Thou Shalt Not Kill, Except in a Popular Video Game at Church. [via]

From the SOA Watch website:
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias vowed on Wednesday to stop sending police to train at a U.S. facility criticized for a history of producing soldiers who went on to violate human rights.
Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, made the promise after talks with Rev. Roy Bourgeois, a U.S. activist priest who has campaigned since 1990 for the closure of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School for the Americas, at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Though U.S. defense officials closed the original school, a …

These words come from a Soldier who has fought in this battle. The news article reads:

Sgt. Mathew Gonzalez said his decal that reads “Lord please forgive me, I have committed sins for our freedom” is a message he created to show that as a Catholic he believes he did sin by killing someone in Iraq.

Today marks four years since our country declared war with Iraq. Noble men and women, innocent children, killed and being killed on both sides of this war. It’s no secret that I think this war is …

My brother put together this provocative piece a while back. I don’t think there is much more needed to begin the conversation:

Considering I’ve worked with teenagers quite a bit, this is something I think more folks need to be aware of. Statistics tell interesting stories, so I think I’ll just leave you with some to get a better understanding on why awareness of this subject is important.

Approximately 1 in 5 female high school students report being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner.

Females ages 16-24 are more vulnerable to intimate partner violence than any other age group
– at a rate almost triple the national average.
Between 1993 and 1999, 22% of …

“The Myth of Redemptive Violence is the story of the victory of order over chaos by means of violence.” It was through my reading of Christ’s teachings to “Love your enemies” and the idea of overcoming evil with good, that I began to realize that there must be another road to victory than violence. Quite simply, I found I could not support a culture of war and violence and still claim to follow Christ’s teachings, I could not rationalize it.After coming to that conclusion I picked up Walter Wink’s book, …

I watched Cinderella Man a while ago with my wife. It’s a touching story based on the real life events of James Braddock. It’s a heartwarmer and a true fairytale story. But I couldn’t help thinking about the “what if?”
This interaction between Braddock and his wife, Mae, will give you an idea of what I’m talking about:
And when they took your license away, even scared as I was… I went to the church and I thanked God for it.
Cause I always knew… a day might come when it could kill …

I watched the deleted scenes in the movie North Country a while back. There are plenty of scenes through out the movie that will make the same point I’d like to emphasis here, but there is one in the deleted scenes that struck me.
To give a brief explanation of the movie, Josey is a single mother of a young daughter and a 13 year old son, having left an abusive relationship. The movie is about the horrific way she and others are treated, sexual harrassed, abused. It still happens everyday, …

1 in 3 women is subject to abuse during her lifetime. This can and must end.
That statistic should shock us beyond belief. And the terrible thing is that we don’t talk about it; we rarely talk about it; and when we do we far too often place blame on the victim.
I’m going to start writing about this more, because I realized after watching this film, that though I have become aware of this issue and pay attention to it, I am not outspoken about it; and I …

This discussion is sure to create some interesting feedback and debate. Zach brings up some questions about Pacifism, which Ariah tries to address. No script, no agenda, so it get’s a little off on tangents.
This is only half of the show, the second part of this discussion will air next week. And then we’ll continue to discuss pacifism and the Bible as long as there is interest.
We’ve also added to exciting parts to our show: Myth of the Week and the Friend Spotlight!
You could be the Friend of the week …

It’s the typical question that get’s asked of anyone who declares themselves a “pacifist.”
What would you do if someone was attacking your family (loved ones)?
It’s the magic card up someones sleeve to stump that said pacifist into agreeing that sometimes violence, and war, is okay and necessary. I’ll be honest this was a difficult question to handle when I first started thinking about pacifism. What made it difficult was the passage we talked about previously, “Love your enemies…” What suddenly happened was that now both the attacker and the …

I was browsing through my New Man magazine, courtesy of my dad, and came across an interesting movie advertisement. End of The Spear is a new movie about Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, and three others and their families contact with the Waodani Tribe in Ecuador. In high school, I was a fan of Jim Elliot, having been quite inspired by his memiors, Shadow of the Almighty. Though, I do think their intentions where good, I’ve started to question the way their mission was carried out.
What struck me …

Can somebody please explain this?
I’ll speak to my war supporting Christian brothers and sisters. I hear lot’s of “support our troops” from Christian organizations, and pulpits and the rest. Rarely do I hear a straight-forward acknowledgement of the fact that what we are “supporting” them in is often the killing of other human beings in the act of war.
That being said, I think there is also a proper and necessary place for a support of justice in regard to murderous abuses like the ones we know …

To anonymous and others who have enlightening things to tell me about,
I would love to IM or email with you about the things that you obviously think I am un-informed about. My understanding of war does not come from a philosphizing political point of view.
Most of my thoughts on issues like this come strictly from what I see Christ said. My hope is that others like yourself would come to see that maybe war isn’t such a hot idea and then YOU can be the genius …

Okay, time for a serious blog. If anyone has been paying attention to the news then they’ve probably heard about Jean Charles de Menezes and I don’t know about you but it’s a little freak to me.
The basic jist is that Friday London police chased a guy in the subway, he tripped and fell and they shot him five times, dead. Already I was a concerned because it sounded like marshall law, it seemed like they could have apprehended him without shooting him, I mean he tripped …