John Kerry is surprised that Putin is threatening troops-on-the-ground violence, because that is from the 19th century.  Basically, he can’t do that because my textbook said we were evolving.

But is this really isn’t a strange view in the academic world?  We have been so blessed by our Christian foundation, that we enjoy an unprecedented amount of peace.  It really is possible to pretend that a world without violence exists.  War is something that Bush did, it happens “over there” and we just read about it.   In fact they sit on the precipice of Christendom and then blame the Christians for all of the problems of the past.  This is very common among the new atheists, even Tim Keller is ok with blaming ‘religion’ for all of the violence in the world.  The new mantra these days is “stop the cycle of violence with love”.  But this is just the pacifist dreamland that falls apart when Putin rolls his tanks across the border.  The only reason we enjoy this peace is because we have the biggest military, and the treat of violence is often enough.  That threat is love.

The reason religion causes violence is because religion is the heart of belief, the heart of who a man is, it’s the only thing worth fighting for.   Most of humanity has realized that talking about what you believe is easy but being willing to die for it is quite another thing.  People who fight duels are not gutless atheists, they are people secure in their beliefs and they are at an impasse so they let God sort it out.  A war is just a big duel.  These are people who have the guts to chose a side.  The reality is that everyone has a religion.  People may not like the word, but they have certain beliefs about what is good and what is bad and how the world works.  If you believe there is no god, that’s your religion.  If you believe ‘religion’ is bad, that’s your religion.  But above beliefs, actions really reveal ones religion.  Today these academics are not without religion, they are just underhanded about how they push their religion.  They get ahold of the children and use emotional appeals and temptation to lusts and name calling in their evangelism, because they can’t win in the light of day.  And there are a great number of less active agnostics or atheists who have a religion but they are too cowardly to do anything about it.  They pride themselves that they don’t inflict any violence or impose their views on anyone.  But they don’t do any good either.  Because there are a lot of great religious evils out there, inflicting harm.  The issue is the nature of the religion not the fact that it is religion.  Which side are you on?  Because there are a lot of people whose core religion is wrong, it is evil and they are pressing all around.  Not fighting it, is to choose their side.

Charles Macklin as Shylock, Johan Zoffany. C.1768
In all good English Literature there is a reckoning, a courtroom scene. And no one does it better than Shakespeare in the Merchant of Venice. Just incredible. Law and grace.

This is the same thinking that has lead to these new experiments in parenting.  These modern parents believe that spanking is outdated violence.  Well it is violence, because your child is a fool and spankings are the best way to remove his foolishness, but this isn’t bad.  In fact it’s the most loving thing you can do for them.  When everybody grows up this way, you don’t need much government because people govern themselves.  But when adults grow up and they are still fools the threat of violence is needed to keep them in line.  This is the purpose of government.  This purpose didn’t go away because Christ came.  Romans 13 makes it clear, they are his instruments.  The police officers don’t all lay down their guns and then everything is fine and everyone stops fighting.  Gandhi only works when you are fighting Christendom.  And even Christians are in need of authority structures.  They should look to the Church and not the secular authorities, because we should have more wisdom, as Paul points out in I Corinthians 6.  “Don’t you know that we will judge the world.”  “Don’t you know that we will judge the angels?”

Government is a reality on this earth.  Laws impose morality, that’s how it works.  Why wouldn’t we as Christians want them to be laws as close to the heart of our God as possible?  Don’t you think we have the best answers? Paul thought so.  And history has shown that law based on scripture is the best.  Don’t you want his will on earth as it is in heaven?  I do and its fairly obvious that if we don’t step up and impose our will in this Republic, the enemy will.   Obviously the saving of every heart would be the best thing. But evil, or false religion, prevented by the threat of violence is also good.  Most of Christendom understood this.  Ignoring this reality doesn’t make us hip with the times, it makes us fools.