Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uupsi!njin!paul.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: tblake@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Thomas Blake) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: 1st amendment (was: religious courses in a secular school) Message-ID: Date: 17 May 91 06:49:05 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: State University of New York at Binghamton Lines: 40 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article jclark@sdcc6.ucsd.edu (John Clark) writes: >In article math1h3@jetson.uh.edu writes: >You, as a group, don't seem to mind paying for a large defence >budget which in all likelyhood if used would have kill far more >individuals than just the fielded troops. The Cold War arms race was >supported by numerous Christian preachers as 'God's will'. How >presumptous. Well, I for one do object to the amount that is spent on the military. I also think that this is a fairly common view. Take the new/old saw... When the kingdom comes, churches will have all the money they need, and the pentagon will have to have bakesales to pay for aircraft carriers. (Variants abound) Not all Christians supported the recent "Fiasco in the Gulf". A good many Christians spoke out against it. I spoke out against the upcoming hostilities in church before the air war had begun. I spoke out about the hypocrisy. I asked if anyone *wanted* the war, and then I asked why we were going to fight it. Two sons from our congregation were in Kuwait, and at least one nephew. Noone took me aside to say they disagreed. They agreed that what I said needed to be said. At a joint Ash Wednesday service with a local Presbyterian congregation, I sang a hymn from our new hymnal which calls upon the church to speak out for peace, and to demonstrate. People asked what song it was, and many said how well it expressed their feelings. A while after the air bombardment began, churches in the area began ringing their bells at 5:00 pm (midnight in the gulf) to mark the time the bombardments had begun, and to ask that the war would end. Oh, America has proven its bloodlust in this. There's no doubt about it, and the Church has been too passive, but I really don't think you've fairly represented the view of Christians. Tom Blake SUNY-Binghamton