CULTURA DA PAZ: To be pro life is to be nonviolent

Um artigo do jesuíta norte-americano John Dear a ler. Vale a pena.

Last week, one dedicated Christian killed another during church services in Wichita, Kansas. Both men thought they were doing God’s will. One -- the zealous anti-abortion activist, Scott Roeder, believed in “justifiable homicide” to bring to a halt the activities of the other -- the abortion doctor, George Tiller. I grieve for both of them, for everyone in that scene, for all of us. Both were far from the nonviolent Jesus, but so are we all. This sad event confirms what many of us have been saying for years. We all need to repent of our violence and discover Jesus’ way of nonviolence.
There is a reason for this madness. For seventeen hundred years we have rejected the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus’ truth about nonviolence (“Put down your sword. Love one another. Love your enemies. Be as compassionate as God”). In the fourth century, we made a ruinous accommodation, and started down the path toward the so-called Just War theory -- and Christians have been killing Christians ever since. Popes, bishops, priests and ministers have blessed mass murder, and still do so, and assume they are doing God’s will.
The Just War theory opens Pandora’s Box. It allows for a time when it is permissible to declare war for God’s sake. With each condition we move farther away from the Sermon on the Mount. As we have assumed war is justifiable, so we have come up with other occasions when killing is justified. We execute people, build nuclear weapons, and support jingoistic militarism, and all the while believe we are ushering in God’s reign. (Mais ...)
National Catholic Reporter