#nonviolence — Public Fediverse posts

The Geometry of Breaking or Healing

Those are the two options.

To be part of the destruction of that which is precious,
even the life of the enemy.
Or a conduit for the substance that binds up wounds and the broken-hearted.

Even when flaws cause me to hurt those around me or engage in broken thoughts and so, for a time, join with the razing power,
if I am repentant, make the necessary changes, and return to the healing stream,
then the danger of losing my humanity is minimized.

And, if at the end of my life when I am weighed in the balance, and my contribution to fixing outweighs the breaking, then I will be satisfied to rest easy in the knowledge that in some small way I was an addition to the healing sum.

September 10, 2014

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NOW PLAYING == Talk World Radio with David Swanson 8/31/26: Israel is using drones to shoot children in the head

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#news #peace #geopolitics #uspol #politics #antiwar #nonviolence #DavidSwanson #WorldBeyondWar #NoWar #vsn #radio #peaceeducation #activism #resist #DiverseSpectrumOfTheLeft #SupportIndependentMedia

Strike

The phobia of a copperhead strike
is made real by the lunge of a
lawnmower into the brush to shred
the coiling orange and brown with
a screaming whump only to realize
that it was an eastern box turtle
I had set upon.

Once again what I am afraid of 
has led me to destroy what I love 
and I weep, wondering if I will ever 
become one whose perceived fears 
are not acted on.

I did not look to see if the 
slowmover was dead
but I knew. I could see the 
bloody pieces of her
shell scattered across
the lawn.

September 3, 1996

The Archer

In the high sea of clouds,
in willowing wisps of white,
an evil lurks.

The winds of the world bring
the first whisper of change,
an alien thing.

A dragon.

Red as blood, gleaming darkness,
its armor, invincible?

Heavy metal talons, drooling jaws,
acid falling, burning earth below.

It screams through the sky,
wings creaking, flapping furiously,
breathing flame.

Men flee,
like tiny ants scurrying
from desecration
into it.

Only One holds his ground,
a bow and one arrow
in his hand.

The Prince awaits,
as if to allow the dragon to
devour him.

Then with a flash,
he looses his arrow.

It soars through the air.

Blood gushing,
the dart buried deep,
the dragon crashes to the ground.

Landing on the One.

From amongst the dragon’s corpse,
amidst dying coals and wisps of smoke,
a figure crawls,
stands.

It is the Archer,
the One,
Him.

From the collection “Words at 16 (1983)”

It’s in the Blood

In 1539, a fugitive former-priest-turned-Anabaptist, in his seminal work “The Foundation,” penned the following words:

“Christ is our fortress; patience our weapon of defense; the Word of God our sword. …Iron and metal spears and swords we leave to those who, alas, regard human blood and swine’s blood of well-nigh equal value.”

So said Menno Simons, principal leader of the Protestant sect which then became known as the Mennonites.

More than 500 years later, his words still resound with a mighty truth.

At the risk of sounding morbid, it has to do with blood.

While Menno specifically refers to the difference between human blood and that of an animal, his larger point is the “value” we place on the blood of another.

My point is quite simple.

Killing will not end through education, conflict resolution, or disarmament, though all of these are important and can help. Killing will end only when there is a fundamental shift in the mind and heart of those who kill.

For how can you kill someone if you believe that their blood is just as valuable as your own?

Let’s call it – for lack of a better term – bloodism.

The other – their humanity, life, blood – is somehow less than I, and therefore, their humanity, life, blood, is not as valuable as my own. It becomes quite easy then to justify killing the other, ie. spilling his/her blood.

The directors of death throughout history from every nation, tribe and religion have understood and disseminated this concept quite well. A person (and those like him/her) is described as having the wrong beliefs, the wrong skin color, the wrong gender, the wrong age, the wrong station in life, the wrong land, the wrong possessions, the wrong clothing, the wrong language —- the wrong blood. These others are not as valued as you are, the leaders of the macabre scream, though they couch their speech in terms such as vigilance, freedom, history, security, and truth.

Then the killing begins.

The Nazis did it to the Jews. Israelis do it to the Palestinians. Hutus did it to the Tutsis. Shiite do it to the Sunni. Palestinians do it to the Israelis. Sunni do it to the Shiite. Muslims do it to the Christians. Christians do it to the Muslims. This country does it to that country. That neighborhood does it to this neighborhood. This race does it to that race. That religion does it to this religion.

And any one of a million other combinations.

STOP!

Do not allow your mind and heart to be filled with bloodism.

We are made in the image of God.

ALL of us.

And that divine DNA resides in the very marrow of our bones and flows through our veins.

It’s in the blood.

July 28, 2014

La paix du bouddhisme

Pour les bouddhistes, la paix n’est pas un simple état émotionnel agréable, c’est la conséquence directe d’une compréhension juste de la réalité.

Ainsi, le nirvāṇa est un état découlant de l’extinction des trois feux que sont l’avidité, l’aversion et l’illusion. La paix bouddhiste n’est donc pas l’absence temporaire de trouble, mais l’épuisement définitif des causes mêmes de l’agitation intérieure. Tant que ces trois racines brûlent, dit-on, aucune paix n’est stable, seulement des accalmies. La paix n’est donc pas un événement, elle est la conséquence d’un diagnostic lucide, presque clinique, de la souffrance.

Une grande part du conflit humain naît, pour le bouddhisme, de la défense d’un moi que l’on croit substantiel et séparé. Le bouddhisme dissout l’ego dans la vacuité, il n’y a rien de substantiel à défendre, donc rien qui justifie ultimement la peur, la possessivité ou l’hostilité. La paix naît ici d’un dévoilement métaphysique plus que d’une fusion.

Sur le plan éthique et relationnel, l’idéal de paix se manifeste dans les quatre qualités cultivées activement que sont la bienveillance aimante, ce vœu du bien-être de tous les êtres, sans exception ni préférence, la compassion qui est la capacité à ressentir et alléger la souffrance d’autrui, la joie sympathique qui est la capacité de se réjouir du bonheur d’autrui sans envie et l’équanimité, cette stabilité qui n’est ni indifférence ni détachement froid, mais paix devant ce qui échappe à notre contrôle.

Ces quatre qualités, souvent pratiquées par méditation formelle. Elles forment un pont entre paix intérieure et paix relationnelle, car on ne peut pas cultiver l’une sans l’autre.

Comme dans le jaïnisme et l’hindouisme, la non-violence est le socle éthique concret de cette paix. Le premier précepte bouddhiste, s’abstenir de tuer ou de nuire à tout être sensible n’est pas une simple règle morale, mais l’expression extérieure d’un esprit déjà pacifié. On ne nuit plus quand on ne se sent plus séparé ni menacé.

Ainsi, la paix bouddhiste suit un mouvement inverse, à certains égards, de celui du soufisme que nous venons de voir cette semaine. Là où le soufi descend vers la paix par la soumission amoureuse à un Dieu personnel, le bouddhiste y accède par le dévoilement de la vacuité et l’extinction des attachements, soit une paix qui n’a pas besoin d’un Autre transcendant pour se réaliser, mais qui rejoint néanmoins, dans ses fruits éthiques (compassion, non-nuisance, service), une parenté frappante avec l’approche soufie.

Dans un monde où tout le monde parle de paix, est-ce que nous avons la même conception de celle-ci? Est-ce que les écarts expliqueraient en partie les conflits qui perdurent?

Une chanson de Renée Claude interprétée par Isabelle Boulay, Céline Dion, Luce Dufault, Diane Dufresne, Louise Forestier, Laurence Jalbert, Catherine Major, Ariane Moffatt, Marie Denise Pelletier, Ginette Reno et Marie-Élaine Thibert – Tu trouveras la paix

Les paroles sur https://www.musixmatch.com/fr/paroles/Ren%C3%A9e-Claude/Tu-Trouveras-La-Paix-Dans-Ton-coeur

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctwvvoX8BaM

Par Daniel Jean dans Voies (x) de passage

COPYRIGHT – DROIT DE REPRODUCTION – La reproduction de cet article sur un blogue ou un site est autorisé à condition de respecter :   * L’intégralité du texte — Vous ne devez pas modifier, transformer ou adapter ce texte. * Le droit d’auteur — Vous devez citer le nom de la source (avec un hyperlien vers l’article original de préférence). * La finalité sans but lucratif — Vous n’avez pas le droit d’utiliser cette création à des fins commerciales. Si j’ai utilisé vos textes/photos et que vous souhaitez que je les retire, merci de me contacter en commentaire, ce sera fait rapidement.

An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.
-- Mahatma Gandhi

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #MahatmaGandhi #NonViolence #Revenge #Violence

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Guangxi #China #LiRiver #LiJiang #TowerKarst #Geology

A Day for the World to Say Sorry

From Australia’s National Sorry Day Toward an International Day of Truth, Repentance, and Repair

A PeaceGrooves Reflection

There are words so overused that they risk becoming weightless. Sorry is one of them. We say it when we bump into someone in a hallway, when we answer an email too late, when we make an insignificant mistake. Yet there are times when sorry is not small at all. There are wounds so deep, so deliberately inflicted, and so long denied that the speaking of sorrow becomes an act of public truth.

Australia’s National Sorry Day, observed each year on May 26, is such a day. It remembers the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children forcibly removed from their families, communities, languages, and cultures under government policies now associated with the Stolen Generations. The date marks the anniversary of the 1997 tabling of the Bringing Them Home report, the landmark national inquiry that gathered testimony from survivors and documented the devastation caused by these removals. The report called not only for recognition of what had happened, but for apology, healing, reparations, family reunion, access to records, and measures ensuring such violations would never recur.

National Sorry Day did not begin as a sentimental holiday….

Read the full essay at PeaceGrooves.

What happens when a deep meditation session turns into a vivid journey across the sea? 🌊✨

On Day 40 of my journey, I experienced a powerful vision that took me to the shores of China and taught me a life-altering lesson about mercy and the true meaning of 'Live and Let Live.' 🕊️

Read the full story of the ancient vessel, the moment of truth, and the Great Escape. 👇

#MeditationJourney #Mindfulness #LiveAndLet Live #SpiritualAwakening #NonViolence #Day40"

https://meditationwithpraveen.wordpress.com/2026/05/14/divine-vision-meditation-day-40/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

The Maranatha Empire

There is a prayer so holy that it should burn the tongue of every empire that tries to speak it.

Maranatha.

Come, Lord.

It is the cry of the small church under pressure. The cry of the persecuted and the patient. The cry of those who have no armies to summon, no throne to defend, no voting bloc sufficient to save them, no market share large enough to secure their future. It is the cry of those who wait because they know they are not God.

But in every age, there are those who take this prayer of waiting and turn it into a banner of possession.

They say, “Come, Lord,” but what they mean is, “Give us control.”

They say, “Thy kingdom come,” but what they mean is, “Let our faction rule.”

They say, “Prepare the way of the Lord,” but what they build are prisons, borders, propaganda machines, religious celebrity platforms, and monuments to their own fear.

This is the Maranatha Empire.

It is not one nation only, though nations may become its servants. It is not one denomination only, though denominations may become its chapels. It is not merely Rome, nor Geneva, nor Washington, nor Moscow, nor any other city that has mistaken power for providence. The Maranatha Empire is the recurring temptation of the religious heart: to stop waiting for Christ and begin replacing him.

It begins quietly.

It begins with concern.

The world is dangerous. The children are vulnerable. The church is shrinking. The enemies are multiplying. The culture is changing. The old certainties are crumbling. The people are afraid.

Fear, when baptized, often calls itself faithfulness.

So the frightened church begins to reach for tools Jesus refused.

A throne.

A sword.

A spectacle.

A scapegoat.

A strongman.

A law that can accomplish what love has not yet persuaded.

A state that can enforce what the Spirit has not yet formed.

A leader who promises to defend Christ, as though Christ ever asked Peter to keep swinging after Gethsemane.

This is how the prayer becomes an empire.

The early church cried, “Come, Lord Jesus,” because it knew that Caesar was not Lord. The Maranatha Empire cries, “Come, Lord Jesus,” because it wants Caesar to become useful.

The early church broke bread in homes. The Maranatha Empire builds platforms and calls them altars.

The early church welcomed the stranger. The Maranatha Empire sees the stranger as a threat.

The early church died rather than kill. The Maranatha Empire kills and calls the dead collateral damage in the defense of righteousness.

The early church believed the Lamb had conquered. The Maranatha Empire keeps looking for a beast strong enough to protect the Lamb.

And there is the blasphemy.

Not that empire rejects Christ outright. That would be too honest. The Maranatha Empire does something more dangerous. It uses Christ as decoration for a power that is fundamentally afraid of the cross.

It sings of the Lamb while trusting the dragon.

It preaches resurrection while organizing itself around survival.

It displays the cross while despising weakness.

It quotes Jesus while ignoring the people Jesus told us to notice: the poor, the imprisoned, the hungry, the foreigner, the enemy, the child, the wounded man beside the road.

The Maranatha Empire is not built by atheists. It is built by believers who have lost patience with the way of Jesus.

For the way of Jesus is slow.

It is seed, yeast, salt, light.

It is foot-washing.

It is forgiveness seventy times seven.

It is refusing the shortcut of domination even when domination appears efficient.

It is telling Peter to put away the sword when everything in Peter’s body screams that this is the moment for holy violence.

It is standing before Pilate and saying, “My kingdom is not from this world,” not because the kingdom has nothing to do with the world, but because it does not come by the world’s methods.

The Maranatha Empire cannot tolerate this.

It cannot tolerate a Messiah who will not seize power.

It cannot tolerate a church that would rather be faithful than influential.

It cannot tolerate a people whose politics begin at the basin and towel.

It cannot tolerate enemy-love, because enemy-love ruins the machinery. Empire requires enemies. It needs them. It feeds on them. Without enemies, the crowd might look too closely at the throne.

So, the Maranatha Empire manufactures urgency.

There is no time to love.

No time to listen.

No time to discern.

No time for reconciliation.

No time for peacemaking.

No time to ask whether the means resemble the Christ we claim to serve.

The hour is late, they say. The danger is great. The stakes are too high. We must act now. We must take control now. We must win now.

And somewhere beneath all that urgency is a terrible confession:

They do not actually believe the Lord is coming.

Or, if he is coming, they do not trust him to arrive in the right way.

So they build him an empire to inherit.

But Christ does not inherit empires.

He judges them.

He walks in alleyways, not palaces. He asks whether the churches have kept their first love. He warns those who are rich and comfortable and self-satisfied that they may be poor, blind, and naked. He stands at the door and knocks, not because he has been defeated by secularism, but because religious people have locked him outside while holding meetings in his name.

The Maranatha Empire is always shocked when Jesus is found outside the gate.

Outside the camp.

Outside respectability.

Outside the approved narrative.

Outside the walls with the crucified, the excluded, the unclean, the inconvenient, and the condemned.

The empire expected him in the capital.

But he is with the refugees.

The empire expected him in the cathedral of victory.

But he is with the mother of the disappeared.

The empire expected him on the reviewing stand.

But he is washing feet in the basement.

The empire expected him to bless the troops.

But he is asking why his followers are still carrying swords.

This is why Maranatha must remain a dangerous prayer.

It must never be allowed to become a slogan for conquest. It must never be printed on the banners of those who are unwilling to be converted by the One they summon. To pray “Come, Lord” is not to invite divine endorsement of our projects. It is to invite judgment upon them.

Come, Lord, and judge our churches.

Come, Lord, and judge our flags.

Come, Lord, and judge our markets.

Come, Lord, and judge our weapons.

Come, Lord, and judge our sermons.

Come, Lord, and judge our secret hatreds.

Come, Lord, and judge the ways we have used your name to avoid your way.

This is the prayer empire cannot honestly pray.

Because if the Lord comes, the first thing to fall may not be our enemies.

It may be our idols.

The algorithm.

The nation.

The party.

The brand.

The gun.

The strongman.

The myth of innocence.

The lie that we can harm others for a righteous cause and remain untouched by the harm.

The Maranatha Empire teaches us to fear the collapse of Christian influence.

Jesus teaches us to fear gaining the world and losing our soul.

The Maranatha Empire asks, “How do we take back the culture?”

Jesus asks, “Can you drink the cup that I drink?”

The Maranatha Empire says, “Blessed are the winners.”

Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek.”

The Maranatha Empire says, “Blessed are the forceful, for they shall secure the future.”

Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”

And perhaps this is the word for us now:

The church does not need to become more powerful.

The church needs to become more faithful.

Not passive. Not silent. Not withdrawn into pious irrelevance. But faithful in the particular, cruciform, stubborn way of Jesus. Faithful enough to resist evil without becoming its mirror. Faithful enough to tell the truth without hatred. Faithful enough to protect the vulnerable without worshiping violence. Faithful enough to build communities of economic sharing, hospitality, forgiveness, courage, and joy. Faithful enough to be a people who can live without controlling the outcome.

That is the hard part.

Empire is attractive because it promises control.

Jesus offers communion.

Empire promises security.

Jesus offers peace.

Empire promises victory over enemies.

Jesus offers reconciliation that may begin with our repentance.

Empire promises to make us great.

Jesus invites us to become small enough to enter the kingdom.

So, let the Maranatha Empire fall.

Let it fall first in us.

Let it fall in every place where we have confused anxiety with zeal. Let it fall where we have preferred dominance to witness. Let it fall where we have wanted laws to do what discipleship would not. Let it fall where we have used the suffering of others as fuel for our own righteousness. Let it fall where we have asked Jesus to come only after we have arranged the throne to our liking.

And when it falls, may something older and more beautiful remain.

A table.

A basin.

A towel.

A loaf.

A cup.

A people gathered without illusion, without empire, without the need to be impressive, whispering the ancient prayer not as conquerors but as witnesses:

Maranatha.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Come not to crown our domination, but to free us from it.

Come not to baptize our fear, but to cast it out.

Come not to make our empire holy, but to teach us again that your kingdom comes like a seed, like yeast, like mercy, like a Lamb who was slain and yet lives.

And until you come, make us faithful.

Not imperial.

Not triumphant.

Not afraid.

Faithful.

Underground – RIP MLK 4/4

A Holy Saturday Illustration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgElSdugUxI

https://piped.video/watch?v=zgElSdugUxI

https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=zgElSdugUxI

#uspol #politics #ICE #DueProcess #HabeasCorpus #Nonviolence #NonviolentProtest #NonviolentCivilResistance #NonviolentCivilDisobedience #AlienEnemiesAct #MAGA #Project2025 #ImmigrationAndCustomsEnforcement #DHS #DepartmentOfHomelandSecurity #HomelandSecurity #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration #TheMajorityReport #TheMajorityReportWithSamSeder #AntiIceProtest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJdHDEB44_s

https://piped.video/watch?v=GJdHDEB44_s

https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=GJdHDEB44_s

#uspol #politics #ICE #DueProcess #HabeasCorpus #Nonviolence #NonviolentProtest #NonviolentCivilResistance #NonviolentCivilDisobedience #AlienEnemiesAct #MAGA #Project2025 #ImmigrationAndCustomsEnforcement #DHS #DepartmentOfHomelandSecurity #HomelandSecurity #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration #TheMajorityReport #TheMajorityReportWithSamSeder #AntiIceProtest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7MgLMzsnmE

https://piped.video/watch?v=N7MgLMzsnmE

https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=N7MgLMzsnmE

#uspol #politics #ICE #DueProcess #HabeasCorpus #TheLateShowWithStephenColbert #StephenColbert #Nonviolence #MariaJStephan #NonviolentProtest #NonviolentCivilResistance #NonviolentCivilDisobedience #AlienEnemiesAct #MAGA #Project2025 #ImmigrationAndCustomsEnforcement #DHS #DepartmentOfHomelandSecurity #HomelandSecurity #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration

#nonviolence #tousresponsables #defense

En réaction à la publication par le #ministereDeLIntérieur du guide "tous responsables", le #MAN (Mouvement pour une Alternative Non-violente) a mis à jour et publie son manuel citoyen pour la #DCNV (défense Civile Non-Violente).
Importante contribution, car la menace ne vient pas forcément de l'extérieur ou de "terroristes"...
https://nonviolence.fr/Le-MAN-publie-un-manuel-citoyen-de-defense-civile-non-violente

Desperate #Musk is now targeting (doxxing) citizens for exercising #FreeSpeech rights in #nonviolence #Peace -ful protests

"A Tesla protester targeted by Elon Musk speaks out: 'I have to protect myself'

"When one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful person in the world is saying you've committed a crime, it doesn't matter what the truth is,"

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/17/nx-s1-5328626/elon-musk-protests-tesla-takedown

#ActBlue #Troublemakers #Seattle
#TeslaTakeDown #Tesla #TeslaSucks

> Conspirituality: Brief: Antifascist Woodshed 2 (Punching Nazis?)

Episode webpage: https://conspirituality.net/
#Violence #Nonviolence #Oppression #USPol #Dharma #Interbeing #Mindfulness #Meditation #PlumVillage #BuddhaGang #EngagedBuddhism #RecoveryDharma #SanghaInTheStreets @dharma @engagedbuddhism @bodhisattvaway @buddhagang @recoverydharma @plumvillage
@sanghainthestreets

New instance, new #introduction! (Also boosts will help federate the garden ^-^)

I'm a #Quaker #seminary student in #Pittsburgh. I love #DND and #TTRPG, and get up to #crochet, #hiking, and #naturephotography in my spare time.

Here's a motley list of things I like/post about!

#AcademicBible #Linux #FOSS #tea #greentea #retrocomputing #shorthand #ShapeNote #SacredHarp #Quakerism #nonviolence #Mandarin #trans #AuDHD #Futurama #CloudAtlas #JacobCollier #Björk #StVincent #minimalism

It’s … purple pikliz*! 🇭🇹 🌱

Process: treacherous 🥽 🧤

Results: luminous 🌶️ ✨

*the kind of pikliz you make when you only have red cabbage on hand, not white 🙈

Not quite authentic, but still packing plenty of heat 🔥 🔥 🔥

#HomeCooking #Cooking #VeganCooking #Food #FoodPorn #Vegan #VeganFood #Veggie #Vegetarian #DairyFree #EggFree #EcoFriendly #Eco #LowCarbon #WhatVegansEat #Veganism #PlantBased #NonViolence
#Haitian #Haiti #HaitianFood #Pikliz #Pickles #Cabbage #ScotchBonnet #Spicy

Rice & peas, fried plantain & Jamaican-style greens* 🥥 🫘 🌱

#Veganuary is proving very productive 💪

*spring greens and kale (callaloo is hard to come by here). It works! 🥬

#Kale #Greens #RiceAndPeas #ScotchBonnet #Peppers #Plantain #Rice #Coconut #HomeCooking #Cooking #Food #FoodPorn #Vegan #Jamaica #Caribbean #CaribbeanFood #Tropical #Bacon #VeganFood #Veggie #Vegetarian #DairyFree #EggFree #EcoFriendly #Eco #LowCarbon #WhatVegansEat #Veganism #PlantBased #NonViolence

Israel-Palestine: let’s stop the violence, let’s take Peace back https://retepacedisarmo.org/2023/israel-palestine-lets-stop-the-violence-lets-take-peace-back/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=israel-palestine-lets-stop-the-violence-lets-take-peace-back #Nonviolence #Headlines #JustPeace #Palestine #Israel #Peace #War

Christianity and Patriotism

God does not need the weapons of Man to achieve His ends. Pray not for more weapons. Instead, pray that the Gospel of Christ will go into all of the nations and the Peace that transcends all understanding will destroy the reason(s) men are enemies. The killing and bloodshed will cease only when men become brothers. Not guns. Not missiles. Not bullets. Only the Cross of Christ. Change not, conquer not, the outward man to change the world. But change the inner man and you’ve conquered the world . . . for Christ. There is no reason good enough or great enough to take the life of another, regardless of where they stand physically, spiritually, socially or politically.

There is a song the soldier sings; “And I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free . . .” The issue, freedom, is being confused. Freedom is a state of the mind, an attitude of the heart. True freedom comes only from Christ, not service to man or a country. True freedom, the freedom worth fighting for then, is given not by any country or shedding of blood except that of Christ’s. Reach then, fight then, for the perfect freedom of Jesus Christ, not the temporary, imperfect freedom of Man that will crumble at the end. A man can be free in prison, in chains, and yes, in communism. How? Through the blood of Jesus Christ, His freedom, not America’s.

What then is the higher calling?
To fight for your country,
to protect its freedoms that will not last forever,
to lay your life down for a country that is not a totally Christian nation?

Or to fight for Christ,
for His eternal kingdom,
to change the inward man thereby changing the world,
to build up rather than tear down,
to strike a lasting blow to the evil around us,
to die in love with no man’s blood on your hands?

(Author’s Note: My apologies for the lack of inclusive language. This was written when I was 19, a June 29, 1986 entry from my journal. While I would write things quite differently today I still find the thoughts of that younger man intriguing and important pieces of my journey of self-discovery. I offer them here as testament to that journey and for comment).