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From: sdb@shark.UUCP (Steven Den Beste)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: A major transgression of modern Christians with respect to the Bible
Message-ID: <1453@shark.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 24-Aug-83 12:55:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: shark.1453
Posted: Wed Aug 24 12:55:43 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 26-Aug-83 05:40:17 EDT
Lines: 51

Now that I have your attention:

Paul Dubuc has asked for a place where the modern Christian church has
consciously changed the teachings of the Bible to satisfy modern governments.

"Thou shalt not kill".

Generally this commandment is interpreted as not allowing any human to
kill another human.


Consider:

1. A good, loyal Christian member of our country is drafted and sent to
war. He kills an enemy soldier. This is not a surprise - that
is what he is THERE to do, and everyone knows ahead of time.
   Generally, most Christian churches treat this as a personal choice.
If he decides not to be drafted, the church will support him. If he
decides to go ahead in the military, the church supports him that way, too.
(There are notable exceptions: Quakers and Mormons (score one for you,
Russ).)

2. A person owns a hand gun. In the privacy of his home, a prowler
breaks in and threatens him. The gun is used to kill the prowler. Again,
this is not unpredictable - that is why the gun was there in the first
place. A pistol has no other purpose. Most modern Christian churches
will not condemn this person for acting in self defense.


The commandment is not ambiguous, though most modern churches have
mealy-mouthed about it - some have decided that it REALLY reads "thou
shalt not MURDER", so self-defense and warfare are OK...


If the church were using the morality of the country it is in, it would
act the way it does now.

   If the church steadfastly stood behind this commandment, then no
Christian in this country would join the military or allow himself to
be drafted. Is that happening?

   If the church steadfastly stood behind this commandment, no christian
would ever own a hand gun, and the christian church would be in the forefront
of the gun-control issue. Hear that hollow echo?

I don't consider this to be a "minor" point - it is one of the big
ten on which the entire morality of the Christian church is based.

   Steve Den Beste
   Tektronix
   [decvax!ucbvax]!tektronix!tekecs!shark!sdb