Posted on 09/23/2001 3:34:26 PM PDT by Iowegian
Pope John Paul has issued a dramatic appeal that the world not be allowed to slide into war following attacks on the United States and urged against a deepening of religious divisions.
"With all my heart I beg God to keep the world in peace," the Pope said on Sunday at the end of a mass for some 50,000 people on the first full day of his visit to Kazakhstan, a Central Asian republic which may be caught up in an eventual regional crisis.
"We must not let what happened lead to a deepening of divisions. Religion must never be used as a reason for conflict," he said, referring to tensions with some parts of the Islamic world following the attacks in New York and Washington.(snip)
NEGOTIATIONS, NOT WAR
On arrival in Kazakhstan on Saturday, Pope John Paul said all controversies between nations must be resolved by negotiations and dialogue, not force of arms.
The Pope, who aides say is losing sleep over the possibility of war, celebrated a mass that began with a stiff wind blowing in from Siberia over the flat steppes and ended in sunshine.
Tikkun Ollam, improve the world, requires interpretation of the laws. SOme laws of peace are simply inapplicable. THe Pope conveniently avoids interpreting the laws of peace to advance his own laws. THis is demagoguery. In times of attack, arguing in favor of peaceful reaction vs. war reaction requires just as much burden of proof. Inaction when facing attack is liable for collaboration with evil.
As far as I know, the rules of stewardship impose that we do the best to keep alive the best way we can, and that means going to war for the sake of protecting the belongings of the al-mighty that we all incarnate. That is my interpretation, for what would G_d say if we collaborated in the destruction of his creation by way of submission to worlds that impose their own history and view of deity, denying the rest of us any history making favor G_d might want to produce.
We are all artists and equal in potential to talk to G_d, and no "nation" is to steal G_d's creative creatures by the imposition of their own cults, arts and means of communication to G_d. The Pope believes that no one can be taken away from G_d or be prevented speech with G_d, and that is naive because everyone can easily stray from G_d, definitely, and everyone can easily be manipulated into avoiding G_d. Disinformation does work and does make a people wicked as the behavior of the freed Jews fleeing Egypt can attest, for example. We all have a duty to save souls from the grip of totalitarian arts that effectively relie on our physical weaknesses to either make us bow or die, thus destroying a good chunk of any creation.
Letting things in the hands of G_d is again a matter of interpretation. BEcause the law of end times is also interpretable and its happening can be avoided if we protect the good from the wicked. Saying the good becomes wicked in this process is again like saying cutting one's arm that does harm is sinful, which is not since it is approved in the old and new testament (plus or minus reasonable interpretations on the exactment of the punishment of course, but the idea is there and does exist).
"....keep it in peace"??? Its not __in__ peace, so how can it be "kept" there?
Peace is not the absence of war.
Peace is the PRESENCE of Freedom and Truth and the ABSENCE of a THREAT to either of them.
The REAL "Peace makers" are those who seek to make the world SAFE for those who yearn for FREEDOM.
Those who would appease war-mongers who threaten our peace by attacking our freedoms are easily defined .... but not by the word, "peacemaker".
Consistent? You're not even being coherent.
The Pope is a religious leader, not a political one. The Pope hasn't "joined with the enemy."
Read the Pope's statement: he encourages and prays for peace.
He doesn't condemn self-defense.
Agreed, but who's advocating that or saying that?
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