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Dear Gaudior:

You have given me some pause to think.

Regarding my own progression - if I was unable to be aggressive, due to my upbringing, it may have been that God wanted to be able to be aggressive (and be able to be violent in self defense) but not necessarily to carry that out.

In other words, I would not be able to give up my right to use violence, if needed, for self defense - if I was not capable to be that way in the first place. A man can not give up something he is not capable of doing in the first place.

I have never, had to, really resort to physical violence. The closest I have come (while a man) was one time when I saw a huge man pin my oldest son against a wall with his hands around his throat. I ran over, and knowing this guy to be much bigger than I was - the thought had crossed my mind to use my momentum and smash his head into the wall. As if turned out - I did not need to do that and I talked the man down. My son was not harmed (scared but not hurt). Just before he left - he said that if he saw my son again - he would kill him. I said �You will have to go through me first.� to which he again got out of his car and came like a bull at me. Just before he reached me - he stopped - and decided better - and got back into his car and drove off. Unknown to me - my son had come up behind me and the thug, as big as he was, thought better than taking us both on. While ready to do violence if need be - Providence - made it that I did not have to actually carry through.

A man, can not lay down, what he is unable to pick up in the first place.

Now, often, my boldness, firmness, and courage - have been enough - and I have never felt the need to cross over into violence. May it continue to be that way.

-ray

Christ is Risen!
Truly He is Risen!

Dear Ray,

May we always be ready to fight for what is right, whether with words, or to defend our loved ones by our actions if there is no other option.

But I feel strongly that the Lord protects those who place their hope in Him, either by averting the trouble, as you have just described so vividly, or by being with us in our last extremity.

Gaudior, in prayer for peace

What is the will of Christ in all of this?
Is it not, Father that all may be one?
Of course we would never consider unity at the expense of truth and I dont think anyone expects that.
But what we do expect is that all people will humble themselves and seek together the will of Christ.
Stephanos I

Dear Ray,

The situation with your son that you described gave me goose bumps! It was truly God Himself that stepped in to save you, I believe.

Reminds me of a story my priest (very young and very tall) shared. He was driving on the interstate and his driving somehow annoyed a truck driver. The truck driver stuck his head out and spat at my priest's window. My priest got angry and told him to pull over. Fortunately, his spirituality came over him, and he got out of his car with his collar and told the truck driver that he should not spit at anyone, but that if he did something which offended him, that he begged his forgiveness. The truck driver was taken aback by the whole scene (priest, humility) and just turned around and left without saying a word. Under normal circumstances, my priest was sure that the truck driver would have tried to have assaulted him. I think that perhaps, that truck driver saw the light of Christ in an individual, for atleast one moment that day.

In Christ,
Alice

I agree, most Muslims aren't violent, but that's only because they aren't good Muslims. The commands are right there in the Islamic texts.

Unfortunately, martial violence is overly maligned in this era. Some nonviolent Muslims use political extortion and whitewashing of history to destroy non-Islamic societies. The Gates of Hell may not prevail against the whole Church, as Christ promised, but every day Islam is working diligently to take as many souls as possible away from Jesus.

So just because this pope and this establishment is against even mild violence, let us not forget that there were popes that hung brigands in the streets of Rome, or Julius II who led papal armies. And St. Joan, a "violent" saint, or St. George.

As Chesterton said, the only thing worse than a militarist is a pacifist, because the pacifist is siding with the enemy.

(And let us not forget that Islam is a deeply disordered religion, which prays to a pagan moon god appropriated by Mohammed. Letting Islam get a toehold anywhere just leads to chaos and tumult - and Muslims are Islam's biggest victims. Of the 22 wars raging in 2003, 20 of them involved Islam. If this isn't the work of the devil, I don't know what is. Let us pray for their conversion to Christ.)

Christos Voskres!
Voistinu Voskres!

To interject a note of humour into this...we may need to thank the Ukrainians love of good drink for the fact that Christianity survives at all in the world...Prince Volodymyr is said to have considered all three monotheistic religions (Judaism, Islam, and Christianity) and rejected Judaism on the grounds that the Jews had no homeland, and were scattered, saying, "If God dispersed the Jews in foreign lands because of their sins, should we bring as similar destiny on our heads?" and to the Muslim ambassadors he replied that the happiness of the Rus' was in food and drink, hence a religion that forbids wine is not suitable...Which left Christianity...so ambassadors were sent to the Germans, and Byzantium...returning from Haghia Sophia with that famous quote..."We did not know whether we were on the earth or in Heaven during the service..."

And although Prince Volodymyr's baba, Princess Olha, was Christian, his father was not, rejecting it on grounds of pacifism, and he himself was pagan to the core in his early reign, so it is probable that the more warlike Islam would have more appeal that the peace of Christianity, had not the ban on alcohol been a consideration too great to be ignored! And with the Slavs Islamic, the rest of Europe would have fallen in no time.

Thank the Kyivan Prince St. Volodymyr for realizing ANY religion banning wine is suspect, indeed! (except during the Fasts, of course :p )

Gaudior, with a note of humour