Why I hate religion!

[JVides]

seems to me that jesus wouldn't want you to shoot a bullet into someone's head.. why christians aren't pacifists is beyond me..

Maybe because pacifism is the eventual way to subjugation?  You keep turning that cheek, people will keep slapping... 

[YoFuggedaboutit]

seems to me that jesus wouldn't want you to shoot a bullet into someone's head.. why christians aren't pacifists is beyond me..

Killing an enemy in the act of war is an exception to that rule.  It says in Exodus that if you kill someone who attacks you, you will not be punished for murder

[Fau Teixeira]

Maybe because pacifism is the eventual way to subjugation?  You keep turning that cheek, people will keep slapping... 

that doesn't matter though ..

Seems to me that a true believer in jesus would be a pacifist even to his own detriment.

what i dont' want to hear from christians is that "we're all flawed .. we all sin" .. that's a cop out .. either you believe or you don't .. and if you believe and yet CHOOSE to do things that are against your belief for expedience or convenience or practicality .. then you must not believe all that much is my view.

[Fau Teixeira]

don't dust off old testament to justify something the new testament tells you not to do .. i can see that thought process if you were jewish .. but if you believe in jesus .. then his teachings trump the old testament whenever there's a conflict.

or so i was taught

[JVides]

that doesn't matter though ..

Seems to me that a true believer in jesus would be a pacifist even to his own detriment.

what i dont' want to hear from christians is that "we're all flawed .. we all sin" .. that's a cop out .. either you believe or you don't .. and if you believe and yet CHOOSE to do things that are against your belief for expedience or convenience or practicality .. then you must not believe all that much is my view.

This is the kind of thinking that gets you fed to lions, Fau.  Not to speak for the Christians, because, again, I have my own views that differ greatly from the bible (in that, as a book written by MAN, it's bound to be influenced by MAN'S prejudices and flaws), but I view the Bible and its teachings as guidelines by which to live, not absolute rule.  The teachings of Jesus are examples of virtue, not black and white "do as I do or burn eternally in flames".  To expect a human to live as a deity would is silly, anyway.  I'm kind of surprised you're seriously arguing this point, because to argue that true Christians would somehow have to be above humankind's flaws and fallacies is just...silly.

Also, why issue a blanket statement?  Are not, in fact, many Christians pacifists?  Are Christians somehow more or less inclined to be pacifists than the rest of the rabble?

[Sunstroke]

Yes there are some huge "bible thumpers" in the military, especially overseas where it is worse because you are stuck on the FOB with them and it is hard to truly get away.
Much like prisoners, many people find jesus while sitting in a foxhole.

Back during the Cold War (dear God, I've become my grandfather), there were a lot of the bible thumpers in the combat units (infantry, armor, etc...), but not a whole lot in the intell units. I guess a lot of that comes from the "I may die today, better have reservations made just in case" mentality of the battlefield.

On a side note, since it is something I do professionally now... The first slogan I ever wrote was for US Field Station Berlin, subsystem P, when I was 18. We were designing black denim jackets for the morse operators in our unit, so I took the pyramid from the dollar bill, the one with the eye of providence, and we put our unit crest in the middle of it. Then, with the first part above the pyramid and the second part below, I wrote our new slogan...

"In God we trust...
All others we monitor"
 

(edited for heinous brainfart typo)

[YoFuggedaboutit]

don't dust off old testament to justify something the new testament tells you not to do .. i can see that thought process if you were jewish .. but if you believe in jesus .. then his teachings trump the old testament whenever there's a conflict.

or so i was taught

What you just said was absolutely correct.  All the Old Testament stuff is what Jesus came to stop. 

[CF DolFan]

What you just said was absolutely correct.  All the Old Testament stuff is what Jesus came to stop. 

Jeusus didn't come to stop anything.  Old testament law was meant to reveal sin. Nothing more. He fulfilled their intent just as he did the prophets before Him.  God spoke through Prophets that were accompanied by signs and miracles as proof of who they were.  After Jesus gave us all equal access there was no need for Prophets. Jesus is the basis for it all.  It's all in the Sermon on the Mount that I referred to previously. He pretty much laid out His whole reason for being here in that one sermon.  Jesus is the Law, the Prophet, the Word of God in the flesh. He is God.

Matthew 5:17
17"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

[bsmooth]

Back during the Cold War (dear God, I've become my grandfather), there were a lot of the bible thumpers in the combat units (infantry, armor, etc...), but not a whole lot in the intell units. I guess a lot of that comes from the "I may die today, better have reservations made just in case" mentality of the battlefield.

On a side note, since it is something I do professionally now... The first slogan I ever wrote was for US Field Station Berlin, subsystem P, when I was 18. We were designing black denim jackets for the morse operators in our unit, so I took the pyramid from the dollar bill, the one with the eye of providence, and we put our unit crest in the middle of it. Then, with the first part above the pyramid and the second part below, I wrote our new slogan...

"In God we trust...
All others we monitor"
 

(edited for heinous brainfart typo)

That rocks. I enjoy the current motto of our thinly stretched military " Semper Gumby"

[Sunstroke]

I enjoy the current motto of our thinly stretched military " Semper Gumby"

That's some funny shit there...I hadn't heard that one before. Maybe we should get Lil_B to do a Gumby photoshopped in marine battle dress.

And, to get this thread back on topic... God sucks, film at eleven.

[Gabriel]

Fau,

The concept of the "just war" is well established in Christian theology. Read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_war

[bsmooth]

That's some funny shit there...I hadn't heard that one before. Maybe we should get Lil_B to do a Gumby photoshopped in marine battle dress.

And, to get this thread back on topic... God sucks, film at eleven.

Thats us, Always Flexible, especially with all the different types of missions we are expected to do that have nothing to do with our MOS's

[MaineDolFan]

that doesn't matter though ..

Seems to me that a true believer in jesus would be a pacifist even to his own detriment.

what i dont' want to hear from christians is that "we're all flawed .. we all sin" .. that's a cop out .. either you believe or you don't .. and if you believe and yet CHOOSE to do things that are against your belief for expedience or convenience or practicality .. then you must not believe all that much is my view.

I am very confused.  In your eyes you can only be without sin if you're a pacifist? 

If you live by the code of the seven deadly sins - the closest thing to this is Wrath.  I wouldn't consider someone's ability to defend themselves the same thing as a definition of wrath: inordinate and uncontrolled feelings of hatred and anger.