For these protesters and their ilk, I pray for them to wake up and smell the bloodshed. Saddam was the epitome of evil and the terrorist that intend to take his place are no better. Soldiers are saving lives and liberating men. God bless them.

Thanks. You made my day. I too think is sad and juvenile to spit on someone.

I think it is great when someone can hold an opposing viewpoint on a major issue and still be friends.

One of my very best friends whom you know in Portland is a Pacifist.

And furthermore Adam Langford was a BIG OU fan. I invited him and Ben over to watch the Red River shootout game. Texas got creamed that year too.

The situation in Iraq has deteriorated to the point where coming to Baghdad to “see how you can help” would flout the dictates of prudence. An American wandering in Baghdad would simply end up either beheaded, as an object lesson in the inability of the occupying forces to protect anyone, or else kidnapped and contributing to the coffers of some militant group or criminal gang. Christian Peacemaker Teams, despite our intense training and practical discipline, had to pull out of Baghdad for fear of endangering our local partners. If CPT, which has worked successfully in Hebron, Haiti, Colombia, and through the invasion of Iraq in 2003, cannot function in the chaos of Baghdad today, untutored individuals turning up in Iraq looking for a way to help merely endanger themselves and others.

I would not advise anyone to go to Iraq without knowing exactly what they plan to do, without arranging for a welcome with Iraqis, and without knowing (from consulting with Iraqis) exactly how your work will make a contribution. Trying to do anything else strikes me as neither wise nor constructive. And suggesting it as a possibility, honestly, suggests to me that you have simply not faced up to the depth of disaster that Iraq has plunged into.

People whom I trust tell me that the situation for ordinary Iraqis has actually deteriorated since the invasion. The news reports paint a particularly chilling picture. Two million Iraqis now languish in exile, and credible reports indicate that this total includes a substantial proportion of Iraq’s doctors, a disaster that cancels out any progress the American forces have made at building clinics. The war has devastated the Iraqi Christian community, many of whom have gone into permanent exile.

Justice, for the living and for the dead, demands that any account of the war include these tragic facts. Even many of the strongest advocates for the war concede that life for the Iraqis has deteriorated to the point that any moral justification for the war has come into serious question. Looking at the devastation in Iraq that well over a decade of meddling and blundering by Westerners has helped create, should we not mourn? Do those who call upon you to repent and turn again not deserve a hearing? To dismiss the repentance and mourning shown by the demonstrators with a wholly unrealistic call for them to “get involved” by wandering into Baghdad does not striker me as a compelling argument.

We have seen no shortage of calls by modern Jonahs for Americans to repent. That people even from the most conservative corners of the United States have begun to put on the sackcloth and ashes should give us a little hope that maybe, God’s gift of repentance and renewal has begun to taken root.

I was at the protest. I held hands with the students during a prayer for peace. I’m a new ACU faculty member, so I guess I didn’t know any better.

A lot of you throw around the term “pacifist.” I reject that term. It’s too,…. passive. What we stand for is non-violent resistance. Gandhi called it “satyagraha.” MLK called it “soul force.” Jesus calls it “love your enemies.” When enough people cooperate, it has the power to destabilize oppressive, Godless regimes. That’s how we can change world.

No, I’m not skinny with long hair.

The situation in Iraq has deteriorated to the point where coming to Baghdad to “see how you can help” would flout the dictates of prudence. An American wandering in Baghdad would simply end up either beheaded, as an object lesson in the inability of the occupying forces to protect anyone, or else kidnapped and contributing to the coffers of some militant group or criminal gang. Christian Peacemaker Teams, despite our intense training and practical discipline, had to pull out of Baghdad for fear of endangering our local partners. If CPT, which has worked successfully in Hebron, Haiti, Colombia, and through the invasion of Iraq in 2003, cannot function in the chaos of Baghdad today, untutored individuals turning up in Iraq looking for a way to help merely endanger themselves and others.

I would not advise anyone to go to Iraq without knowing exactly what they plan to do, without arranging for a welcome with Iraqis, and without knowing (from consulting with Iraqis) exactly how your work will make a contribution. Trying to do anything else strikes me as neither wise nor constructive. And suggesting it as a possibility, honestly, suggests to me that you have simply not faced up to the depth of disaster that Iraq has plunged into.

People whom I trust tell me that the situation for ordinary Iraqis has actually deteriorated since the invasion. The news reports paint a particularly chilling picture. Two million Iraqis now languish in exile, and credible reports indicate that this total includes a substantial proportion of Iraq’s doctors, a disaster that cancels out any progress the American forces have made at building clinics. The war has devastated the Iraqi Christian community, many of whom have gone into permanent exile.

Justice, for the living and for the dead, demands that any account of the war include these tragic facts. Even many of the strongest advocates for the war concede that life for the Iraqis has deteriorated to the point that any moral justification for the war has come into serious question. Looking at the devastation in Iraq that well over a decade of meddling and blundering by Westerners has helped create, should we not mourn? Do those who call upon you to repent and turn again not deserve a hearing? To dismiss the repentance and mourning shown by the demonstrators with a wholly unrealistic call for them to “get involved” by wandering into Baghdad does not striker me as a compelling argument.

We have seen no shortage of calls by modern Jonahs for Americans to repent. That people even from the most conservative corners of the United States have begun to put on the sackcloth and ashes should give us a little hope that maybe, God’s gift of repentance and renewal has begun to taken root.

By the way, I want to reiterate that I firmly believe in the right to peaceful protest. I also believe in getting my hands dirty before I start speaking out.

To all of you who say that it would be better for us as Christians to come over here and serve these people of Iraq: (My personal opinion is that our men and women in uniform are doing just that…serving and protecting). Either way, if you don’t like the way it’s being done,why don’t you come to Iraq and see how you can help? I just happen to know that there is a flight on Babylon Air that is about to start running from London to Baghdad. Why don’t you all come on over? What are you waiting for? Instead of spending a semester in Oxford or Montivideo (both fabulous ideas by the way), why don’t you protestors (or anyone else who wants to help) put your money where your mouth is, and come to Iraq to serve the oppressed.

http://www.terahott.wordpress.com

“I’m glad you didn’t follow yours (MY WHAT) up by spitting at people!”

And no I don’t spit on people, I welcome them into my home to eat pizza and watch The NBA basketball finals without deriding or bringing up their views.

I invited them to get to know them and let them know they are welcome in my home even if they don’t think like me! Didn’t spit on them.

Can you imagine if the entirities of the Churches of Christ, when war was decided upon, went to Iraq and said this must stop…. if we stood in the streets in protest of the Iraqi government and our own and said “What the hell are you doing?” Saddam and GWB if you don’t work things out, tons of innocent people are going to die and for what? And be willing to be slaughtered by our own military or the Iraqi Guard. That would be a message to the world. A message that Christ is more powerful than death, and love is more powerful than radioactive bombs.

I often wonder what the world would look like if we really believed in resurrection…..

Thanks for your service.

No one except Mike w/o a blog has even bothered to respond to your comments about most deaths in Iraq are by Iraqis and Al Queda. No one addressed the Iraqi’s using children as human shields. And no one has addressed how so many US soldiers are\will be suffering from PTSD due to Iraqi on Iraqi violence yet believe they are on a mission to defend the Iraqi’s from themselves.

And by the way, my friend pointed out to me some time ago, Pacifist are not very pacifistic in their responses.

Terah who is actually in Iraq should not be marginalized by pacifists. She deserves a response in an un-flippant manner. She is doing something proactive.

If you want to have a peace protest how bout you all pacific=st buy a plane ticket to Iraq and hold it there. Maybe the Iraqis will get the message to stop killing their own people. Or if not, you could stand in front of an Iraqi and take a bullet or piece of shrapnel for an Iraqi.

By the way thanks Mike w\o a blog for responding at all to Terah.

As for this war, I can’t help but wonder if this is the war mentioned in Revelation, that begins along the Euphrates river and results in the death of 1/3 of men. Last time I checked, that’s where this war is occuring (granted, many, many conflicts have occurred there) But throw Iran into the picture with nuclear weapons and it could happen.

If Jesus’ message wasn’t political, then what did his mother, Mary, mean when she said, “He (God) hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.”

If Jesus’ message didn’t have something to do with politics, then why was he tried by Pilate?

If the church doesn’t have something to say about war, then who can we expect to say anything about it?

Isn’t the government acting “by the people, for the people?” Then, since my tax dollars are paying for it, and my leaders represent me, won’t I be held accountable for the things the government does at judgement day? If so, then I am going to REALLY need God’s grace, and I am WAY more guilty than I could ever imagine.

Finally, I’m curious…have any anti-war protests taken place at Harding? (I would hope so, but would be extremely surprised…)

(I really think that Jesus’ message is WAY more radical than a lot of readers of this blog imagine it to be.)