Will the murder of Tom Fox turn American Christians against the war?

[RagingInMiami]

How do you think they view Tom Fox, considering he was a Christian peace activist?

[Flabbergasted]

1. More likely to turn Christians against Muslims!

[jesus_of_suburbia]

2. The fundies don't consider him a "real" Christian

A real Christian supports anything Bush says... most fundies believe peace activists
are not true Christians. They see them as too liberal.

Sad, isn't it?

[Swamp Rat]

4. Yes, it is sad

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[susanna]

7. Sad, yes...

that you seem to say that a "real" Christian supports anything Bush says. I am a Christian, and I support nothing that man believes. You should have put the "real" in your message body in quotes. Just saying.

[Erika]

10. the fundies are still waiting for the rapture

Wonder if they are yet disillusioned with W being obsessed only with global profits for the rich?

[susanna]

44. My guess? No.

They have been told what to believe and have gotten to the point where they have forgotten what it means to think for themselves. God gave them a great gift - that of free thought - and they threw it away for the false security of certainty from spiritual "leaders."

Personally, my prayers are with those who succumbed to such a grand falsity...and I hope they find the courage to redeem themselves and their God. But that's just me...

[Erika]

8. As Jimmy Carter says

He worships the Prince of Peace.

[laheina]

21. Welcome to DU!!

Green Day rocks! :hi:

[SongOfTheRayne]

3. This doesn't make any sense....

He wanted to get the U.S. to STOP killing Muslims.... why the f*ck would they go after HIM? Nothing makes any sense....

[fed-up]

16. Why do "we" kill women and children??? War SUCKs/never makes sense n/t

[laheina]

24. He was American, and they could get their hands on him. nt

[Burning Water]

39. A good point.

What is the Muslims actually want? What do they expect to gain by these tactics?

We can't realistically say they want us out of their country? I mean, sure they do, but they can't expect the foreign policy of a country to be changed by taking hostages. They can't expect 100s of prisoners to be exchanged for one.

[greyl]

5. American Christians were already against the war. nt

[RagingInMiami]

15. But they still voted for Bush overwhelmingly in 2004

[Erika]

18. My personal thoughts are the fundies are afraid to die

They've worshiped the rich and despised the poor. They have backed a warmonger and brought hell to a country who was never a threat to us.

[greyl]

30. Obviously, but we should stop believing

that the right-wingers have a lock on Christian morality. 2006 is considerably different from 2004. I can't understand why it took so damn long for the worm to turn, but it has turned.

But more importantly, yes, this has impacted many Christians in a deep way.

[bobbieinok]

31. NT christians against the war ; OT like Falwell etc for the war

[regnaD kciN]

33. Please stop equating "fundamentalists" with Christians...

The fundies are really only a bloc on the evangelical Protestant side of Christianity. They have far more apparent impact than they should only because they control religious broadcasting (thanks to their deal with the Hunt Brothers and their pals back in the late '70s, where they agreed to inject right-wing politics into their teachings in exchange for financial backing to get their networks on the air).

[RagingInMiami]

35. I'm talking about the fools that call themselves Christians

While supporting Bush and his war. I'm not making the determination that they're real Christians or not.

It really doesn't matter to me. All that matters to me is whether they support bush or not.

[Erika]

6. Tom Fox did not believe in war & followed Christ's teachings

Christ was the prince of peace. Fox was against this war. The freepers will do whatever they do, but they have no right to call killing innocent Iraqis as a mandate from Christ.

[madokie]

9. remember up is down left is right

[Erika]

12. But that's the fundies problem

They kill innocents who were never a threat to us. My Japanese friend suggests that the fundies have selective sensitivity. It's only "brown people with a different religion" who are being killed.

It's not like thousands of whites in the red states were dying.

[laheina]

27. Your friend has a point.

It's also far away, and they don't have to see it. That makes it easier to pretend that it isn't happening.

[Poppyseedman]

11. Oh' let me think for a second. Ok. done

No. If anything it will make them hate Muslims for killing him.

Thee seems to be this disconnect that progressives think if there was no Iraq war, radical Muslins would stop killing Christians in Iraq. Why would they kill a peace activist?

In that linear view of Islam, that simply is an ignorant concept. (that doesn't make you ignorant) Radical Muslims have been killing Christians as infidels for a long time, way before this war was started.

[Erika]

14. The Crusades sought to kill all Muslims centuries ago.

They thought much like Ann Coulter. If they refuse to convert, kill them.

But Jesus is the prince of peace.

[Poppyseedman]

36. Let's hope the Muslims catch up to where the Christians

have grown in the last 800 years. Stop killing people who don't convert or believe as Muslims do..

[Burning Water]

41. Still, you have the

remember that the Crusades were a defensive reaction to Muslim imperialism that had boiled out of ARabia and conquered historically Christian lands. And basically, they wanted to regain their Holy Sites in Jerusalem.

[Clark2008]

37. And radical Jews and Christians also kill those who

don't believe as they believe.

Let's not put the onus on one religion. M-Kay?

[Poppyseedman]

42. Radical Jews and Christians kill those who don't believe as they do?

Christians do kill Muslims in countries as revenge for Muslims killings them for being infidels, not for unbelief in Christ.

In modern times, I can't think of any incident where Jews or Christians have systematically killed non christians or non jews for not believing in Christ or even the tenets of the christian or Jewish teachings. Killing someone for unbelief is antipathetic to both religious belief systems. Both Christians and Jews kill for political reasons, but not for religious reasons.

Islam can not say that.

You are going to have to prove that Jews or Christians kill for religious reasons with actual facts.

[Redneck Socialist]

13. Nah, the freeptards are all over him.

There's a thread around here someplace with a bunch of vile shit from freeptown. Some pretty ugly stuff.

Peace ain't christian ya know.

[RagingInMiami]

17. But are they necessarily Christians

Or just dumbass right-wingers?

[Redneck Socialist]

20. Just dumb ass right-wingers.

I gather many are self described christians though.

[madokie]

19. the last two words says it all

religion is the root of most if not all wars.

[Erika]

23. W has added a new dimension

Religion plus profits to the rich is the new root of war.

[madokie]

29. ^5's

[PsychoDad]

34. I would respectfully disagree.

Wars are about wealth and control of wealth, always have been. Religion, like politics, is used to whip us the masses and convince them of the "rightness" of the war.

Greed is the root of war.

Peace

[madokie]

43. in my early morning conciousness I think you're right

religion is only a tool of those who would steal from us.

[madrchsod]

22. no

the same thing happened in central america and only a "few" gave a shit..the usa backed the death squads then and they are now...no one knows for sure who killed fox but i`d place my money on the black opps boys and the iraqi students

[Erika]

25. interesting twist

sure

[DanCa]

26. Only if he were an embryo

Sadly thats really all that Dubyas base cares about.

[Erika]

28. Yeah, Submit an application for protection as an embryo

and W would be plotting out new targets in the ME. Falwell and Robertson would put him up for a peace prize.

I'll never forget the little Iraqi boy who got his limbs blown off in the shock and awe campaign.

[regnaD kciN]

32. Hate to burst your bubble...

...but the "American Christians" from whom people like Tom Fox come are already against the war, and have been from the start.

As for the Religious Reich (who remain only a minority of U.S. Christians, albeit a loud one because of their control of "televised religion"), they'll rationalize it that the only "real, Bible-believing Christians" are ones who support their policies. Thus, as ever with them, politics and nationalism trump actual religious teachings.

[BlooInBloo]

38. Of course not.... christians love war....

At least that's what history indicates...

[pinto]

40. Some background, Tom Fox, Langley Hill Friends (Quakers)

and the Christian Peace Teams...

http://www.quaker.org/langleyhill/