Russell - what are your thoughts on this? (other Christians can respond too)

[Caleb]

A friend named Elbon has been protesting outside churches before their services, blaming them for forsaking the Christ's teachings on the law of love and non-violence, and accusing them of complicity in mass murder.

This, as you can expect, creates quite a stir. But it also seems to get Christians talking about it.

Do you think something like this would be productive?

Caleb

[toowm]

Yes.
My denomination was founded by a guy who hammered his problems onto the church door!

[ByronB]

I don't know I think I would keep away from that... just because a lot of Christians are in the Republican party and the party got hijacked into going to war doesn't make all Christians murderers, I think you'd just be burning bridges.

[Russell Kanning]

for me there are worse people out there to protest

I think you should do it.

[Caleb]

yeah, I am seriously leaning towards doing this.

It's not so much that there aren't worse people than Christians. It's just that they are sitting on the key - they hold in their grasp the solution to the world's problems. All they have to do for blessings to extend to the world is to practice the teachings of the man they call "Lord" ...

How many of the world's problems are due to the salt having lost its strength?

[Caleb]

Oh, by the way, Russell, have you read "The Law of Love and the Law of Violence" by Tolstoy? It's pretty great, and its smaller so people won't be able to say, "Oh, it was too long so I didn't bother reading it."

[Russell Kanning]

So are you going to help people or tell others that they are not doing the right thing?

[Jitgos]

This sounds like fine idea. I visited a church about a year ago that my parents had started going to. I was so sick by the end I jetted out of that place like a rocket. It just kept getting worse as the guy went along. First he talked about how evil the pharmaceutical companies are and all the profit they make, of course not mentioning anything about the government regulation. Then he talked for probably 45 minutes about how we should beat our kids and it did him good when his parents whipped him so that blood flowed down his back. It taught him a good lesson.

Then it really got bad. He said the US should nuke the entire middle east (minus Israel of course) and how evil they are over there.

And then of course they finished off singing "This Little Light of Mine"  . These were really nice smiling people. I don't think they had a clue about the sickness this leader was infecting them with.

Caleb, I plan to do some type of "Christian Education Plan" when I get to NH. I have some alternative ideas to protesting, but I think it's an okay idea. I wouldn't be against joining you when I move in a month. Are you in NH or CA?

[K. Darien Freeheart]

Not a christian, please take with a grain of salt.

I think it's a fine idea. Christianity is founded on the principals of love, not intolerance. With the frequency at which some christians use their faith as a way to rally around removing freedoms, I think it's only fair that they be reminded that arguing AGAINST things like drugs (on a morals position) makes no sense when you turn around and support a government action that is killing thousands. I think a lot of people simply don't think critically and might need some help from a fellow principaled christian to be reminded of that it's all about.

[Caleb]

Yeah, I'm sensitive to what Russell is saying here:  It seems to me that its more inspiring to live your life the way you think you ought to live your life and let your example lead.

The problem here is that the Gospel, in its true significance, has been placed under a basket.  So if I live my life peacefully, that's good, but people are in this mode where the sayings of the Gospel are sort of this big elephant in the room that Christians sort of dance around when it comes to war, so if I'm living my life peacefully, and not talking about the contradictions between what Jesus taught and our whole society based on violence, people are almost certain not to think about it. They are just as apt to see my pacifism as a personal preference or taste rather than a moral imperative that they are bound to live by.

I only started to draw some of these connections myself by reading something that Tolstoy wrote.  If Tolstoy hadn't taken the basket off of the light, I probably wouldn't have understood it in its true significance.  So the goal isn't to reproach Christians - it is with the hope that they are sincere and merely haven't themselves seen the Gospel in its true significance.

[Caleb]

Caleb, I plan to do some type of "Christian Education Plan" when I get to NH. I have some alternative ideas to protesting, but I think it's an okay idea. I wouldn't be against joining you when I move in a month. Are you in NH or CA?

I'd love to hear those ideas!

I am in California.

If you do choose to join a Church (and you land in Keene) I recommend First Baptist Church on Maple Street.  Reverend Mark Ferrin isn't a Libertarian, per se, but he is a man who is conscious of living his life in harmony with the Gospel in its true significance.  I was also impressed by the Rector at the Episcopal Church on the circle. I can't remember his name off hand.  Another place you might try is contacting the Chaplain at Keene State College. He is a man of peace, who is interested in tax resistance. He leads a church ... but I'm not sure where.  Walpole maybe.

Most of the other churches in Keene are warmongering Churches, or else just fancy country clubs for Democrats. I have personally walked out of two churches in Keene for warmongering from the pulpit.

[anthonybpugh]

I think a protest would be counter productive in such a situation.  Protesting is confrontational and accusatory.  How about a good street sermon in front of the church preaching the message that the churches have forgotten. 

[Jitgos]

I think a protest would be counter productive in such a situation.  Protesting is confrontational and accusatory.  How about a good street sermon in front of the church preaching the message that the churches have forgotten. 

Exactly! This is what I was thinking of when supporting "protest". Not the accusatory shouting to put people into a defensive posture. That would be mostly counterproductive I would think.

[Caleb]

I was discouraged because I couldn't find Tolstoy's "The Law of Love and the Law of Violence" anywhere on the internet -- so I typed it up myself and put it on my website:   http://www.calebjohnson.org/lawoflove.pdf

[Russell Kanning]

you typed in the whole thing?