Dick Davis presented this speech on March 5, 2003, at Flag Pole Hill, Dallas, TX.
The history of the Christian church reads like a litany of horror and cruelty that has been perpetrated, with the blessings of the church, upon the peoples of the world.
What If Every Church Had Been A Peace Church?1
Let's review the last 1700 years of Christianity through the honest and uncensored lens of an academic historian. If you are a Christian you will not like what you are about to hear. The history of the Christian church reads like a litany of horror and cruelty that has been perpetrated, with the blessings of the church, upon the peoples of the world.
First, the most current sins of the church need attention.2
1. For generations Christians have killed each other in Northern Ireland.
2. Christians in so called "First World Countries" condone, by their silence, the agonizing deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqi children monthly via the UN Sanctions program.
3. Rwandan Christians brutally massacred hundreds of thousands of their fellow Christians a few years ago.
4. US Christian soldiers, with the prayers and blessings of their home churches, have mercilessly destroyed Afghanistan and her people, both physically, emotionally and spirituality.
5. At the same time the church-endorsed military continues to inflict homicidal violence against Christian peasants in Colombia, under the guise of the Pentagon's discredited drug interdiction policy.
6. And the organized church, out of fear of the unknown and a lack of faith in the clear gospel message of unconditional love, remains essentially invisible and almost totally silent on the un-Christ-like human slaughter known as, modern war.
Now let's review
http://www.peacemennonite.org/news/20030305wi.htmlFor all the speech please go to the above link. Thank you.
Just who is Dick Davis? He is the pastor of the Mennonite Church in Dallas. He is a former Southern Baptist Army Chaplain, Retired.
Anabaptist Consultation on Alternative Service Meets on the Possibility of a Military Draft, Discusses Military Recruitment and Highlights the Tradition of Christian Service
March 5, 2005 (Elgin, Ill.) - An Anabaptist Consultation on Alternative Service March 4-5 in Elgin, Ill., brought together more than 90 people from the historic peace churches-Church of the Brethren, Mennonites, Brethren in Christ and Friends (Quakers)-and other peacemaking traditions to address the possibility of a military draft, discuss increased military recruitment and highlight the tradition of Christian service.
Participants came away from the meeting with renewed determination and new ideas to strengthen the peace witness of their churches, the task of working together in the event of a draft and a priority to counter military recruitment of youth and young adults, which was called a "back-door draft" that is already happening across the country.
Participants also said the churches need to strengthen their commitment to Christian service whether there is a draft or not, and need to extend the Christian peace witness and the conversation about these issues beyond the peace churches. "This calling is not just for Anabaptists," said Dick Davis, pastor of Peace Mennonite Church in Dallas, Texas, and a former Southern Baptist Army chaplain. "This calling extends beyond our communities. We are agents of reconciliation, ambassadors of Jesus."
A Selective Service System official told the group no draft is planned. "The administration's position on the draft is quite simple: There isn't going to be any," said Richard S. Flahavan, associate director of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs for Selective Service. Cassandra Costley, manager of Selective Service's Alternative Service Division, also gave a presentation on current planning for what a draft would look like if it were enacted.
In a counter viewpoint, J.E. McNeil, executive director of the Center on Conscience and War, a conscientious objector advocacy group, urged participants to consider the draft a real possibility. Recruitment shortfalls by the National Guard, Army and Marines indicate a draft can't be ruled out, she said
http://www.bic-church.org/bookmark/alternativeservice.html
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