Post by charmbrights on Aug 4, 2014 14:16:12 GMT
Today is the culmination, but not the end, of enormous amounts of activity surrounding WW1, both generally and on the BBC. Two facets of this leave me perplexed.
The first is why we are in almost celebratory mood - parties - flags out - fun days - special events of remembering WW1 - etc.
The second is the Christian churches' enthusiastic and celebratory remembering this event. I thought that Judeo-Christianity had 10 basic rules, one of which was "Thou shalt not kill". This was expanded, I was taught, by Christ's teaching about "turning the other cheek".
What do we, in general, and the Christian church in particular, have to celebrate in the pointless deaths of many millions of the young mostly men? I call them pointless because no one, not even school masters who had fought in that war, could explain to me WHY the war had been fought, or WHAT had been achieved. This was in stark contrast with WW2, which had finished some years earlier than my schooldays, and which had clearly rid the world of a megalomaniac dictator.
The first is why we are in almost celebratory mood - parties - flags out - fun days - special events of remembering WW1 - etc.
The second is the Christian churches' enthusiastic and celebratory remembering this event. I thought that Judeo-Christianity had 10 basic rules, one of which was "Thou shalt not kill". This was expanded, I was taught, by Christ's teaching about "turning the other cheek".
What do we, in general, and the Christian church in particular, have to celebrate in the pointless deaths of many millions of the young mostly men? I call them pointless because no one, not even school masters who had fought in that war, could explain to me WHY the war had been fought, or WHAT had been achieved. This was in stark contrast with WW2, which had finished some years earlier than my schooldays, and which had clearly rid the world of a megalomaniac dictator.