[Peace-discuss] Fwd: In today's Daytona Beach News-Journal

[Matthew Murrey]

Hello All,

Just thought people might be interested in reading
this op-ed from a professor I had while in college at
Stetson University.

Matt Murrey
--- Don Musser <dmusser at stetson.edu> wrote:
> From: "Don Musser" <dmusser at stetson.edu>
> To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;>
> Subject: In today's Daytona Beach News-Journal
> Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2003 18:31:44 -0500
> 
> Christianity not militant faith 
> 
> I am an ordained Baptist preacher and a professor of
> religious studies at Stetson University. My
> difficulty with joining the Christian militants who
> have rallied around Army Lt. Gen. William "Jerry"
> Boykin and supported not only his rights to free
> speech but also his faith in a warrior God is that
> the founder of the Christian faith was not the kind
> of person they imply God to be, at least not
> according to Jesus in the New Testament Gospels.
> 
> Christians who domesticate the God of Jesus as the
> "God of America" remind me of first-century
> followers of Jesus who implored him to take up arms
> as a militant messiah and annihilate the hated
> Romans who occupied Palestine. The God that Jesus
> followed was a God who confounded the militants with
> an attitude of nonviolent action toward occupiers,
> enemies and threats to homeland security. It was
> Jesus who told Peter to put his sword away when the
> authorities came to arrest Jesus.
> 
> When militant Christians declare that America has
> "favored-nation" status with God, they come
> dangerously close to abridging the Second
> Commandment. To blur faith in God with unbridled
> patriotism is to deify the nation, turning
> Americanism into idolatry. The New Testament Jesus
> and his early followers favored no particular
> nation; rather, they had open arms for all people.
> 
> When citizenship becomes nationalism, it takes the
> form of a secular religion. Identifying America with
> the Kingdom of God is both heresy and idolatry. It
> is not what Jesus was about. The God of Jesus favors
> all nations and all peoples, even those who oppose
> and despise God.
> 
> As a veteran, a Christian and a proud American, what
> I believe our country needs is not more people
> willing to fight and die with apocalyptic fervor for
> America, but grass-roots citizens who are willing to
> join hands with peacemakers of all nations and
> religions, embracing militant nonviolent love for
> the peace of all the Earth.
> 
> It was Jesus who uttered the words "Blessed are the
> peacemakers."
> 
> DON MUSSER,Col., U.S. Air Force (Ret.),DeLand 
> 


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