No Jesus, no peace! Know Jesus, know peace!

The words in the title to this posting are admittedly words taken from a hackneyed bumper sticker ... from the 1960s, I believe. But still ...

Israel is invading and bombing Lebanon.

The Hezbollah is raining Israel with rockets.

India and Pakistan are staring each other down -- each having nuclear weapons.

The United States is calculating how much force will be required to bring peace, freedom, liberty and democracy to the Middle East, North Korea, Afghanistan, Mexico and ... most recently ... Connecticut?

Sunnis continue to fight Shiites and Shiites continue to fight Sunnis (with the US military caught in the middle).

Several countries in Africa are in one stage or another of genocidal warfare.

Oil and water are both becoming scarce resources -- but are they worth fighting over?

And, according to recent news stories, some churches in the United States are actually praying for Fidel Castro ... to die? (Hopefully, most churches are praying for Cuba to emerge peacefully soon from its several decades of being under the boots of a Communist dictator.)

Well, all of that aside, I can now state unequivocally that I am now becoming (if not already) a 100% confirmed Pacifist.

Having been raised a Roman Catholic (although not one today), I was particularly swayed by the marvelous and thoroughly logical statements made by Pope John Paul II while he was trying to convince President George W. Bush to avoid -- at all costs -- invading Iraq in 2003. Shortly before the invasion -- and the beginning of our failed policies in Iraq -- Pope John Paul II made the following statement to his Diplomatic Corps:

"War is not always inevitable. It is always a defeat for humanity ... War is never just another means that one can choose to employ for settling differences between nations ... War cannot be decided upon ... without ignoring the consequences for the civilian population both during and after the military operations."

Pope John Paul II made or wrote no fewer than 37 statements directly or indirectly to George Bush during the run-up to the war and occupation in Iraq. As is often the case, he was maligned for these statement and accused of being a pacifist himself, as if that were something terribly sinful. Sadly, he was no longer with us as the equally sad and destructive bombing of Lebanon (and the hurtful activities of the Hezbollah against Israel before the current conflict) began and has now increased to where it is today ... but we can be sure that he would have pointed us all to the simple words spoken by Jesus in His timeless Sermon on the Mount.

You might go to the Bible (this link takes you to the New Testament of my favorite version, the NIV) and start by reading Matthew 5 wherein the Sermon on the Mount is found.

Take the time to read it this evening or tomorrow.

[This posting will likely remove my Blog's URL from a good number of bookmarks and/or "favorites," but that's the way the cookie crumbles, I suppose.]