Steve Simms's Blog, page 151

War’s off target. Bombs away from cities!

Artillery, bombs and missiles
Sound like whistles
As their thistles
Rip the life
From people.

Bombs away!
Away from babies,
Mothers and children.
Blow up weapons,
Not people.

Cities are built for people, not for bombardment. Shameful brutality is often called patriotic during war.

War’s off target. It shoots people but doesn’t combat hate.

There are two dead lines in war. Casualties is the line up of dead soldiers; collateral damage is the line up of dead civilians.

Soldiers are trained to be heartless about the cruelty they’re being compelled to commit. They’re trained to be cut off from their conscience, heartless to compassion, and brain dead to questioning orders.

Killing the killer who is ordering the killing seems more justified than killing the soldiers being forced to do the killer’s killing. People following Putin’s orders are causing much death, distress, and destruction.

People are living beings. They are the world’s most valuable and important inhabitants. Treat them well! For every dead person in war, some human being pushed the button or pulled the trigger that killed them.

Countries are just political organizations. A country is the highest human hierarchy that makes rules for people in a defined geographical area.

Every country is only temporary. People matter more than countries. Jesus died for people, not for a country.

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What’s war about? Wipeout!

War's completely unfair.
The people who start it
Send some people to kill
While they stay in safety.
Some people are killed.
Some lose family members.
Many just stay home.
And watch it on the news.
Some even make money on it.

Does any country have an honored grave for “the unknown civilian” murdered in war? Civilian lives matter!

War’s about:

Wiping out
All
Resistance.

War’s about a nation’s leader resorting to ordering violence and the nation’s soldiers going along with that one man’s decision.

War’s about bombs, bullets, blood, blasted bodies, and broken hearts.

War’s about people competing to put each other to death in the most violent and cruel ways imaginable.

War’s about intentionally inflicted pain, death, suffering, terror, horror, brutality, cruelty, evil, and destruction.

War-makers
Are life-takers,
Piling bodies
On dead end
Streets.

Perhaps solders should be
Free to decide
Which side is right
And to switch
From side to side.

By calling a nation an enemy, a leader makes soldiers feel justified in following his inhumanity.

Bombing cities isn’t combat. It’s mass murder!

The most important orders are often the most ignored and disobeyed–the orders of the human conscience.

Enemy lives matter. Calling a nation an enemy doesn’t devalue the lives of its citizens.

No one sees the soldiers fighting against them as heroes.

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War batters the truth that human life matters

People who get caught up in fighting earthly battles have little time to fight spiritual battles and thus surrender themselves to inner torment.

The phrase “to die for your country” is common, but you rarely hear the phrase “to kill for your country.” Don’t they go together?

Any leader who orders the killing of innocent people should be immediately disobeyed and removed from office.

War batters,
Then shatters,
The truth that
Human life matters.

Many decent people will engage in criminal activity like bombing when they’re told it’s on behalf of their country.

Cowardly armies send bombs crashing down on people from afar because they don’t have the courage to fight them face to face.

War demonstrates that blind patriotism can drive decent people into deliberately destructive behavior.

A soldier is the military. If soldiers won’t fight an army can’t.

Young men are often told that they’re supposed to go to war, but are seldom told to do what Jesus said, “Love your enemies.”

A Christian’s duty to follow and obey the risen Jesus far surpasses any duty to country.

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Poet John Keats, beauty, and forever joy

John Keats wrote: “A thing of beauty is a joy forever. It’s loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness.” Those are very poetic words, but are they true?

Watching a movie about Mr. Keats inspired these thoughts in me: Unobserved beauty is never described as beautiful. Beauty requires an observer.

“A thing of beauty” is only a joy when it’s seen (or remembered) and enjoyed. Beauty analyzed and dissected doesn’t increase. It disappears into data.

The most beauty I’ve ever observed is in experiencing the presence of the living, resurrected Jesus Christ. Experiencing Him throughout the day has brought ongoing, overflowing joy into my life for more than 50 years. I’m looking forward to that joy being forever and “never passing into nothingness.”

That joy doesn’t originate from human effort or from human belief. It’s a gift from God that is freely received by daily surrendering the living, ever-present Jesus. A text in the Bible calls it “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

If we never let the Holy Spirit change a strong belief or opinion that we hold (or a feelings-based behavior that we’re doing), then we’re probably following our own desires and emotions rather than the living, resurrected Jesus.

If Christ-followers
Would spend less time
Proudly texting
And more time
Humbly letting the text
Of the Bible
Deeply touch our heart
As leaven,
The world would be
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I’m calling war a crime!

Now is the time
To call war
A crime!

The first war crime an international court should hear is war itself. People who start wars like to hide behind lies like scared little boys.

If disturbing the peaceIs a crimeWar is.If disorderly conductIs a crimeWar is.If trespassingIs a crimeWar is.If aggravated assaultIs a crimeWar is.If hateIs a crimeWar is.If vandalismIs a crimeWar is.If loiteringIs a crimeWar is.If reckless endangermentIs a crimeWar is.If terrorizing peopleIs a crime,War is.If breaking and enteringIs a crimeWar is.If armed robberyIs a crime,War is.If manslaughterIs a crimeWar is.If child abuseIs a crimeWar is.If fraudIs a crimeWar is.If stealingIs a crimeWar is.If brutalityIs a crimeWar is.If animal crueltyIs a crimeWar is.[image error]Pexels.com" data-medium-file="https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.co..." data-large-file="https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.co..." src="https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.co..." alt="" class="wp-image-30687" />Photo by EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA on Pexels.com

As Putin ponders martial law, remember that “Might makes right,” is an irrational statement

War is human-hunting season. Perhaps we should shut it down. The human mind has developed many astounding things, but as yet has failed to develop and regularly implement an effective alternative to war.

War is irrational. “Let’s break into armies and kill each other until one army surrenders. Might makes right.” We need alternatives.

War is failure. It produces losers not winners. “Winning” a war is like “winning” a massively destructive volcanic eruption.

Thoreau, Tolstoy, Gandhi, King, and Wałęsa were five courageous leaders, experimenters and practitioners of alternatives to war. They were heroes of nonviolence, noncooperation, truth-telling, and civil disobedience as alternatives to war. There are many more lesser-known ones. The Nobel Peace prize honors many of them.

Dictators and other leaders aren’t afraid of violence. (They have armies to protect them.) They fear massive noncooperation. That’s why they sometimes declare martial law. Leaders who start wars like to hide behind lies like scared little boys.

The Iron Curtain was brought down by using an alternative to war: Massive, nonviolent noncooperation and courageous protest.

Arbitration has proven to be an alternative to violence in personal and corporate situations. Why not between nations?

Much of the world is using economic sanctions as an alternative to going to war against Rushia. They’re having an impact.

I read that Ukraine is using a creative alternative to killing invading soldiers. They’re offering them money to surrender.

Truth is another alternative. Consistent truth-telling that boldly exposes lies and deception hinders the ability to make war.

Since hate, bitterness, and things that drive ware are invisible, they need an invisible (spiritual) cure. Sometimes people feel a need to use violence to defend themselves, but violence is never necessary to deny themselves like Jesus did.

War’s driven by demons as soldiers surrender their conscience, compassion and free will to officers who order them to kill and destroy. Renouncing, attacking, and overcoming the demons that drive war rather than killing the people who obey the demons can overcome violence.

When you’re dead nationalism is meaningless. Dead people aren’t Russian, Ukrainian, American, Chinese, Nigerian or Iranian.

Here’s a Christian view of the importance of finding alternatives to war. The Bible says that Christians are “foreigners and exiles” in this world.” It’s not our home, we’re just passing through.

People seldom fight for a country that isn’t theirs, but many will fight for their country. Too many Christians want to take up arms for their country, forgetting that their true country is international with citizens from “every kindred and every tribe.” Any war with Christians on both sides is a civil war in rebellion against the kingdom of God.

Sure, ancient Israel fought. But they were God’s country/people fighting against God’s enemies. Today, however, God’s people are scattered everywhere in every country. So, in Ukraine today we have Christians slaughtering Christians–Russian Christians launching missiles that kill Ukrainian Christans, and Ukrainian Christians pulling triggers that kill Russian Christians. It’s civil war against the kingdom of God. If Christians can’t or won’t love their Christian enemies, how will they ever love their unbeliever enemies?

A poetic alternative to war:

When despair
Is in the air,
Hope is rare,
And life seems unfair
Show people
You care.

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Nothing’s fair in the shove of war.

If I could make
A rule of war
It would be
“No terror, torture,
Or killing allowed.”

When success in war
Depends on
Breaking the rules,
The rules
No longer matter.

War does much that’s unfair! It’s not fair for a leader who sends people to war to stay behind and oversee the killing from comfort and safety. Bombardment is cowardly warfare, brutally terrorizing and killing people from a distance without giving them a fair chance. Terrorized, wounded, and killed people should never be called “collateral damage.”

Having rules for war is like having rules for murder. The best rule for either is, “Don’t do it.” Make peace, not war! If soldiers had the courage to obey their conscience instead of their orders, the world would be a better place.

Rules disappear in war. The most broken rule in war is the one about not killing. Starting a war is the first war crime. If soldiers would call for a universal strike and refuse to strike their enemies, armies couldn’t make war.

War is about lying, cheating, and killing, not about following the rules. Nothing’s fair in the shove of war. Every war is a public health crisis.

Countries don’t kill people. Soldiers do. No nation can pardon or excuse a person for violating his conscience. Only God can do that.

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Some desires should be dodged

Many desires are better dodged than done, but it’s not easy to disobey the drumbeat of desires. That requires listening to God’s gift of our conscience, not silencing it.

Behavior management, without a change of heart, leads to frequent failure and many attempts at self-justification to try to bury the voice of conscience. When our conscience is made silent, our desires are then free to dominate and control us without much resistance.

Harmful desires are difficult to dump. However, greater desires will displace destructive desires. But where can we find better desires to replace the harmful desires that are dominating our life? Not in self-focus. The desires we find there are selfish.

Higher desires are found by looking beyond self, by caring about people, by becoming intently aware of their pain, by developing compassion and empathy. All humans have the capacity for inspired desires, but they don’t happen automatically. Jesus said that we need to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Our conscience was given to guide us in that direction. If we dare to follow it, it will lead us toward God.

Shame and guilt are robbers that try to keep you hooked on unhealthy desires. To protect yourself from them, obey your conscience and ask for forgiveness when you don’t.

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Church is a building, Christian organization, or Sunday religious service. What is ekklesia?

To use the same term to describe a religious building or organization that we use to describe the body of Christ is very confusing. They are not the same things. The body of Christ is the people who have received God’s mercy offered through Jesus and have made Him the ruler of their life. It’s not a building or organization. It’s not even a religious service about Jesus, that we call church.

The Greek New Testament calls it ekklesia. If we would use that term for the body of Christ, we wouldn’t have to work so hard to try to separate if from church buildings, church organizations, and church services.

Throughout history people (and governments) have tried to use Christianity or destroy it but few have submitted to Christ. Ekklesia goes beyond church and follows the living Jesus instead of a preacher or an institution.

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The Peace Testimony: Quakers, Mennonites, & Amish live without weapons.

The Peace Testimony is the historic position taken by Anabaptists (Mennonites and Amish) and Quakers that violence is morally wrong. It’s the belief that nonviolence and peaceful confrontation of evil is better than violence. In 1660, Margaret Fell, an early Quaker, expressed it this way. ““All bloody principles and practices we do utterly deny, with all outward wars, and strife, and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretense whatsoever, and this is our testimony to the whole world.”

Quakers, Mennonites, and Amish have lived and survived around the world, during war and peace, without weapons, for many centuries. If they can do it, why can’t other people?

Here’s my personal explanation of the peace testimony. Conscience before country! Any country that commands or encourages its citizens (or soldiers) to do wrong should be disobeyed.

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