PACIFIST FIGHT CLUB

We will fight for peace, but we will do no violence.

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

ENDLESS DETENTION?



Imagine your city council telling the police department how many people it had to keep in jail each night.

That's effectively what Congress has told U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with a policy known as the "detention bed mandate." The mandate calls for filling 34,000 beds in some 250 facilities across the country, per day, with immigrant detainees.

When NPR visited the Department of Homeland Security's detention center in Florence, Ariz., hundreds of men — nearly all from Latin America — were lining up for lunch. They were caught by the Border Patrol or, if apprehended away from the border, by local police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. People can stay behind the razor-wire fences for days, weeks or years.

READ FULL STORY>

Monday, December 30, 2013

ENDLESS WAR



"While many Americans have been led to believe the war in Afghanistan will soon be over, a draft of a key U.S.-Afghan security deal obtained by NBC News shows the United States is prepared to maintain military outposts in Afghanistan for many years to come, and pay to support hundreds of thousands of Afghan security forces.

"The wide-ranging document, still unsigned by the United States and Afghanistan, has the potential to commit thousands of American troops to Afghanistan and spend billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars.

"The document outlines what appears to be the start of a new, open-ended military commitment in Afghanistan in the name of training and continuing to fight al-Qaeda. The war in Afghanistan doesn’t seem to be ending, but renewed under new, scaled-down U.S.-Afghan terms."

Read Full Story Here>

Friday, December 27, 2013

War No More

"He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore." - Isaiah 2:4

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Wisdom From Above

“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” - (James 3:17-18)

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

MERRY CHRISTMAS. WAR IS ABOLISHED! BY BRIAN ZAHND

Isaiah had a dream, a God-inspired dream.
Isaiah was a poet, a God-intoxicated poet.
He had a Messianic dream that he turned into a prophetic poem.
It goes like this—

In days to come
the mountain of the LORD’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
Many peoples shall come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.

-Isaiah 2:2–4

Swords turned into plowshares.
Spears into pruning hooks.
Tanks turned into tractors.
Missile silos into grain silos.
The study of war abandoned for learning the ways of the Lord.
Instead of academies where we learn to make war,
there will be universities where we learn to wage peace.
The cynic will laugh (for lack of imagination), but this is Isaiah’s vision.

And every Christmas we borrow another of Isaiah’s poems to celebrate the birth of the child who makes these dreams come true—

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who live in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined…
For all the boots of the tramping solidiers
and all the uniforms stained in blood
shall be burned as fuel for fire.
For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son given;
the government shall be upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His government shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time onward and forevermore.

-Isaiah 9:2, 5–7

Isaiah in his prophetic poems frames the Messianic hope like this:

A Prince of Peace will establish a new kind of government, a government characterized by ever-increasing peace. Weapons of war will be transformed into instruments of agriculture. At last the nations will find their way out of the darkness of endless war into the light of God’s enduring peace.
This is Isaiah’s hope. Christians take Isaiah’s hope and make a daring claim: Jesus is that Prince of Peace! Jesus is the one who makes Isaiah’s dreams come true. From the day of Pentecost to the present this is what Christians have claimed.

But then a doom-obsessed dispensationalist performs an eschatological sleight of hand and takes the hope away from us. On one hand they admit that Jesus is the Prince of Peace who has come, but on the other hand they say his peace is not for now…it’s only for when Jesus comes back again. Bait and switch. Yes, swords are to become plowshares…but not today. For now plowshares become swords; but in our day, it’s war, war, war! They abuse Jesus’ prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century by always applying it to the latest contemporary geopolitical events. They replace the hope of peace with an anticipation of war! They find a way to make war a hopeful sign.
Think about that for a moment! And here is the worst irony: It was precisely because Jerusalem failed to recognize Jesus as Isaiah’s Prince of Peace right there and then, that they rushed headlong into a war that ended with their own destruction!

End-time prophecy “experts” keep trying to force the same mistake on us in our day. We should refuse. I am a conscientious objector to the doom-obsessed, hyper-violent, war-must-come, pillage-the-Bible-for-the-worst-we-can-find eschatology of Hal Lindsey and his tribe. We must reject that kind of warmongering misinterpretation of Scripture. Jesus doesn’t call us to give a “prophetic interpretation” to the latest war and rumor of war. Jesus calls us to be peacemakers and lead the way out of the darkness of retributive violence into the light of Christian reconciliation. But we haven’t done a very good job of it. So it’s time we started believing what we say every Christmas:

The Prince of Peace has come!

Isaiah says that in the last days the nations will come to Mount Zion and learn the peaceful ways of the Lord. That’s when weapons of war will become implements of agriculture. Well, let’s believe it! The Apostle Peter said on the day of Pentecost that the last days have arrived. (see Acts 2:14f) The writer of Hebrews said that in Christ we have come to Mount Zion. (see Hebrews 12:22f) Obviously, with the passing of two thousand years it should be clear that Peter didn’t mean the end of time was imminent, rather he meant exactly what Jesus himself had been saying — that the waiting was over, the time was fulfilled, and all that the prophets had foretold was coming to pass in the present. The writer of Hebrews means that what Isaiah and the other Hebrew prophets had described as the nations flowing to Mount Zion to learn the way of peace has been inaugurated with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

Let me say it clearly: If you are waiting for something to happen before you beat your sword into a plowshare and your spear into a pruning hook, you can stop waiting! If you confess that Jesus is the Prince of Peace foretold by the prophets, you can start being a peacemaker…today! You don’t need to wait for anything else. You shouldn’t wait for anything else!

As followers of the Prince of Peace are we ready to bid farewell to Mars? We must be. The god of war has had his day. His day ended on the first Easter. In his death and resurrection, Christ has abolished war. Christ made it clear on the cross that war will no longer be the way the world is transformed. The cross exposes the use of violent force as a shameful practice to be renounced. Yes, Jesus has abolished war. The King of Kings won his kingdom without war. Jesus proved there is another way.

Jesus is the other way. The question, “what are you willing to die for?” is not the same question as “what are you willing to kill for?” Jesus was willing to die for that which he was unwilling to kill for.

Jesus won his kingdom by dying, not killing. Ruling the world by killing was buried with Christ.

When Christ was raised on the third day he did not resurrect war. With his resurrection the world is given a new trajectory, an eschatology toward peace.

Merry Christmas!
War is over!

BZ

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE>

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Unto Us

"For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." - Isaiah 9:6

Monday, December 23, 2013

Censoring: Animal Farm



It’s one thing to have your alteration notes handed down by the empty suits at a movie studio; it’s quite another when they’re coming from the Central Intelligence Agency.

This 1955 animated adaptation of George Orwell’s classic was one of a handful of films produced by the CIA in the 1950s as anti-Communist propaganda, and it originally concluded (true to the novel) with the farm animals looking back and forth between the pigs and the humans, unable to determine which was more exploitative.

But the CIA had the filmmakers remove the humans from the equation, so that the final film only indicted the (Communist) pigs, and not the (capitalist) humans.
 
 

Friday, December 20, 2013

PERFECT LOVE CASTS OUT FEAR

"Death and the fear of suffering unto death...serve as the deterrent system of every empire in history.  The law of violence is that death is supreme.

But if death so rules the world, what about those whose kingdom is not of this world of death?

What about those who through interior struggle have been given the grace to overcome the fear of death?

What about those who refuse to submit to the law of violence, who refuse to pledge allegiance to the empire of death?

For those liberated from the fear of death, the law of violence is powerless.

Nonviolence is the overcoming of death by a fearless love."

- James Douglass,The Nonviolent Coming of God.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Christ or Anti-Christ?




If Jesus is the Prince of Peace, the anti-Christ is the Prince of War.

If Jesus heals, the anti-Christ sheds blood.

If Jesus says we should love our enemy, the anti-Christ says we should torture them.

If Jesus commands us to bless those who curse us, the anti-Christ urges us to make war against them.

If Jesus says we should pray for those who persecute us, the anti-Christ says we ought to oppress and imprison them.

If Jesus tells us to care for the poor, the anti-Christ says we should just ignore them.

If Jesus says his disciples will not fight, the anti-Christ encourages us to glorify violence.

If Jesus says we should turn the other cheek, the anti-Christ says we should destroy the aggressor.

Who does the Church most resemble?

 Are we of Christ, or are we of the anti-Christ?

Let us pray.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Collateral Damage, the Media, and 'The War You Don't See'

During World War One, 10% of all casualties were civilians.
During World War Two, the number of civilian deaths rose to 50%.
During the Vietnam War, 70% of all casualties were civilians.
In the war in Iraq, civilians account for up to 90% of all deaths.
 -The War You Don’t See by John Pilger. 


Watch the trailer for the film:

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Nuclear Submarine Officer to Conscientious Objector: Mike Izbicki


WW2: Worse Than You Remember

The Japanese military during the 1930s and 1940s is often compared to the military of Nazi Germany during 1933–45 because of the sheer scale of suffering. Much of the controversy regarding Japan's role in World War II revolves around the death rates of prisoners of war and civilians under Japanese occupation. Historian Chalmers Johnson has written that:
It may be pointless to try to establish which World War Two Axis aggressor, Germany or Japan, was the more brutal to the peoples it victimised. The Germans killed six million Jews and 20 million Russians (i.e. Soviet citizens); the Japanese slaughtered as many as 30 million Filipinos, Malays, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Indonesians and Burmese, at least 23 million of them ethnic Chinese. Both nations looted the countries they conquered on a monumental scale, though Japan plundered more, over a longer period, than the Nazis. Both conquerors enslaved millions and exploited them as forced labourers—and, in the case of the Japanese, as (forced) prostitutes for front-line troops. If you were a Nazi prisoner of war from Britain, America,Australia, New Zealand or Canada (but not the Soviet Union) you faced a 4% chance of not surviving the war; (by comparison) the death rate for Allied POWs held by the Japanese was nearly 30%.
According to the findings of the Tokyo Tribunal, the death rate among POWs from Asian countries, held by Japan was 27.1%. The death rate of Chinese POWs was much higher because—under a directive ratified on August 5, 1937 by Emperor Hirohito—the constraints of international law on treatment of those prisoners was removed. Only 56 Chinese POWs were released after the surrender of Japan. After March 20, 1943, the Japanese Navy was under orders to execute all prisoners taken at sea.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Who Needs A Gun?



[EXCERPTS FROM THE ARTICLE AT OPINIONATER BY GARY GUTTING]

FULL ARTICLE HERE>

Our discussions typically start from the right to own a gun, go on to ask how, if at all, that right should be limited, and wind up with intractable disputes about the balance between the right and the harm that can come from exercising it. I suggest that we could make more progress if each of us asked a more direct and personal question: Should I own a gun?

Finally, there’s the idea that citizens need guns so they can, if need be, oppose the force of a repressive government. Those who think there are current (or likely future) government actions in this country that would require armed resistance are living a paranoid fantasy. The idea that armed American citizens could stand up to our military is beyond fantasy.

Once we balance the potential harms and goods, most of us — including many current gun owners — don’t have a good reason to keep guns in their homes. This conclusion follows quite apart from whether we have a right to own guns or what restrictions should be put on this right. Also, the conclusion derives from what makes sense for each of us as individuals and so doesn’t require support from contested interpretations of statistical data.

I entirely realize that this line of thought will not convince the most impassioned gun supporters, who see owning guns as fundamental to their way of life.

It’s one thing to be horrified at gun violence. It’s something else to see it as a meaningful threat to your own existence. Our periodic shock at mass shootings and gang wars has little effect on our gun culture because most people don’t see guns as a particular threat to them. This is why opposition to gun violence has lacked the intense personal commitment of those who see guns as essential to their safety — or even their self-identity.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE ONLINE HERE>

Doesn't Violence in the OT Mean Pacifism Isn't Biblical?




By Nathan R. Hale

A common objection to Christian non-violence is often articulated as follows:

A unified view of Scripture demands we accept justified violence based on the Old Testament. It takes unnecessarily complex hermeneutics to wiggle out of the fact that God both commands war (the invasion of Canaan) and instituted laws for self defense and capital punishment in the Mosaic Law.

A close look reveals this isn’t true.

On the national front, we have in the Old Testament a defined nation-state (Israel) that is being directly used by God to punish surrounding people groups and nations. This is holy war (commanded by God) and is restricted to Israel.

In the NT, however, Jesus reveals to us through the Apostle Paul that God’s chosen people is no longer a single nation-state, but rather a gathering people across national/ethnic boundaries whose fight is not against flesh and blood (cf. Eph. 6:12; Gal. 3:38).

The battle lines and purposes have been redrawn.

READ FULL POST HERE>

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Matt Damon and A Call for Civil Disobedience to End War


Matt Damon reads from Howard Zinn's speech, "The Problem is Civil Obedience." Zinn (1922-2010), author of A People's History of the United States, was a historian and social activist.

"We all have an enormous responsibility to bring to the attention of others information they do not have, which has the potential of causing them to rethink long-held ideas."
-Howard Zinn
 For more, visit Voices of a People's History.

Our Moloch by Garry Willis


[EXCERPTS FROM THE ARTICLE BY GARRY WILLIS]

"We guarantee that crazed man after crazed man will have a flood of killing power readily supplied him. We have to make that offering, out of devotion to our Moloch, our god.

The gun is our Moloch. We sacrifice children to him daily—sometimes, as at Sandy Hook, by directly throwing them into the fire-hose of bullets from our protected private killing machines, sometimes by blighting our children’s lives by the death of a parent, a schoolmate, a teacher, a protector. Sometimes this is done by mass killings (eight this year), sometimes by private offerings to the god (thousands this year).

The gun is not a mere tool, a bit of technology, a political issue, a point of debate. It is an object of reverence. Devotion to it precludes interruption with the sacrifices it entails. Like most gods, it does what it will, and cannot be questioned. Its acolytes think it is capable only of good things. It guarantees life and safety and freedom. It even guarantees law. Law grows from it. Then how can law question it?”

Adoration of Moloch permeates the country, imposing a hushed silence as he works his will. One cannot question his rites, even as the blood is gushing through the idol’s teeth. The White House spokesman invokes the silence of traditional in religious ceremony.

“It is not the time” to question Moloch. No time is right for showing disrespect for Moloch.

The fact that the gun is a reverenced god can be seen in its manifold and apparently resistless powers.

How do we worship it? Let us count the ways:

 1. It has the power to destroy the reasoning process. It forbids making logical connections. We are required to deny that there is any connection between the fact that we have the greatest number of guns in private hands and the greatest number of deaths from them. Denial on this scale always comes from or is protected by religious fundamentalism. Thus do we deny global warming, or evolution, or biblical errancy. Reason is helpless before such abject faith.

2. It has the power to turn all our politicians as a class into invertebrate and mute attendants at the shrine. None dare suggest that Moloch can in any way be reined in without being denounced by the pope of this religion, National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre, as trying to destroy Moloch, to take away all guns. They whimper and say they never entertained such heresy. Many flourish their guns while campaigning, or boast that they have themselves hunted “varmints.” Better that the children die or their lives be blasted than that a politician should risk an election against the dread sentence of NRA excommunication.

3. It has the power to distort our constitutional thinking. It says that the right to “bear arms,” a military term, gives anyone, anywhere in our country, the power to mow down civilians with military weapons. Even the Supreme Court has been cowed, reversing its own long history of recognizing that the Second Amendment applied to militias. Now the court feels bound to guarantee that any every madman can indulge his “religion” of slaughter. Moloch brooks no dissent, even from the highest court in the land.

READ MORE HERE>

Friday, December 13, 2013

WAR? WAR NEVER CHANGES.



Want to know what the United States Army thinks war will be like in 2030? According to a recent study, the answer is "Pretty much the same."

Taken from an article at DefenseOne.com:

"Army leaders recently conducted a “deep future” war game to play out a military conflict 15 years from now, coined “Unified Quest,” and held at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, Pa. Defense One was invited to listen in as dozens of Army brass and civilian and foreign counterparts conducted an after-action review at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C."

"Even with new innovations and evolving threats, the Army’s vision of what war might look like and the challenges they would face in the year 2030 isn’t all that different than today."

While this is far from "Good News", it does reveal that our military leaders have plans to be at war in 2030, and beyond.

War? War goes on. It never changes. It just gets more profitable.

Another shocking thing in the report was that, in the future, the Army's goal is to be more like Al Qaeda:

"One official said he wants to find a way to harness private-sector capabilities with military-grade security, a future where a soldier can talk to his commanders with just an iPhone. “Al Qaeda is doing it. Hezbollah is doing it. They leverage existing networks. Five to six years from now, that’s what I want,” one official said. “That’s the kind of innovation we need.”

One day, if our military leaders' dreams come true, America might actually be as "innovative" as some of the best terrorist organizations in the world.

Now, doesn't that make you feel better?

-kg




GOD DAMN GUNS by Katherine Willis Pershey



"Jerome was a Counselor-in-Training after years of coming to camp as a camper. He was fifteen and always smiling, bright white teeth standing out against his dark skin. He laughed a lot, too.

He laughed the day I yelled at him for diving headfirst from the dock into the shallow lake. At twenty years old, I was the head lifeguard. I felt a wave of panic as I waited for him to resurface. As soon as he did my panic was replaced with fury; the last thing I needed was a CiT modeling dangerous behavior. I started to holler but couldn’t sustain my anger. He laughed and laughed and laughed as he apologized profusely and swore he wouldn’t do it again.

He was so joyous, so young, so beautiful, so classically invincible."

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE>

Thursday, December 12, 2013

THE PARABLE OF THE UNMERCIFUL NATION



By James Douglass

Transposing Jesus' Parable of the Unmerciful Servant (Matt. 18:23-35) into our time, produces the following reading:

Compare the Kingdom of God to a financial lord who wished to settle accounts with his debtor nations. When he began reckoning, they brought to him one who was the President of a Nation that owed him three trillion dollars - the United States. And as the nation could not pay, the lord ordered that austerity measures be adopted by its government. Hencefort all government services were to be cancelled, millions of employees were to be dismissed, and all health, welfare, and social security payments were to be suspended until the United States could pay their debt. Every available resource was to go toward mounting debt-service payments.

So the President of the United States fell on his knees before the financial lord, imploring him, "Lord, have patience with us, and we will pay you everything." And out of pity for him and his people, the lord of that president released him and forgave him the debt.

But that same president, as he went out, came upon the president of a small African country that owed the United States 100 million dollars. Seizing him by the lapel, he said, "Pay what you owe." So, his fellow president fell to his knees and besought him, "Have patience with us and we will pay you everything." But he refused and his economic advisors forced austerity measures on the African country, whose people died of malnutrition whilie their own resources were used to service the debt.

When the presidents of the other debtor nations saw what had taken place, because of their great distress they were moved to solidarity. And they went and reported to their financial lord all that had happened and their resolve to stand together: "We shall not pay our foreign debt with the hunger of our people."

Then the lord summoed the president of the United States and said to him, "You stupid man. I forgave you and your people all that debt because you besought me; and should not you have had mercy on your fellow president, as I had mercy on you? Look what you have done now! Those nations are in solidarity, and all of us who have held them in debit will be ruined!"

And in anger the lord delivered him and his nation to austerity measures and a great depression, and  both the president and the lord then fell from wealth and power.

The world's largest debtor nation is not Brazil, or Africa. Nor is it any of the other third world countries whose people are being starved by the austerity measures imposed by the International Monetary Fund.

The greatest debtor in history is the militarily most powerful nation in history - the United States of America.

These two characteristics: military might and trillion-dollar debt, go hand-in-hand. It is not accident that during its two trillion dollar military buildup of the 1980's, the US added a corresponding two trillion dollars to its federal debt.

[From the book, "The Nonviolent Coming of God" by James Douglass; page 106-106]

Here's Why Fast Food Workers Want Better Compensation

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Exposed: The National Security State Beast.

From Jeremy Scahill's interview with HuffPost.Uk:

There is a national security state beast, also in the UK, created over many decades, almost completely unaffected by the democratic process. It can outlast any politician, no constituencies apart from war.
The only beneficiaries are large corporations. Ultimately, there is an epic battle between large corporations and ordinary people. Part of what I’m trying to do is unmask that conflict, but I have no illusions about how difficult that is.

“But if we don’t confront that, don’t realise that the entire system of corporations being in control of political systems is leading us down a road of disaster, then we’re doomed. The premier issue should be to get corporations out of our political process.

“On a broader level, if a state like the US asserts a right to assassinate people in any country it pleases using its weaponised drones, it sets a dangerous precedent. It’s only a matter of time before one of the other 80 nations that possess this capability starts to do it.
“The gloves come off. And then what kind of world do we live in?”

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE>

TEDxOrangeCoast - Shelene Bryan: "Embracing Uncomfortableness As Innovation"


Friday, December 6, 2013

Christian Oxymorons



In the Central African Republic there are men with machine guns who are killing other people. They refer to themselves as "Christian Militants" but don't you believe it for a minute.

There is no such thing as a "Christian Militant" who goes around shooting his enemies. Just as there is no such thing as "Open Secrets" or "A Fine Mess" and just as no one can ever be "Almost Pregnant" or "A Little Drunk", there can also never be any such thing as a "Christlike Killer".

Would Jesus throw a grenade into a Mosque? Would Jesus bust a cap into someone who didn't agree with his views? Would Jesus set a bomb to kill innocent people at a train station?

No, he would not. How could anyone ever imagine that he would?

That is why a "Christian" - which by definition is someone who follows the teachings of Jesus - can never take a weapon in hand and fire a bullet into their heart. Because once that person does such a thing, they cease to be like Jesus.

Certainly, Christians are capable of failure when it comes to following Him. We've all fallen short of the high calling of Jesus Christ. And for those who have killed others in war, or in the line of duty, can always repent of their sinful actions and receive the full and complete forgiveness of Jesus.

But what a Christian cannot do is to continually kill others in the name of nationalism, or political ideology, or "freedom" or anything else. Not even in the Name of Jesus. Especially not in the Name of Jesus.

So, when you read news stories like this one you can't accept the words "Christian Militant" at face value. There is no such thing as a "Christian Militant" who takes the life of other human beings who are made in the image of Christ.

-kg

Nation Grieves As Police Kill Someone For First Time In Their History



"The nation was in shock. This does not happen in our country," said Thora Arnorsdottir, news editor at RUV, the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service.

She was referring to a 59-year old man who was shot by police on Monday. The man, who started shooting at police when they entered his building, had a history of mental illness.

It's the first time someone has been killed by armed police in Iceland since it became an independent republic in 1944. Police don't even carry weapons, usually. Violent crime in Iceland is almost non-existent.

"The nation does not want its police force to carry weapons because it's dangerous, it's threatening," Arnorsdottir says. "It's a part of the culture. Guns are used to go hunting as a sport, but you never see a gun."

In fact, Iceland isn't anti-gun. In terms of per-capita gun ownership, Iceland ranks 15th in the world. Still, this incident was so rare that neighbors of the man shot were comparing the shooting to a scene from an American film.

The Icelandic police department said officers involved will go through grief counseling. And the police department has already apologized to the family of the man who died — though not necessarily because they did anything wrong.

"I think it's respectful," Arnorsdottir says, "because no one wants to take another person's life. "
There are still a number of questions to be answered, including why police didn't first try to negotiate with man before entering his building.

"A part of the great thing of living in this country is that you can enter parliament and the only thing they ask you to do is to turn off your cellphone, so you don't disturb the parliamentarians while they're talking. We do not have armed guards following our prime minister or president. That's a part of the great thing of living in a peaceful society. We do not want to change that. "
READ FULL STORY HERE>

I KNOW THIS BECAUSE TYLER KNOWS THIS



"You are not your job.
You're not how much money you have in the bank.
You're not the car you drive.
You're not the contents of your wallet.

The things you own end up owning you.

What are we? We're consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession.
 
Murder; crime; poverty; these things don't concern me.
 
What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy's name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra."
 
-Tyler Durden
 

Thursday, December 5, 2013

ONWARD CHRISTIAN KILLERS?



How can those who say they follow the Prince of Peace shoot their enemies? How can those who say they have experienced the transformational power of love and forgiveness kill 12 civilian citizens and wound 30 others? How can Christians murder children?

It has to start with a redefinition of the term "Christian" from "one who obeys Jesus" to "one who is in agreement with a set of doctrinal statements". Then one may behave however one likes without doing violence to the concept of "being like Christ" as a prerequisite for identifying with Jesus.

Over and over again, we read news items with headlines that reveal the sad news:

"Christian Tutsi's Slaughter Thousands Of Their Hutu Brothers in Rwanda"

"UN Reports That Armed Christian Groups Known As "Anti-Balaka" Have Killed 12 Muslims in Central African Republic"

Is this what Jesus had in mind? Did Jesus come to earth as an infant, and teach us to love our enemies, turn the other cheek, bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us - and Himself forgive those who nailed him to a Roman cross - so that those who come after Him could form an army and slaughter their enemies?

This is the same Jesus who said, "My Kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my disciples would fight." (see John 18:35-37)

So, if we fight, are we truly His disciples? Or are we fighting for the wrong kingdom?

Yes. When we take up arms and kill our enemies we are doing so for the kings and kingdoms of this fallen world.

As a follower of Jesus, there are many things worth dying for, but there is nothing - nothing - worth killing another human being for.

What could make me betray my Lord Jesus and take another life in disobedience to His clear commands to love and forgive? If I am more loyal to my nation than I am to Jesus, then I am not fit for His Kingdom.

“If any man come to Me and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." - Jesus (Luke 14:26)

So, let's be clear: Someone who is like Jesus cannot take up arms and kill another human being. Anyone who does this, in the name of God, or country, or patriotism, or national pride, or "freedom" is doing so in outright defiance of Jesus.

If Jesus is Lord, then let us obey His commands:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 4hat you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:43-48)

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

CONSUMERISM: If You Don't Buy Things What Are You?



"There's the television. It's all right there - all right there. Look, listen, kneel, pray. Commercials! We're not productive anymore. We don't make things anymore. It's all automated. What are we for then? We're consumers, Jim. Yeah. Okay, okay. Buy a lot of stuff, you're a good citizen. But if you don't buy a lot of stuff, if you don't, what are you then, I ask you? What? Mentally ill. Fact, Jim, fact: If you don't buy things - toilet paper, new cars, computerized yo-yos, electrically-operated sexual devices, stereo systems with brain-implanted headphones, screwdrivers with miniature built-in radar devices, voice-activated computers..."