Many thanks, John. Sorry for this length - I just love to crystalise my thoughts in writing!
Which power bloc of humanity does the most killings - the Christian capitalist West or the Communists and Muslim extremists in the East?
I particularly liked 'Drop Medicines, not Bombs'. Not just medicines but, for Afghanistan and Iraq from the War of Terrorism started on 7 October 2001, we would have been better off dropping 'bikes' not bombs! By bikes I mean everything but handing out death and injury. Parachute humanitarian aid in to these poor countries and never death dealing devices, unless authorised by the Security Council and never Congress and the US President.
My Christian discipleship also means doing what Paul advised, "Think of others as better than yourselves." Hence, I am very unpatriotic in mischievously delighting to point out how it appears that the Christian West, down too many centuries (not just the 20th) has been the worst offender in killing other humans. Death by all kinds of horrendous means that the West got to do first. From, just 1945:- use of WMD, Korea, the Kenyan atrocities in the 1950s, the West's wars against the Communists in many countries of SE Asia, extra judicial killings but, good news, we do seem to refrain from suicide bombing (I wonder why? Of course, no need to when we have drones to keep us safe when killing!)
It seems, that it was not the Arab Muslims or the Communists who did the most killings (even when remembering but, never verified, Stalin's millions that he killed*). For me, this is because of the European nation's responsibility for rounds one and two of the industrialised scale slaughter. Known, by me, as the wild West's World War 1914 to 1945, with the interlude between 1918 and 1939. 20 million godless Communist Russians were slaughtered to help the Christian West defeat Nazism. Nazism that came out of a Christian country, too!
I think it is unlikely that the Nazis would have risen to power if the West had not started the 1914 war. The victors saw to it that vanquished Germany was treated without Churchill's much vaunted magnanimity. German reparations meant that they had their noses rubbed in the dirt. It was all a breeding ground for very angry, very patriotic, right wing, National Socialism. Thus, the sequel in 1939.
It seems, that it was not the Arab Muslims or the Communists who did the most killings (even when remembering but, never verified, Stalin's millions that he killed*). For me, this is because of the European nation's responsibility for rounds one and two of the industrialised scale slaughter. Known, by me, as the wild West's World War 1914 to 1945, with the interlude between 1918 and 1939. 20 million godless Communist Russians were slaughtered to help the Christian West defeat Nazism. Nazism that came out of a Christian country, too!
I think it is unlikely that the Nazis would have risen to power if the West had not started the 1914 war. The victors saw to it that vanquished Germany was treated without Churchill's much vaunted magnanimity. German reparations meant that they had their noses rubbed in the dirt. It was all a breeding ground for very angry, very patriotic, right wing, National Socialism. Thus, the sequel in 1939.
We persist in thinking that the violent Communists and the violent Islamists are worse than ourselves because, quite naturally, we more carefully keep a record of their killings of us than that of our own of them - and, we never really like violence, of course; it is forced upon us! In the last century, the 'Christian' Europeans even got their colonies to help in the slaughter to defend their mighty empires in the (so worthy) West's World War.
Hence, my boring and constant theme:- that I would like - shock horror - to hear, occasionally, a Christian preacher exhorting their flock to avoid arms manufacturing and the armed forces when it comes to a job. Actually, I did hear Tony Campolo (on Friday 6 Sept at B'ham Christian Centre) do just that in the context of President Obama wanting to punish Syria for using chemical weapons in August. Praise the Lord - and pass the ammunition!**
NOTES *"Ralph Miliband was a supporter of Marxist ideology that was being used to run governments in other parts of the continent and other parts of Europe which was responsible for an awful lot of terrible things, including millions and millions of deaths." (Jon Steafel, Dep Editor of Daily Mail, on 'Newsnight', BBC2 on 1 October 2013)
** Christians might only vote for political parties that try non-violence or, at least, non-aggression and who abide by Security Council wishes or UN resolutions. That means, for me, voting for none of the major three war parties. Therefore, abstaining.
NOTES *"Ralph Miliband was a supporter of Marxist ideology that was being used to run governments in other parts of the continent and other parts of Europe which was responsible for an awful lot of terrible things, including millions and millions of deaths." (Jon Steafel, Dep Editor of Daily Mail, on 'Newsnight', BBC2 on 1 October 2013)
** Christians might only vote for political parties that try non-violence or, at least, non-aggression and who abide by Security Council wishes or UN resolutions. That means, for me, voting for none of the major three war parties. Therefore, abstaining.
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