So instead of one great quote from one great man. i decided to give you a slue of great quotes from many great men. enjoy.

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
Author: Sun Tzu

The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.
Author: John F. Kennedy

The cannon thunders… limbs fly in all directions… one can hear the groans of victims and the howling of those performing the sacrifice… it’s Humanity in search of happiness.
Author: Charles Baudelaire

The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations.
Author: David Friedman

The draft is white people sending black people to fight yellow people to protect the country they stole from red people.
- 1967
Author: Gerome Gragni

The first casualty when war comes is truth.
Author: Hiram Johnson

The Imperial German Government will not expect the Government of the United States to omit any word or any act necessary to the performance of its sacred duty of maintaining the rights of the United States and its citizens and of safeguarding their free exercise and enjoyment.
Author: William Jennings Bryan

The military don’t start wars. Politicians start wars.
Author: William Westmoreland

The pioneers of a warless world are the [youth] who refuse military service.
Author: Albert Einstein

The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.
Author: George Orwell

War is the only game in which it doesn’t pay to have the home-court advantage.
Author: Dick Motta

War makes thieves and peace hangs them.
Author: George Herbert

War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
Author: John F. Kennedy

War will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adrenal glands.
Author: H. L. Mencken

War would end if the dead could return.
Author: Stanley Baldwin

War: first, one hopes to win; then one expects the enemy to lose; then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering; in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost.
Author: Karl Kraus

We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it.
Author: Dwight D. Eisenhower

We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk.
Author: Eleanor Roosevelt

We have war when at least one of the parties to a conflict wants something more than it wants peace.
Author: Jeane J. Kirkpatrick

We saw the lightning and that was the guns and then we heard the thunder and that was the big guns; and then we heard the rain falling and that was the blood falling; and when we came to get in the crops, it was dead men that we reaped.
Author: Harriet Tubman
Steven Benjamin

Christian Jihad- A Book Report
I feel less inclined to write about the history of violence in the community of Christians that chose to even address the issue, and more inclined to write about the impact that the current stance on the issue has on our modern body of believers.
Warning, if the one reading this is easily offended, its best to leave the room now.

First we must take a rule from our friend Socrates’ rulebook and define the terms we will be using, lest we loose the effectiveness of the arguments to come. When we talk about “Christians,” we will either be talking about one of three groups of people: 1) The global, time-spanning body of men, women and children who profess with their mouths and actions to believe that Jesus Christ is the one and only Son of God, fully God, came to Earth, was born of a virgin, lived a sin-less life, preformed miracles, died on the cross as substitutionary atonement for the sins of the world so that man and God might be reconciled through belief in that sacrifice. 2) A local group of the same believers, confined to a certain culture and time. 3) A local group of people who profess with their mouth the same as the two mentioned above, but live a life contrary to that profession. Now we will define other terms as they come but for now we will leave that for that time.

The view of killing in the name of Christ has been around longer than most dirt, but in all seriousness, it has seldom been dealt with. Even today when the means of projecting ones ideas is at its greatest, it still lies untouched, for the most part. Dr. Emir Caner and his brother Dr. Ergun Caner addresses this issue, in their book Christian Jihad the Caner’s go through history recounting the various transformations of the Churches outlook on killing, the move from early pacifism to modern justification of killing. But the meat does not really come out until the very end of the book where they bring it all in to central core, page 212 bring the whole historical account to a close and opens the central nut of truth, “ The shedding of more blood isn’t required. Jesus Christ’s spilled blood is enough. His sacrifice was both justified and justifies.”

Now if this is true, we have a split in our churches, taking into account that the Christian worldview, as a general whole, advocates gun control, supporting the president in war (without questioning) and even goes to say that serving in the military is right and good. That’s all and fine, but I feel that if you can stand to put tradition and what is expected behind you then search the Bible for guidance on the issue, I feel you get a completely different view. Stephen was stoned for believing and preaching, but did anyone defend him? Did Peter, or John or James, his closest friends, come and with the same sword that sliced an ear off, kill those men then grab Stephens bloody body and drag his to safety? No, in fact Stephen felt sympathy for the people who were plunging rocks into his body. That is certainty not what grandpa Joe would do if his friend was being mistreated, he would say that it is his religious duty to protect him and if necessary kill to do so.

This false view of Christianity is void of Christ entirely, but is full of conservativism because that is what good Christian boys and girls believe. Christ preached blessed are the poor in spirit, but what does one feel when shooting a sawed off shotgun at a couple of targets? Pride. Pride in ones accomplishment of being a being of intelligence and power.
So now that I have thoroughly made mad everyone from the president to my father very angry I will close with saying what Dr. Emir and Ergun Caner said, Jesus’ blood was the only blood ever spilt that needed to be, and we are under it to be saved, not to push back those who are not.

To love those like Christ loved us is the point i want to drive home in this, nothing more, nothing less. Jesus did not come to wage war and kill those whom he opposed, but he came to give shelter to the weak and water to the thirsty(in irony, he opposed the religious leaders of the day). Please if you have more questions I am always open to discussion.

With his love
StevenBenjamin

in accordance with the “Resource Recommendation,” I am recommending to you a book that I’ve read many times for many different reasons and I believe you should too. The book is “Everybody Wants to go to Heaven, but Nobody Wants to Die, or(the eschatology of bluegrass)” This book is 1/3 history of the “Soul,” 1/3 history of bluegrass music, and 1/3 a glimpse into the authors life as a human being. The author(s) being two men, David Crowder and Mike Hogan. I dare you to read it and not enjoy it.

Every time I give one of these things in person or in print I feel like Dr. Evil recounting his life in Austin Powers, very dumb and out of place, so heres to all the awkward moments past and future.