scott, in brief

At a school club i attended on tuesday (6th nov 2007) i was asked several questions,
- is there a God
- How can you prove God
- How can the bible be true if it has contradictions
the usual stuff, you know. This was expected and good, but not what got me thinking.
The club was based around guy fawkes or that was what i was expecting, it didn't actually deal with the issue in any detail. In the ened to guy fawkes part leader made two points about guy fawkes. it was the first of these which I thought about.

Guy fawkes was brave to be killed for what he believed in.

really?
is that bravery?
My potted memory of the guy fawkes saga was that he was watching the gunpowder and got caught there. no bravery really, just getting caughtery. (it make me chuckle)

But is being killed for what you believe in really that good?
While i thought about this more I considered the converse. Is it good to kill for what you believe in. Guy Fawkes was there to kill people. make no mistake. His aim was the end of the government in england. As a Catholic the governemtn were oppressing the people of his belief. the way they came up with to deal with the issue was to destroy the government.

He was prepared to kill and destroy something that threatened what he believed in.
i don't know about that.
This was the first time i had considered this angle to the story.

If there is an object which is causing a structural sinning against a group of people is it justified to sin against them to stop the sinning.

I wondered about this as a catholic Guy and his mates would have known killing is a sin, but is sin ever justified due to the nature of the larger sin it is stopping?

I can't get my head around the fact sin is sin.
jesus said something about turning the other cheek, about going the extra mile, about suffering to follow him. He was a guy who was decisive and and deliberate. but he never used violenece to acheieve his aims. He opposed violence, oppresion, injustice, and inequality, several times in the stories choosing to expose the hypocrisy and self satisfing nature of these pursuits.

This kinda puts me in a pickle though in regards to sundays Remberence service. I know people have died to shape the world we live in. People have literally died for what they believed in and because of that I my life is as it is.

But i can't believe killing those who disagree with us is ever justified, as at a basic level, killing is sin, therefore wrong.

so what do you do.

people killed so i can be who i am.
because of who I am, I can now object to the killing that allows me to ojbect.

I don't know.

technorati tags - theology, killing and i don't know