why is it that so many people can not accept that not everyone believes the same

where in there belief system does it say kill or belittle degrade and attack all others that do not believe

i do not understand how that is a good front to put forth for any
religion

it seems it would scare prospects away

just a thought

but hey what do i know

I agree completely.

spider, adj4u...

Agreed.

The real trick is to figure out how not to retaliate when you feel attacked. Almost like turning the other cheek...

Ah rabbit.... words of pure wisdom... if one knows themself, then it is no trick...

It is hard, at times, for all I would presume...

not attacking is not so hard

but that does not mean roll over and play dead tho

Did you ever see the movie Ghandi

There is an awesome scene were he is walking down the street with a priest he has just met. The priest is whits. They are in South Africa and some Young Men are playing around in the street and they are walking towards them. The priest suggests they walk around to avoid any problem. Ghandi brings up the passage about turning the other cheek. The priest tries to explain that it is a message to learn from. Ghandi says I don't think so, I think that you are supposed to litarly turn the other cheek. Well to shorten the story one of the big guys gets in his way and tells him to go around. Ghandi refuses and the man hits him in the face. Ghandi pulls himself together and just stands there again. The man a little more unsure hits him again harder. Ghandi again pulls himself togethr bleeding some and stands there. The young man is now emberassed by his actions. Stricking this small man that wont back down and won't fight back. Ghandi freed his country from england just like our forefathers did. Only he did when they owned modern weapons. He did it by putting himself in danger and not backing down.
I still stand by my first statement you need to be able to take an attack without retaliating before you can make peace.

The parable of turning the other cheek means something entirely differnet to me than it obviously meant to Gandhi.

To me, the parable simply means not to hold a grudge or dwell on getting even after the fact. It doesn’t mean to passively act like an idiot in the face of hostility.

The example of Gandhi may have “worked” in some instances, but it won’t work in all.

Some men are genuinely mentally ill. We can’t appeal to morals in the face of a genuinely demented mind.

If a rapists comes and rapes your young daughter, are you going to stand there passively and watch while she is brutally ravaged and murdered?

Do you then passively just turn the other cheek when the rapist comes back to grab your next child?

What is the point to this? To teach this demented mentally ill person a moral lesson? At the cost of your children’s lives?

Where does one draw the line?

Even animals defend their young, their food, and even their territory. It’s a perfectly natural reaction to a threat.

Some may claim that humans are above animals, but I think they’d be hard pressed to produce an example except perhaps in someone like Gandhi.

Would it have made sense to turn the other cheek to someone like Hitler? To turn the other cheek to Hitler would be to surrender passively to becoming his slave.

I’m not a supporter of blind passivity.

There are times to resist and to forcibly defend and even become offensive against aggression.

No one would have a problem drawing a sword against an evil demon.

I think the only real moral value is to be sure that you are indeed defending against demented sickness and not merely using defense as an excuse to become the demonic force yourself.

To me this is the essence of turning the other cheek.

When I post in a religion forum, I try to simply give my view of the discussion. I do not attack, and I don't try to push my beliefes on others. I don't get offended when others don't see it the way I do.

We all need to take a momnet every once in a while and realize that everyone has a different view on life.

I do try to understand others, how they see things, etc.

I completely agree that we should stop attacking each other. We should try to understand one another, and not judge people.

what good posters you guys are

insert thumbs up emoticon here

cool

Abra
"There are times to resist and to forcibly defend and even become offensive against aggression"



Agree with every single word of that post.

Ghandi didn't let sit by and let the English empire do anything. He put himself and his followers in the way of danger. When the Powerful acted with force against him they looked like barbarians.
If the same thing would have happened with Hitler. Early on when he was just starting to seize control. An internal peaceful movement that would stand up to him would have showed the world early on how evil he was.
We disagree on this I know. My story of Hitler is make believe and may have not worked at all. However there is no denying that Ghandi freed his country from the British empire with passive resistance.
My whole point in the post was to say that it is not necessarily week when you do not attack back. You may be the better person for your self control.

I'll certainly agree with you on this point. And I also agree that Hitler could possibly have been resisted with a show of peaceful resistance early on too. Especially by his own people. Unfortuantely that didn't happen.

I guess all I'm saying is that there's a time and place for everything depending on the situation.

I agree that violence of any sort should be a last restort. But when the time comes for that resort make every blow count.

the best thought plans come from thought

it is best to sit back after an attack

and see how to use the attack to your benefit

and against the attacker

kinda like use their energy against them