It was great to chat about this with you at the Chinese restaurant near South Ken and I would happily look at some of the blogs you mentioned
I have started Letters from a Skeptic while here in Tuscany and have found it stimulating, encouraging and good mostly so far. Would love to discuss that too sometime
As mostly I think about how philosophies relate to my life and experience I think that I would (consciously?) step in to defend someone I loved or who was vulnerable if they were being physically attacked. I can't see other than in sinful rage that I would lash out aggressively however nor fight to get something that was not mine. How does this fit with your thinking at the moment?
Can't wait to see you though I want the holiday to go slowly - self-contradictory as ever, that's your old dad!
With love
Hello!
ReplyDeleteYeah it was really nice to chat (and eat!) with you. I'd be happy to choose a blog series to look through together; it can be helpful to read someone else's journey and thoughts on it and would raise some of the other questions I'm interested in (to do with military involvement for example) and put it in the context of Christian tradition.
It’d also be nice to chat through Letters from a Skeptic with you; let me know how and when you’d like to do that.
The example you mention is a helpful one, and in terms of where my views are at the moment I think (whether consciously or not) I would definitely step in to defend someone I loved or who was vulnerable if they were being physically attacked. I think it’s also helpful to think of the aggressor as someone we’re called to love and value and whose evil we’re called to respond to with good, and so I’d want to not be violent to them in my actions (so I’d not want to hurt them, but I’d definitely want to get in the way of them hurting someone else as well as themselves by their actions and I think using physical force to restrain them could be appropriate in some of those contexts; I’m less sure about whether aiming to hurt them a bit could ever be right or loving to them but that’s one I’m thinking through as it can seem like it might sometimes be effective in some senses in the short term at least) – is that what you meant by not lashing out aggressively or was that talking about a different context? The 4-minute clip from Greg linked below is helpful to explain some of my (and his) thoughts (I’ve put links to some other related posts from him below it):
http://reknew.org/2012/11/video-qa-what-if-violence-is-necessary-to-protect-a-loved-one/
http://reknew.org/2008/01/what-would-you-do-if-someone-attacked-your-family/
http://reknew.org/2008/01/does-the-bible-teach-total-non-violence/ (Greg would probably now challenge the view of God engaging in violence that he briefly mentions at the start of this post; he’s writing a book on that called The Crucifixion of the Warrior God (with a shorter version called Jesus versus Jehovah?), but that’s a discussion for another time perhaps.)
http://reknew.org/2008/01/does-following-jesus-rule-out-serving-in-the-military-if-a-war-is-just/
Below this is another link to a short post about someone else who now considers themselves a pacifist (there’s a link to a series of posts on non-violence at the bottom of his post – perhaps we could look into it together to help us chat things through?)
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thepangeablog/2013/01/16/my-nonviolence-tipping-point/
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Love the comment about self-contradiction.
Love you so much
Your (only begotten?) Son
Joe