" The powerful US Israel lobby and its Christian fundamentalist allies (now 44% of all Republican voters) have bribed or intimidated the US Congress into pressing for war against Iran."
I can understand that the right wing Israeli government wanting the USA to wage a war on their behalf. But Christians crying for war? I worked last year with a fundamentalist Christian. Whenever we spoke of religion he referred to the Old Testament. He named his children after prophets and heroines of Israel. Divine retribution was always part of his vocabulary specifically Sodom and Gomorrah and Jericho and its implications in our present age. Although we live in the 21st century my friend's views had more in common with the famous Puritan of the 17th century Oliver Cromwell, who butchered loyalist Catholics and Protestants in England during the Civil War.....all in the name of God and based upon a puritanical interpretation of the Bible. He also killed the king, Charles I. I have to admit that every time I pass by his monument outside the House of Commons in Westminster, London I cringe. He was a 'religious' man but his actions were evil - Cromwell seized three-quarters of Ireland's land from Catholics in 3 years and ordered the slaughter of one-third of local population........over 500,000 innocent men, women and children were murdered.
We also witnessed the bizarre GOP debate earlier this week with the GOP candidates (except Huntsman and Paul) each outdoing each other is demonstrating their desire to go to war with Iran. Two of these candidates are Catholics who are puppets of the neo-conservative movement........but purport to be conservative Catholics as well which is even more confusing. The sixth commandment is "Thou shall not kill." In my reading of scripture and church teachings I am convinced that unprovoked and unnecessary war are grievous offenses against God. Any premeditated military decision that results in the unnecessary deaths of thousands of innocent women and children is morally wrong. The late Pope John Paul II begged the USA not to attack Iraq for this very reason. He was ignored and catastrophe was the result.
As Christians we are only obligated to support just wars. Jesus warns us, Then Jesus saith to him: Put up again thy sword into its place: for all that take the sword shall perish with the sword. St. Matthew 26:53.
What is a just war? Is it murder when upon finding out that my neighbor has intentions to kill me that I go to his home and shoot him first? The same holds true in attacking a country without exhausting every other alternative other than violence. War should be the absolute last resort and not the first option.
To have Christians advocating war against Iran is scandalous given the gravity of the situation and the possibility of engaging Russia and China in Iran's defense.
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