CHRIST CARRIES CROSS, OR GUN? & PEACE NOT WAR TAX DAY, IN THE MIDST OF HOLY WEEK

                                                                                       Fed. income tax pie - somewhat near half for war the past 60 yrs.

The dialogue with my gun-bearing friends continues.  Most recently a long term friend of the family sent me this video of a very respectable sincere Dutch commander of troops, explaining his having chosen the gun as his career.  It’s part of the TED series, always well done and worth watching.  The contrasting vision of how a Christian is called to counter violence is given in a potent video series of 10 minute lectures by Fr. Charles Emmanuel McCarthy. {see links below}   Please consider taking time this coming Easter season to view both sides.

Can violence ever be truly conquered by violence?  Is there really another way?  In this Passion-tide, and forward in time, we have a choice between two images.

Either killing is part of being a faithful follower of Jesus and entering His kingdom—or it is not.  Which will you choose?  Which will you carry?

Along with Holy Week comes another significant date on the calendar, April 15^th.   Some of us in our area are attempting to make it Peace Not War Tax Day.  {see our first video}   As a couple Ande and I did not claim enough exemptions on the W-4 form to owe the government this April, so we still pre-paid for war, but less than the year before.  Hope to do better next year.  For more on war tax resistance & redirection for peace see the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, esp. their W-4 calculations pamphlet.

here is certain need to collect for the common good; and great moral hazard in what we collect for the common bad.   This constant excessive tax money collected then spent in our country for war is morally wrong—directly counter to Christ’s command to His disciples, “Put away the sword.”  Our bloated budgets favoring the rich and powerful and their arms race is a theft form the poor.  The wealth squandered and consumed by our rich is a scandal.  These are crucial and troubling matters of conscience for all of us.

Videos on the unconditional, Nonviolent Love of Jesus, and its implications for us, by Fr. E. C. McCarthy

1. Gospel Nonviolence: TRUTH   2. Self Deception   3. Culpable Consciences   4. Christian Just/Unjust War Moral Theory   5. Untaught Christian History: War and the Contagion of Erroneous Conscience   6. Post Constantinian Christianity   7. The Church and War    8. Putting on the Mind of Christ   9. Gospel Nonviolence and the Right to Life

Illumination by Kathy Brahney