LETTER TO THE EDITOR

No simple answers when combatting evil in the world

Posted

TO THE EDITOR:

Mr. Magliano’s view concerning Jesus and nonviolence is based in a biblical fundamentalism. Certain New Testament texts offer another view. Was not Jesus justified in cleansing the temple? In Luke 3, it relates soldiers asking John the Baptist “what are we to do?” “Don’t bully anyone. Denounce no one falsely. Be content with your pay.” In chapter 7, we have the story of the healing of the centurion’s servant. Jesus states, “I have never found so much faith among the Israelites.” John and Jesus did not condemn nor require these soldiers to leave the military. Nonviolence would not have succeeded in Nazi Germany but would have resulted in the elimination of the Jewish people. Colonel Claus Stauffenberg, a deeply religious Catholic, sacrificed his life in the July 1944 plot to kill Hitler. More recently, it is only through the efforts of the military that Christian and other religious minorities were not completely exterminated in Iraq. The reality of evil in our world does not always allow for simple answers.

Dennis Auger, Uxbridge, Mass.