In response to recent posts, reader T.R. drew my attention to this article by Kurt Vonnegut:
If you wade through all the socialism stuff, Vonnegut makes an astute observation:
He wonders why the crazed fundamentalists of the Right are so big on the Ten Commandments, but never mention that whole Beatitudes thing --
"How about Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes?
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
And so on.
Not exactly planks in a Republican platform. Not exactly Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney stuff.
For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that's Moses, not Jesus. I haven't heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere. "Blessed are the merciful" in a courtroom? "Blessed are the peacemakers" in the Pentagon? Give me a break!"
I camce across this bit in an Eastern Orthodox study bible:
"For the Old Testament could not be applied as the Jews had employed it; everything must be seen in the light of Christ. His work, and His purpose. The new commandment, that of love, superceded the Ten Commandments, which demanded less.
As Kierkegaard would say, "there's the rub." The Ten Commandments don't make the demands on us that the Beatitudes do, so much better to talk about those all day. That whole "blessed are the peacemakers" thing is just too inconvenient.
Another favorite of the "Christian" warmongers is the "eye for an eye" law. Well, genius, I might remind you that "eye for an eye" was laid down as a limiting rule since the pagans of other societies were known for their lack of proportionality. In other words, an eye for an eye is acceptable, but death in return for blinding is quite unacceptable.
Proportionality is certainly no concern of people like Peggy Noonan and company. Just kill 'em all they say. Some crazy radicals killed 3,000 civilians on 9/11. Clearly, 10,000 or more dead Iraqi civilians is a fair price for them to pay, even though the actual perpetrators are all already dead. But wait, the USG killed 2 million Vietnamese people. Hmm, we lost that war, so maybe 5 million will work this time. Yeah, that 's the ticket.
Hey, it happened, thus God must have wanted it to. Airtight logic!
