[lit-ideas] Re: 21. century European anti-Semitism
- From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 21:31:41 -0700 (PDT)
--- Phil Enns <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Omar Kusturica wrote:
>
> "The first-century Christians were only a community
> in the making, and
> lacked any mechanisms for organized self-defense,
> which doesn't mean
> that they had no need for it."
>
> In the first few centuries, Christians did indeed
> defend themselves in
> various ways but not through physical force. The
> Church rejected any
> use of the sword and up until the time of
> Constantine refused active
> soldiers from joining.
I don't deny the fact that the early Christians had
beliefs that accorded with the policy of non-violence.
However, the fact is that this policy was adopted at
the time when violent rebellion would have had no
chance of succeeding, and that it was changed later
when political (and thus also military) power was
acquired. A similar example in modern times has been
the Hindu national movement, which applied non-violent
policies to achieve liberation from the British but
went to war against Pakistan when independence was
obtained.
O.K.
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