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Kelly: In the face of such evil, pacifism is immoral
SeattleTimes ^ | 26 Sept. 2001 | Michael Kelly

Posted on 09/26/2001 8:39:21 AM PDT by flamefront

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To: flamefront
Again thanks for posting this article! It is time to let the Phil Donahues*, the Mahers, the Jennings, the left wing extremists, the pseudo conservatives and the whackos at our universities know that we have identified them!

*re Donahue, I don't what he said in his recent left wing mutterings. This left wing scumbag has decades of anti America/American agenda!

Right now, Rush Limbaugh is reading your post! Great post on your part! Pacifists today are abetting the murderous terrorists like the pacifists in the 1930-40's era aided and abetted Hitler and his murderous henchmen!

In 1942, George Orwell wrote, in Partisan Review, this of Great Britain's pacifists:

"Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side you automatically help out that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, 'he that is not with me is against me.'!"

21 posted on 09/26/2001 9:31:58 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
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To: WriteOn
Speaking as an Orthodox Christian, I would point out that the personal pacifism to which ministers of the Gospel are called (our canons forbid deacons, priests, bishops or monastics from bearing arms) is not particularly a propos.

The same priest who cannot bear arms himself, will lead the service blessing the arms of Orthodox warriors in time of war. The deacon who cannot bear arms himself leading the Great Ektenia in time of war will intone, following the prayer asking general blessings the President of the United State (or other head of state, as appropriate), our civil authorities and armed forces, the next petition "That He will grant them victory over all enemies, let us pray to the Lord".

The Church has always struck a balance between the ideal of peace found in the Gospel and the practicalities of resisting evil. We bless the arms of our warriors, but impose a penance on all who kill (yes, even in just war or self-defense---the Orthodox accept and lament the choice of the lesser evil, but do not believe that it is not evil for being the lesser). We proclaim the glorification both of Passion-Bearers who followed Christ in his passion by not fighting against evil which assailed them personally--SS. Boris and Gleb, St. Nicholas, the newly glorified Tsar--and of warrior saints--like St. Aleksandr Nevsky who defended the innocent from evil by means of warfare.

The idealistic pacifism of the left in ordinary times violates only the first half of Christ's injunction to be subtle as serpents and harmless as doves. In evil times, it can violate both.

22 posted on 09/26/2001 9:33:36 AM PDT by The_Reader_David
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To: DJ MacWoW
It was not a leap in logic at all. The Pope, for example, has been very consistent in a pacifist message about how he feels the world should respond to the attack. Does this make the Pope evil?

I believe that there are people of good conscience who preach a pacifist message. I may not agree with them, but I understand the religious principles that guide their opinions.

23 posted on 09/26/2001 9:34:20 AM PDT by ignatz_q
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To: WriteOn
if the shoe fits ...
24 posted on 09/26/2001 9:39:44 AM PDT by tomkat
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To: ignatz_q
There is nothing wrong with someone having a conscience.

Your mom, raped and murdered by terrorists, is just unlucky, just cannon fodder for their cause.

No worries. Get over it. You can't bring her back.

Oh, now they're knocking on your sister's door?

Tell her to give peace a chance.

Peace. Love. Right On! Right On!

25 posted on 09/26/2001 9:41:17 AM PDT by Stallone
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To: Hidy
Pacifists like Jesus and Ghandi take notice. You are with us, or you are with the terrorists.

I wouldn't class Jesus and Ghandi as do-nothing pacifists. They were activists who (mostly) practiced and preached love and non-violence in opposition to hate and violence.

26 posted on 09/26/2001 9:41:31 AM PDT by ThreeOfSeven
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To: flamefront
Every dictator is a mystic, and every mystic is a potential dictator. A mystic craves obedience from men, not their agreement. He wants them to surrender their consciousness to his assertions, his edicts, his wishes, his whims, as his consciousness is surrendered to theirs.... There is only one state that fulfills the mystic's longing for infinity, non-causality, non-identity: death. -- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (pp.969-970).---- Now, for my take: These pacifists probably think they are pseudo-Buddhas, above the fray. Well then, stand back, would ya?
27 posted on 09/26/2001 9:41:53 AM PDT by lds23
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To: DJ MacWoW
As someone who's studied at a Baptist Seminary for two years, I reference the following verse in Proverbs Proverbs 24:6: For by wise council, thou shalt make thy war LETS ROLL
28 posted on 09/26/2001 9:42:28 AM PDT by cons_Mark
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To: flamefront
I have never heard a pacifist, even Lord Russell who was, by far, the most brilliant of the pacifists, ably refute this statement:

"The Field of Time is root in conflict: all life is based on warfare."

I've noted before how remarkable it is that "pacifist" sounds so much like "pansyfist".

29 posted on 09/26/2001 9:48:02 AM PDT by Psycho_Bunny
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To: lds23
Ayn's philosophy is truth revealed.

It is reviled deeply and universally by Leftists, Socialists, Communists, Clintoons, Government, Indoctination Education Institutions, et. al.

You know she's got it!

30 posted on 09/26/2001 9:49:37 AM PDT by Stallone
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To: ignatz_q
The Pope, for example, has been very consistent in a pacifist message about how he feels the world should respond to the attack.

The Pope, in fact, has said that a nation under attack may justly defend itself.

Not exactly pacifist, that.

31 posted on 09/26/2001 9:50:32 AM PDT by sinkspur
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To: WriteOn
It's a ridiculous slam at those who hold strong religious convictions to claim that they are therefore pro-terrorist.

Those who hide behind Christianity to proclaim their blanket pacifism are either ignorant or disingenuous. No less so than Islamic terrorists who hide behind the Qu'ran.

Orwell's logic is impeccable.

32 posted on 09/26/2001 9:51:33 AM PDT by NCSteve
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To: flamefront
Those brave people in the World Trade Center, and heroes aboard those airliners on September 11, unknowingly, were the first line of defense in a war where there are only soldiers, no civilians. They fell, victims of that first strike, because they were unarmed, unprepared and unaware that this moral war was declared and directed at them.

Now that the lines have been drawn there is only to set the parameters of combat and take the ground that has always been coveted, the high ground. In this war our high ground has been personal freedom and liberty; we will need to retreat ever so slightly. Theirs has been theological aloofness; it will need to be humbled.

The symbol of our liberty, manifested in the statue that stands in New York harbor, may have been, for all we know, a target—one that would have struck us dumbfound, surely as the destruction of the White House, public building or any of our peaceful surroundings.

We need now, to respond in kind, not only as in a Doolittle type raid of vindication, but also in a demonstration of resolve as to our intentions. We need to strike at a symbol that occupies an area of their high ground—Mohamed’s grave. In this grave there lies the said remains of the being that has hijacked liberty, freedom, Americanism, and Muslim faith. He is the antithesis of all of that, which is common between Muslim and Judean-Christian teachings. His name, memory and teachings need to be obliterated for all time.

Our grand children need never learn of his name. So to, those who would conjure up his name for the sake of personal justification and vengeance need to be removed from the scene. Any and all organizations, which are said to owe allegiance to this anti-Christ, must be expunged for all time.

We must carry the weight of it on our souls in order that no future generation will. We must pay the price in order that our liberties will not.

33 posted on 09/26/2001 9:52:58 AM PDT by ivanhoe116
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To: ThreeOfSeven
John 2:13 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers doing business. 15 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.

Luke 22:35 And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. 36 Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.

Rev.19:15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

34 posted on 09/26/2001 9:53:20 AM PDT by razorbak
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To: DrewsDad
To not fight in this instance is to let the attackers live to attack and murder again; to be a pacifist in this instance is to accept and, in practice, support this outcome.

Thanks DD. Must send this article to a pacifist, "academic" relative in LA.

35 posted on 09/26/2001 9:55:28 AM PDT by Gracey
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To: flamefront
What's up with Senator Wellstone?

He was a proud 'pacifist' when first elected.

My bet: his desire to stay in the Senate is stronger than his ideology. He is no longer a pacifist.

36 posted on 09/26/2001 9:55:54 AM PDT by aculeus
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To: ThreeOfSeven
Imagine, you are being killed.

Do you strike your attacker?

You would? Why you murderer!

Imagine, your child is being killed.

Do you strike your attacker?

The point is, that terrorists have not stopped killing, have they?

In fact, many Islamic groups are on record as praising the efforts of New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Do it again!

Your way is anti-human, anti-life. A blind alley to nowhere.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Freedom, and Security, are not negotiable.

Peace comes after War.

37 posted on 09/26/2001 9:56:33 AM PDT by Stallone
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To: WriteOn
bite me.

I'm sure you mean "bite me" in a non-violent way, of course...Yeah, that's a peaceful expression of your religious values.

38 posted on 09/26/2001 9:56:45 AM PDT by Ward Smythe
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To: ThreeOfSeven
Yup. Don't forget where Jesus made the whip and flogged the moneychangers right out of the temple. Not to mention all that He did preincarnate in the Old Testament!
39 posted on 09/26/2001 10:03:48 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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To: Hidy
Pacifists like Jesus and Ghandi take notice.

Such wry wit!

Since we're in the mood to quote Orwell, why don't you dig up his essay on Ghandi. He points out that, if India had been controlled by Germans instead of Brits, Ghandi would have been kicked to death the moment he got out of line.

As for Jesus, I seem to remember that he chased the money-lenders out of the Temple. (He also lamented high taxes by observing that "The poor are with us always" -- but that is another story.

Fact is, pacificists can only exist when protected by the sort of democratic societies that are prepared to use force in defense of even their most illogical and ungrateful citizens.

In your case, even the snide ones.

40 posted on 09/26/2001 10:05:13 AM PDT by Big Bunyip
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