HOW TO STOP WAR'S DEATH THREAT

Face of our current enemy threat --Members of the Islam State of Iraq and Shaam (Isis) with senior commander Abu Waheeb - photo from the Telegraph UK

President Obama, reacting to the recent ISIS violent beheadings in Syria, said on 9-3-14, that “he wants to ‘degrade and destroy’ the extremist group Islamic State." Out of our use of “overwhelming force” for 9 years in Iraq, comes now their overwhelming violence, the beheadings of fundamentalist Sharia law. So the next evil empire to be attacked, is this Islamic State in Iraq and Syria { ISIS }, the very ones we helped create as we destroyed evil Saddam and his army, then moved on to battle Assad in Syria.

Can’t we yet see the moral bankruptcy of “if you don’t do as we say, we blow you away” foreign relations? We’ll not overcome this with targeted killings. What we do with drone operators and smart bombs, they do with bullets, IEDs, and the executioner’s sword. It’s all gruesome with death the final solution—but the hatred and enmity of wars upon war never stops.

If we could only come to recognize that death is not the end, and all the killings pointless. God’s love and mercy has saved us, and shown us the only way to conquer evil and death. War’s power always fails to deliver. The way of the cross has defeated the way of the sword.

ave you ever heard any politician, from whatever the party, say, “Love your enemy.”? And nobody says this because—it’s not practical? Yet it’s the central teaching, along with forgiveness, of the Son of God.

From Rev. John L. McKenzie S.J., biblical scholar, we have, “Most Christian do not believe that Jesus knows what He is talking about in this area. They dismiss Him as unrealistic at best, probably stupid. Therefore they refuse to even to try to implement what He taught about nonviolence and love of enemies. This guarantees that His Way of nonviolence will never enter into history as more than a naïve and stupid idea. Give me the money that Christians give to the Pentagon for war, and I’ll show you nonviolence works.”

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Image of Mary from Cuba -- Our Lady of Caridad de Cobre

Today the universal church celebrates the birthday, chosen to be Sept. 8^th, of Mary, mother of Jesus. Though not much is known of her origins, the Saint of the Day page has this to say: “We can see every human birth as a call for new hope in the world. The love of two human beings [Anna and Joachim in this case] has joined with God in his creative work. The loving parents have shown hope in a world filled with travail. The new child has the potential to be a channel of God's love and peace to the world.” “Next to the birth of Jesus, Mary's birth offers the greatest possible happiness to the world.”

Love and respect for all life give us the greatest hope against degradation, destruction, and death itself.

References

http://online.wsj.com/articles/obama-says-us-aims-to-shrink-islamic-states-sphere-of-influence-1409743189

http://www.americancatholic.org/features/saintofday/

Illumination by Kathy Brahney