously romanticized it. Though many Muslims still glorify Muslims who blow themselves up in order to murder Jews and...

U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon presided over a House Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday in which the commander of the National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) acknowledged that the degraded chemical munitions revealed in last week’s report constitute weapons of mass destruction. While the usefulness of the approximately 500 pre-Gulf War munitions is disputed by weapons experts, Weldon said in his opening statement their discovery over the past three years justifies the March 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime. "I want to be absolutely clear about what we are talking about here. These 500 chemical munitions are weapons of mass...

Silenced Trappist struggled with obedience while trying to lead the church on peace By Father Robert Nugent5/7/2006 America (www.americamagazine.org)NEW YORK (America) - Thomas Merton spent almost half his life in the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, a Trappist monastery in Kentucky. Strict silence was an integral part of the Trappist way of life when he entered in 1941. Merton took readily to the rule of strict silence, but circumvented it when necessary. By the mid-1960’s the Second Vatican Council’s renewal of religious life reached even contemplative orders, relaxing the rigorous observance of silence. During that time, Merton experienced a...

This is something I found on a Christian forum written by an evangelical Christian: --------------------------------------------------------- "In 1992, I graduate high school and went off to the Marines. I grew up in a Baptist church, where we would say the pledge during church and honor veterans during Memorial Day and July 4th holidays. We believed in “just war”. I grew up believing it was God’s will to fight for America, we were one nation under God and it was honorable and Biblical to do anything and everything to defend God’s nation. I served my four years as an 1833. That’s the...

"JUST" WARS & DOUBLE-TONGUED DEMOCRATS On May 2, 2003 Pope Benedict XVI, as Cardinal Ratzinger, (Head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) stated: “He (John Paul II) did not impose this position ('Iraq War not necessary') as doctrine of the Church but as the appeal of a conscience enlightened by faith” (Zenit News Agency). Unlike many U.S. Democrats, Pope John Paul's thoughts on the Iraq War were not voiced in an arrogant, judgmental manner. He loved America, and praised President George W. Bush's moral leadership (Zenit News - June 4, 2004). Pope John Paul II never praised...

The project in Iraq can succeed, and leave its critics scrambling. Almost everything that is now written about Iraq rings not quite right: It was a “blunder”; there should have been far more troops there; the country must be trisected; we must abide by a timetable and leave regardless of events on the ground; Iraq will soon devolve into either an Islamic republic or another dictatorship; the U.S. military is enervated and nearly ruined; and so on. [snip] Strangely, I doubt whether very many would agree with much of anything stated above — at least for now. But if the...

"There was a lot of reason to be concerned about weapons of mass destruction in the hands of Saddam Hussein," he told WABC Radio's Mark Simone. "I always thought that he probably had chemical and biological weapons and biological precursors as well."

The project in Iraq can succeed, and leave its critics scrambling. Almost everything that is now written about Iraq rings not quite right: It was a “blunder”; there should have been far more troops there; the country must be trisected; we must abide by a timetable and leave regardless of events on the ground; Iraq will soon devolve into either an Islamic republic or another dictatorship; the U.S. military is enervated and nearly ruined; and so on. In fact, precisely because we have killed thousands of terrorists, trained an army, and ensured a political process, it is possible to do...