“The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday he considers homosexuality to be immoral and the military should not condone it by allowing gay soldiers to serve openly, the Chicago Tribune reported. Marine Gen. Peter Pace likened homosexuality to adultery, which he said was also immoral, the newspaper reported on its Web site.”–Yahoo News March 12, 2007.
No doubt General Pace will have lots of support from most of the mainstream churches for his strong stand on homosexuality. Homosexuality is viewed as immorality by most churches. I want to know why the general doesn’t think that war is also immoral. Jesus said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” Why does war get a pass in mainstream Christianity? Why is the Gospel watered down? Remember the old hymn, “They’ll Know We are Christians by our Love.” I know I’m beating a dead horse and I’m severely out of touch with the mainstream. Why is it that homosexuality that Jesus never even mentions in any of the gospels is immoral and war is not? This kind of thinking reminds me of a quote from Mahatma Gandhi. “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.”
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What I want to know, and have wanted to know for a long time is how dare they wear those poly/wool blended suits (which often have a little bit of linen in the shoulder pads)? (Shaatnez – blended fibers.) Or use energy from mountaintop removal coal? (Thou shalt not suffer a [well] poisoner to live.) Do they eat pork? Veal in cream sauce? Shark? Lobster? Do they rid themselves of all grain products for a week every year and only eat matzo?
Do their “smart bombs” always miss all the fruit trees? Do they guard against treating the stranger shamefully? (You’re not even allowed to insult someone in a language they don’t understand.) Do they deal justly with the widow and the orphan? (Or for that matter, with the wounded veteran?) Do they set aside the gleanings of the harvest for the poor?
Do they love their neighbor as themselves? Do they rather seek to remove the beam from their own eye before attempting the splinter in their brother’s eye? Do they seek reconciliation over and over again? Do they think about their own sin before casting that stone?
And frankly, do they consider that some of us have religious beliefs that say that God created the world with gblt folks in it and meant it that way? Just as I’m meant to have my mom’s Indian cheekbones and my dad’s hazel eyes. And that the military, as an agent of the government, is not meant to endorse someone else’s religious or spiritual beliefs over mine? Just as I can’t force them to shut up and go pray out in the open air of creation, where they can listen to the song of the wind and water, and feel the steadiness of the earth, and know that we are all part of the web. I can’t make them listen to Chief Seattle, and they can’t make me listen to Dobson. That’s supposed to be the deal.
I think that there are many good Christians who have been working hard for so many years to build a society that is more welcoming of and friendly to family life who have been taken by surprise that their political allies, who seemed so dedicated to restoring the protection of the law to unborn life in this country, have so quickly turned to attack the innocent in other countries. But the good Christians in this country are begining to awaken to the the reality of this betrayal. The result will be a withdrawal of support for the repubilcan party. The pro-life voters who elected this president didn’t do it to start a war, but to end the one against unborn children and Christian marriage.
If Guliani is nominated for president, the uneasy alliance between the pro-life movement and the republican party will be over. The only question that remains is if there will be any in an uneasy alliance with the democrats willing to join them so that america might finally hear that there is no conflict between pro-family and pro-peace. There is no conflict between moral truth and love.
We need a new dialogue in this country divorced from politics. Politicians have used religion as an effective means of dividing the electorate. The Republicans have done it most effectively. How else can a minority party divide the electorate? Pro-life needs to be expanded from just pre-birth to include a respect for life from conception to natural death.
As for the war, I believe it is immoral. I protested before it even started. I knew from my reading then that the odds were there were no weapons of mass destruction, and that Iraq was not involved with 9-11 – so I was frustrated when so many people quoted those reasons at me and the administration contnued to state what wasn’t true.
The quotes I’ve seen by him say that homosexual acts – not the condition of being homosexual – are immoral. That’s in line with the teaching of the Church.