I’ve added Provoke Radio, a Catholic podcast out of Baltimore, to my podcast listening. Whether or not you subscribe yourself, I suggest you listen to episode 60, available from the show archives. Show 60 is titled Pax Christi – Preaching Non-Violence and is notable for three things — a clear description of why “turn the other cheek” is not the wimpy way it is portrayed but a bold way to stand your ground; giving an effective answer when the War Party asks you if you aren’t being naive; and a plain-English discussion of what distinguishes a true peace movement from an antiwar movement.
I’m personally sympathetic to the idea that our inability to shift policy on the occupation opposed by a majority of Iraqis and Americans alike is related to the fact that Administration opponents are more anti-war than peace builders. I’m guilty too.
If you give this or other episodes a listen, please stop by and let me know what you think.
Filed under: bible, christianity, iraq, peace, war
NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT
No time is better than today
To turn the other cheek,
For to acknowledge, by the way,
As one his sowings wreak,
So too even a nation shall
But reap the fruits thereof,
A bitter fruit, as due to all,
Yet fits like hand to glove.
No glove conceals the fingerprint
Of what ye have enacted,
Nor even is there need to squint:
The truth can´t be redacted.
Ye flew across a needless ocean
Shock and awe to deliver,
So setting great events in motion
From which none might recover.
The blood and brains smashed on the stones,
The cultural depredation
(Libraries ransacked) none disowns:
It was willful creation.
Yet it is not too late an hour
To turn the other cheek,
Though it mean sacrificing power–
´Tis strength dares to be weak.