Many Christian leaders have effectively embraced pacifism, even if their language still seems to hold open the possibility of a “just war.”
Category: Theology
“To connect the Prince of Peace with these kind of toys for war seems to be on the edge of obscene to me.”
”Tony Blair always leaves you with the impression that for him the Iraq war is just one hammer and one nail in an effort to do tikkun olam, to repair the world.“
“Jesus became Bush’s life coach—a sort of divine Tony Robbins.”
“Contrary to popular opinion, the religion that this group espouses is Triumphalism, not Christianity. Theirs is a zealous form of nationalism, baptized with Christian language.”
Categories
Wieseltier vs. Menand.
Tillich’s “Protestant principle” protests against idols in the name of the “God beyond God”; Menand protests against commitment itself.
A sociologist tells the writer that “with the involvement of religious groups, Americans can recognize antiwar activists as ‘a favorite aunt or Ned Flanders.’” Great.
Although it might seem that the government shouldn’t be telling the Vatican how to interpret a Christian doctrine, a debate about just war theory is exactly the sort of place where religion and politics should meet.
President Bush’s Christianity strikes me as a species of “all about me” theology: God saved me, God loves me, and God endorses my desires.
President William Sinkford tells a Texas newspaper, “We need to be able to say Unitarian Universalists believe there is one God, and that God is a loving God who would condemn no one out of hand.”