Muriel Lester on Refusing to Fight
"Do not rejoice when your enemies fall, and do not let your heart be glad when they stumble." Proverbs 24:17Have you ever wondered how far any "Beast" would make it, how successful any dictator or national military bent on conquest would be if only every Christian simply said, "I will not kill my brothers and sisters"? Would they get very far? Probably not. But even if they did manage to kill us all, can death really defeat the God who raises the crucified? Can death really hold us? Christ defeated death when death did it's worst but still couldn't hold him. Why do we choose to live by the sword when we know we can live by the cross? "those who live by the sword die by the sword." What if we just refused to fight with the world's weapons?
I got this quote in an e-mail today (thanks mom):
"God has made of one blood all nations under heaven. No man can suddenly become my enemy just because he happened to have been born on the other side of a river or a boundary line, and his government has issued an ultimatum against mine. Is it not time that we refused to fight?"
- Muriel Lester,
social reformer and pacifist (1883-1968)
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