This was sent to me by (((((((((Nelly))))))))..
In the wake of Sept. 11, pacifists, others talk of confusion, anger, forgiveness, defense
Sunday, September 30, 2001
By Ann Rodgers-Melnick, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
From their international headquarters at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, hundreds of Jehovah's Witnesses watched aghast as the flaming World Trade Center imploded and thousands of terrified New Yorkers, covered in white ash, ran toward them across the bridge.
Prevented by faith from donating blood or even flying the flag, "But the larger contribution is what we have been able to do spiritually," said J.R. Brown, director of public information for Jehovah's Witnesses.
"You see it in people's eyes, hear it in their conversation. They want to know why it happened and what is going to happen next. Of course, we feel the Bible answers these questions."
The Witnesses are one of many pacifist traditions who practice Jesus' call to turn the other cheek. Rooted in the Anabaptist wing of the Protestant Reformation, they oppose war under any circumstance. While the others don't share the Witnesses' apocalyptic interpretations of the Bible, they do share the desire to heal wounds.
Among Pittsburgh's pacifists, the Quakers have opened the Friends Meetinghouse in Shadyside at 7:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday for silent worship and verbal reflection on peace.
"It's a discussion of hopes and fears," said Darryl Phillips, the clerk of meeting. "Our belief in nonviolence goes back 300 or more years. Now is the time to apply it."
The Rev. Luke Schrock-Hurst of the Pittsburgh Mennonite Church said nothing when a neighbor demanded to know where his flag was. His neighbor already knew the Anabaptist belief that, as citizens of the kingdom of God, Christians should not salute the symbols of other kingdoms. But Schrock-Hurst thought of replying with the song, "Love is a flag flown high."
A few members of the church he co-pastors with his wife in Squirrel Hill have flown flags since Sept. 11. Rather than criticize, he suggests putting a candle in the window.
"It's a sign of hope and of mourning, and of calling for God's presence in the midst of darkness," he said.
He started a class on how to respond to war preparations.
"Many of our people will have a much deeper need to be processing what is happening with neighbors and co-workers," he said.
The Rev. Thimagar Sitther, pastor of the Asian Indian Christian Church of Pittsburgh, is Mennonite, but his congregation is not. Most have great pride in their adopted nation and are ready to defend it with force.
"People probably know my position, and some of them have talked to me about it. At the moment, we have agreed to disagree," Sitther said.
He has preached on forgiveness and reconciliation, but: "I also know there is a terrible anger. People want to be able to say that our nation did something about this."
Praying for wisdom
After Sept. 11, American flags were erected at seven Bruderhof communities across the country, including two in Fayette County, for the first time in their history. They flew at half-staff in a gesture of mourning and solidarity. But it did not mean that the Bruderhof, which was forced out of Nazi Germany for its pacifism, has changed.
Nonviolence "has become more relevant since Sept. 11. Truth never changes under any circumstances," said Johann Christoph Arnold, pastor of the Bruderhof communities.
Yet the attack on New York was devastating for Arnold, who lives 90 minutes away in Rifton, N.Y. One of his closest friends was the Rev. Mychal Judge, the Catholic fire chaplain killed while giving last rites to a dying rescue worker.
Judge and Arnold had traveled three times to Northern Ireland to rally Protestants and Catholics in terror-wracked neighborhoods to pray together for peace. They were scheduled to make a similar trip to Israel in October to work for reconciliation among Israelis and Arabs.
Anabaptists have a deep historical distrust of Catholicism because Catholics once burned them as heretics. But the Bruderhof was so moved by Judge's faith that they asked him to celebrate a Mass at the Rifton Bruderhof for local Catholics.
"So the loss of Father Mychal was a very, very personal loss for our whole community," Arnold said.
Despite the call to war, Arnold sees signs of hope. He sees people being kinder to each other on the street. When he speaks at inner-city public schools on nonviolence, God is no longer shut out of the discussion. Arnold applauded President Bush's call for a national day of prayer and remembrance.
"We are praying for all these young men who have been deployed abroad," he said.
"We are really praying for our president, for wisdom and leadership. That man has to do what he has to do. Government was ordained by God to punish the wicked and uphold the good. We feel that our greatest service is to pray for our government. But our stand on nonviolence is just as strong as it was 80 years ago when we started."
'A just war'
The Seventh-Day Adventist Church is headquartered in Silver Spring, Md., 15 miles from where the airliner crashed into the Pentagon. The Navy chief of chaplains and his deputy are Adventists. The deputy was on duty Sept. 11 and rushed out to tend the wounded. At the same time, the Adventists dispatched a military chaplain to New York to give local clergy a crash course in crisis counseling.
Adventists do not carry arms, but encourage service as battlefield medics and chaplains. Inspired by Desmond Doss, an Adventist medic who received the Medal of Honor for rescuing 70 wounded men under fire during a battle on Okinawa, the church established the Medical Cadet Corps to train high school students as medics.
The corps has diminished since the draft ended. But amid talk of future terrorist attacks, Chaplain Richard Stenbakken, director of Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries, believes that it may see a resurgence as people train for homeland first aid.
There isn't anything the JW's have not stolen from other religions.
As far as God's name Jehovah, the Jay P. Green Bible has the Name Jehovah numerous times, and the JW's bought a Bible with that name in it in their early years...more on that in another post.
People have been refusing military service since at least the days of the Roman Empire. The pilgrims coming over here from Europe a couple of hundred years ago had that problem...long before JW.
Issues with blood transfusions is a Christian Scientist thing as well I believe....and their religion has roots going back to the 1800's --before IBSA or JW.
And the 'light gets brighter and brighter' nonsense was stolen from the Millerites/Second Day Adventists/Seventh Day Adventists as well.
As far as the 'ONE' religion that 'does all these things', there's no such d--n thing in the Bible. More JW propaganda.
As far as 'preaching the good news to all the earth' Jesus sent them out in twos. Period. I'm afraid the Catholic church has them beat by a thousand years or so.
Dungbeetle...so much dung, so little time...
