About Congo, DRC. An outsider's view from inside.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Shouldn't Christians be against war and the death penalty?

"Christian" means Follower of Christ, right? Believer in his words? "He who lives by the sword will die by the sword"... "Love your enemy, do good to those who would harm you"... Believe him? Follow him? Bet most "Christians" don't even believe him, let alone want to follow him. Yet it's pretty clear Christ really meant it. Look at how he died. And lived! Think that's insane? Think, instead, about what we could have done/could be doing with the Trillion dollars the Iraq war will eventually cost (source: MSNBC, others; some say TWO trillion). Universal (basic) Health Care for every man, woman and child on Earth, for example! Or, schooling for every child: If every 7-year old alive on Earth in 2002 had been given a grant to go to school (for many children on Earth, only a pair of shoes or the cost of textbooks stands between ignorance and literacy), there would now be a generation of 12-year olds all over the globe of whom we would not ask the question: "Why do they hate us?" By the time the trillion dollars will have been spent, these kids would be young adults - prime recruiting material for terrorists when they don't have a job. Like teaching. Or immunizing. Somehow we never had the money to save lives. But the money comes (from nowhere) to destroy lives? "If you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind..." Nuff said, I'm depressing myself. What a waste, what a waste...

5 comments:

sleepygaby said...

brings one of my favorite quotes to mind: "Give me the money that has been spent in war and I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire of which kings and queens will be proud. I will build a schoolhouse in every valley over the whole earth. I will crown every hillside with a place of worship consecrated to peace.” (Charles Sumner)

Odile said...

Beautiful! Thank you!

sleepygaby said...

Yeah. Charles Sumner was one of those kickass liberal Republicans that don't exist anymore.
Talk to you soon!

Anonymous said...

do you have a source for the sumner quote at all?

sleepygaby said...

I believe I found the Sumner quote through a famous quotes website, but Wikipedia has pretty good entry for Sumner as well.