During the liturgical time of Lent, the six weeks before Easter, I have been receiving from Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, a Melkite Catholic priest and director of the Center for Christian nonviolence regular reflections, that he calls “Lenten Examination of Conscience.” Reflection #7 caught my eyes yesterday because it criticizes church members, Father McCarthy calls 99% Christian, who find ‘loopholes’ in God’s word revealed in Jesus. This one starts with words and ends with a link to a 10 minute video reflection on “Gospel Nonviolence, Church and War.” You may not agree with it but it is interesting:

The Church and War

Christians, whether they be bishops or bumpkins, who speak 99% against war, capital punishment, abortion, violence and/or enmity are not proclaiming the truth that Jesus taught. They are treating Jesus’ teaching as if it were philosophy. It is not! It is the revealed will of God, or it is nothing. The spiritual blind spot, that underlies proclaiming this “99% Gospel,” this “Gospel with Loopholes,” is that such Christians have not grasped the totality of the difference it makes if God has really spoken His definitive Word to humanity in Jesus. For a Christian to say that God has to be corrected by him or her by their making the logical opposite of what Jesus taught as truth the new truth of the Gospel is just silly—but catastrophically destructive.
Ten Minuit reflection of Christian Nonviolence, ‘The Church and War.’

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