Image by Susan Melkisethian via Flickr
by Rev. John Dear
originally published on Common Dreams
June 19, 2015
Like millions of others, I’m grieving the death of the nine church folk killed in the unthinkable massacre inside Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church on Wednesday night. My heart goes out to the families and friends of the dead, and the church members, and I offer all my condolences, prayers, blessings and love.
I’ve spent countless evenings like that with small groups in churches, but I can’t imagine someone pulling out a gun and killing everyone. I’ve also met thousands of sweet church people like the librarian Cynthia Hurd, the coach Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, the church custodian Ethel Lance and 87 year old regular churchgoer Susie Jackson. I’m heartbroken over their suffering and loss.
But I wept in particular over the death of Rev. Clementa Pinckney. What a good pastor, what a great community leader, what a rare Christian visionary! He did so much good in his 41 years, such as speaking out prophetically, loudly and clearly in recent months against police brutality and systemic racism. He exemplifies the best of the Christian community in the U.S. His death is such a loss, but I give thanks for his beautiful life and example. People like this great man inspire me to work for justice and peace as a church person.
Of course, this was a hate crime, an act of violent racism and domestic terrorism. Press reports claim that the insane young man who shot the church goers had just been given a gun by his father for his 21st birthday. No doubt he was a sociopath, an advocate of hatred and racism, a white supremacist, the normal product of our culture of guns, hatred, racism, violence and war.
Like millions of others, I feel swept up in grief. Where does one start? The police killings of African Americans such as Amadou Diallo, Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, Sean Bell, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Walter Scott (of South Carolina, in April)—these are just the well known names. Thousands have been killed. And the big massacres such as Virginia Tech college students, the Sandy Hook elementary school children, the Boston marathon runners and bystanders, and the Aurora, Colorado movie goers. One could go on.
But my grief mingles with the grief of the world, the quiet death of millions of children from extreme poverty and unnecessary disease, and the deliberate killing of children by the U.S. war machine.
Not too long ago, I spent days listening to teenagers in Kabul, Afghanistan, cry as they told me in detail how their loved ones were blown up by U.S. drones which dropped bombs upon them. I remember visiting the Catholic high school for girls in Baghdad and being surrounded by hundreds of girls who cried as they denounced the U.S. bombings and war. I recall the hundreds of people I met in the 1980s in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala who wept as they told me about the killing of their loved ones by U.S. backed death squads. I have witnessed the tears of grief brought on by the forces of death as well in India, South Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Colombia, Northern Ireland, and the Philippines.
For me, like all my activist friends, it is a lifetime of grief in solidarity with sisters and brothers around the world whose loved ones died by the systemic forces of greed, war, violence and death.
That’s why I see beyond the sickness of hatred, racism and sexism toward something deeper—an addiction to violence—to death itself—that inflicts nearly every living human being to some degree, an addiction which fuels the unjust national and global systems which bring death to so many poor people. It’s like everyone, especially us North Americans, is addicted to crack cocaine, yet we don’t know it, much less try to become sober. We’re all full of violence, and we go forward, not knowing what to do. So we maintain a culture of violence, torture, war and nuclear weapons as if that’s a perfect reasonable way to maintain a society. It’s as if we’re all living in a zombie movie.
Consider the hundreds of devout Christians who attend prayer services, bible studies and Catholic masses at the Pentagon, and then go about the big business of mass murder. Or the thousands of devout Christians who attend church each Sunday in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and then spend the rest of the week devoutly building nuclear weapons. Think of the Jesuits of Baltimore who hold an annual Mass for War, who process their one hundred ROTC graduates up the main aisle at graduation mass to profess their Army Oath to Kill to the Blessed Sacrament, just as the Nazis did long ago.
Think of our brilliant, Nobel laureate president who sips his coffee every Tuesday morning while mulling over his assassination list, deciding who to kill and who to let live.
Our desire to execute the young Boston Marathon murderer is a sign of a common addiction. I presume there will be a rush to execute the Charleston church murderer. In doing so, we reveal our own adolescent sociopathic tendencies. Our support of the death penalty is a measure of our humanity.
We are all addicted to violence in one form or another. We have all surrendered to sociopathic killing in one form or another. We have refused the wisdom, the divine call, the spiritual heights of universal, loving nonviolence. But that is the only option ahead of us.
The real challenge before us, I submit, was laid down long ago by our national teacher, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. He invites each one of us to undergo the journey he went through toward active nonviolence. We have to renounce the ancient stupidity of “an eye for an eye thinking” (which Jesus outlawed when he commanded in the Sermon on the Mount, “But I say, offer no violent resistance to one who does evil”) and take up where Gandhi left off in his pursuit of truth and nonviolence.
Like Dr. King, each one of us has to learn the wisdom of nonviolence. We have to consciously choose to renounce violence, to stop supporting the culture of violence and to become a person of active, creative nonviolence. That means each one of us–whether we are white supremacists or nuclear weapons manufactuers or members of the U.S. military or rich corporate businessmen or the warmaking president or ordinary Americans–needs to wake up and embark on a new journey toward universal peace.
I think violence starts when we forget who we are—when we forget that we are human beings, sisters and brothers of one another, if you like, children of the God of peace. Once you forgot that, or ignore it, or refuse to learn what it means to be a human being, you have no meaning in your life. You can hurt others, even kill others, even support mass murder in warfare. You have become a sociopath and you do not even know it. You have no empathy, and without empathy, you cannot grow in compassion, understanding, or love.
Nonviolence, on the other hand, requires remembering every day for the rest of your life who you are—a human being, a peacemaker, a child of the God of peace, a sister or brother of every other living human being on earth, a creature at one with all creatures and creation itself.
Once you remember who you are, you realize who everyone else is—your beloved sister or brother—and therefore you could never hurt or kill anyone, much less own a gun, join the military, support war, build nuclear weapons, or have anything to do with the culture of violence.
Not only do you not hurt or kill others, you actively work to stop the killing of your sisters and brothers. You give your life in love for your 7.2 billion sisters and brothers, and for creation itself. This is what the spiritual life is about. This, I submit, is what the bible study was about last Wednesday night in Charleston. This is what the murderer could not grasp, and what we all need to learn–if we do not want to support the culture of sociopathic violence. It means seeing beyond electoral politics and corporate media toward our common calling as human beings at one with humanity and creation. It means engaging in a global intervention, to help every living human being become a sober person of nonviolence.
While I’m tempted to give in to grief and despair, I know that is not the way of creative nonviolence which Martin Luther King, Jr. taught, or Jesus taught, or Clementa Pinckney lived.
So I recall the advice of Joe Hill and carry on: “Don’t just mourn, organize!”
I urge everyone to study nonviolence as taught by Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, Dorothy Day and so many others. Choose nonviolence. Choose to be a peaceful human being, at one with every other human being, every other creature, and creation itself. Renounce violence, get rid of your guns, don’t join the military, give up your allegiance to American warmaking, and resist the culture of violence, including its racism, sexism, corporate greed, global warmaking, nuclear weapons and environmental destruction, and pursue the truth of active nonviolence.
In my book, The Nonviolent Life, I propose a holistic vision of nonviolence—that we have to be nonviolent to ourselves; that we also have to practice a meticulous interpersonal nonviolence toward every human being on the planet (beginning with those we don’t like!), as well as toward all creatures and all creation; and that we have to join the growing global grassroots movement of nonviolence, the bottom up movements that are transforming our world, to help make real the possibilities of global change. Each one of us is needed if we are to disarm the world.
In August, I’ll be hosting a national conference on nonviolence at the Hilton Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It’s sold out, but we will broadcast the entire historic two day event live on line for free, and I hope tens of thousands will watch it live. We will have some of the nation’s greatest visionaries of nonviolence there, beginning with Dr. King’s friend Rev. James Lawson, whom King called the world’s greatest theoretician of nonviolence.
We will also broadcast live on line our peace vigils in Los Alamos, New Mexico, marking the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on August 6th and 9th.
More, we are calling for a week of nonviolent action across the United States, from September 20th to 28th, as we mark International Peace Day, Sept. 21st. Last year, Campaign Nonviolence organized over 250 demonstrations against war, poverty, nuclear weapons and environmental destruction, and for Dr. King’s vision of a new culture of peace and nonviolence, in all fifty states. We hope to double that number this September, and we need more people to step up to the plate and get involved. That means, organizing a march, a rally, a prayer service or a lobby effort in your local community. If you are looking for some way to get involved, consider yourself invited. Here’s a concrete step you can take, in solidarity with thousands of others across the nation. As we take to the streets together, we will know that we are not alone.
This is an appropriate response to the horrific killing in Charleston on Wednesday night. We need to take to the streets in a spirit of nonviolence as Dr. King taught us; to connect all the issues of systemic violence; and to demand an entirely new culture of peace and nonviolence.
No one else will do this. Our politicians and government leaders won’t. Our military leaders can’t. Our television newscasters will ignore us. Our religious leaders are too afraid. We have to do it ourselves.
In memory of Pastor Clementa Pinckney and the church members of Emanual AME, in memory of all those who have died from horrific violence–from Ferguson to Kabul to Gaza to Yemen—let’s stand up and make our voice heard.
Joe Hill was right. Don’t just mourn. Organize!
See you in the street!
Rev. John Dear is an author, activist and lecturer who teaches nonviolence in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Dorothy Day. He is the author of many books, including: Living Peace: A Spirituality of Contemplation and Action; Jesus the Rebel: Bearer of God’s Peace and Justice; Transfiguration: A Meditation on Transforming Ourselves and Our World, and his autobiography, A Persistent Peace: One Man’s Struggle for a Nonviolent World. He writes a weekly online column for the National Catholic Reporter at www.ncronline.org. For further information, see: www.johndear.org
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
from the archives:
Everyone Has to Practice Nonviolence. Now. by Rev. John Dear
Father John Dear: Jesus Weeps: Resisting Violence, Building Peace
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It’ll be interesting to find out if the father, by giving the son a weapon without a background check, has violated any gun laws. Some have reported the young man was taking prescription SSRI psychiatric drugs, a known cause of violent behavior such as he carried out.
Excellent point Jerry, and these commercially manufactured psychoactive drugs are beyond dangerous. I have very grave concerns about the way US society is literally being pickled in pharmaceuticals, from birth.
What kind of physiologically damaged human specimens is this corporate nightmare state really engineering? It makes Orwell and Huxley’s prescient visions look amateurish and clumsy compared to the emergent social reality that is being imposed by these authoritarian, reckless and unscrupulous “interests.”
Another good article on the same topic by Patrick Martin: American militarism and the Charleston killings: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/06/20/pers-j20.html
Dylann Storm Roof has, or had parents who named him, possibly maimed him.
He is the perfect product of the perfect society, the USA. The president of the USA informed the world that it is time to rethink the weapons issue. The preferred weapons, the weapons of choice for the President of the United States of America, are called Hellfire missiles & are fired from an unmanned drone aircraft called a Predator or Reaper.
In November 2014ce the Guardian newspaper cited analysis from data conducted by the human rights group Reprieve, showing that 41 individuals targeted by US drones over a period of about 8 years, caused 1147 “collateral” fatalities, including perfectly innocent women and children whose only crime was to be inconvenient obstacles to US peace-keeping and the security of Americans.
So just who is violent? Can a state or nation actually become psychopathic? Who is so deeply religious that they believe in their entitlement to exterminate any life-form, and human life so indiscriminately? Who or what is truly sociopathic? Who is sanctioned to murder at will, & sanctioned by whom or what? Whom do they destroy and why? Who are the real “terrorists?” Is God a terrorist?
If so what then is a crime? Please enlighten us Mr President.
Thanks, David, however, God is NOT a terrorist.
Good points about Pres. Obama and his “Kill List”. Murder is being done in the name of “National Security”. It’s total bullshit!
Thanks Lo. Of course I do not believe it either, only there are ample right-wing reactionaries, neolibs and mad evangelicals who pose and pray devoutly, and profess the most sanctimonious garbage ever uttered about deity in egregiously pious tomes and arrogant, strident tones.
Their senseless “god” surely is a terrorist, but only at best; actually rather more than that, & far worse than a mere fanatical bigot ~ a devious, psychopathic, brazen lunatic running amok among innocents armed with every device of cruelty known to man.
These money-drunk fools are clinically insane, a grave threat to all sentient life. Bibi may love them, because they guarantee his tenure. I certainly do not love them. In fact, I despise them with all my heart. The only thing that will cure their chronic affliction is bankruptcy.
I was browsing your fb page today, and could almost smell the divine scents, righteous perfume indeed….fab. If only more folk could appreciate the dignity and depth of natural wealth….
Please don’t confuse religious hypocrites with those who do believe and follow Jesus.
Thanks for checking out the FB page. Here is the link to all my recent photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lorri37/ Lots of cucumbers and green tomatoes in the garden. And flowers, of course.
Lo,
On the FB page, it was akin to a National Geographic magazine. Great photos, and so many of them! The mittens, and all – did you weave them? Happy cats, dogs, and your friends in the pics – not to mention the nutritious goodies…thanks for sharing!
Thanks for checking out my photos, Frank. They are on Flickr, not Facebook except for the occasional one I post there. Yes, lots of photos, as I used to be a local band photographer as a hobby before blogging. Once I started blogging 2 years before Dandelion Salad, 10 years ago, I had to stop shooting the local shows. It was so much fun then.
Nowadays my photos are boring: my garden, my pets, and my knitted items. I photograph the mittens, scarves, etc. so I can have pics of the finished items for a knitting community website I belong to, http://www.ravelry.com/. I have a few more photos to upload later today.
Oh, occasionally I will shoot a gig that Rocket Kirchner is playing. Here’s one of my favorites: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lorri37/6199075047/
Lo, what are your shelter gardens pics, is that a public place?
No, an insurance company owns the land and takes care of the gardens. It is free to go there, which is great. My mum and I went there when I took those photos; that was the last time I was with her except the few days prior to her death. Wonderful memories.
I meant to say Flickr, rather than FB. as I’m not on Facebook, Twitter or anything else of the sort.
I looked at the ravelry.com website. Fantastic! And the “Rocket Man’s” gigs look like a lot of fun. Thanks, again, Lo!
Thanks Frank. I can’t say enough good things about the Ravelry website. It truly is a community of knitters and crocheters and lovers of yarn. Rocket’s gigs are always fun. I haven’t been to one in a while so will have to go again soon, I hope.
Thanks Lo, I do respect sincerity not stupidity. Obviously, I cannot subscribe to a literal belief in Jesus Christ, but that does not mean I am anti-religion. On the contrary, I am a stalwart advocate of the true aim of religion. However I am sceptical about pseudo-religionists who profess piety whilst promoting hypocritical violence. I am sure you must share that view.
After all, that is why the authentic practitioners of the ancient gnosis were called teletai, or those who were aimed. Only in that case the “target” was not an inflated ego or aggrandized self, arising from a false virtuosity in their professed pursuit of a divine reward, but the gender balanced yogic realisation of a transcendent experience of direct communion. I find the political religiosity of careerist corporate-dupes, ethically reprehensible at best, actually deviant and criminal at worst ~ despicable, dishonest posturing behaviour, morally corrupt and base. We must resist!
Thomas Berry so beautifully framed the spiritual cosmos as “a communion of subjects” rather than a collection of objects; Berry best exemplifies for me what a socially progressive “christian ecology” can genuinely contribute to enlightening community consciousness in the search for truth.
Rocket just sent me a link to an article about the pontiff on the grotesque immorality of the weapons trade, that it is a truly remarkable polemic I strongly endorse! So you see, real diversity of understanding can find powerful solidarity through common, well articulated intelligent expression….this must be rattling quite a few cages around Capitol Hill.
David , what i was really impressed by after the shootings …the church said openly that they forgive the killer , and have started an ”ALL LIVES MATTER” movement with the killer himself being first in line . i actually saw them holding up signs with those 3 words . i love it ! this is the real good news of forgiveness that Jesus taught in action .
the same kind of thing happended to the Amish some years ago too. since the Amish believe that ”ALL LIVES MATTER ” , not just some ,. they not only forgave the killer , but took in his family to take care of them .
With regard to the supposed Jesus saying” Forgive them they know not what they do” today especially with the internet having universal information no one can claim they no longer know, either Jesus did not say this misnomer or if he did he was not aware of the implications of what he was saying, the problem with this stanza is the commitment that any one can claim no punishment for their moral or spiritual crimes? in fact Jesus possible to become the quest for being the king of spirituality deliberately put ownership on to what remains a dubious saying and collaborating with those who commit evil and inspiring crime? with those who are committed to evil, here I define evil as calculated harm to another, and those who are within this category get a “get out of jail free”.
If from what I can understand a two and half million dollars per minute spent on militaristic production by the Western Allies, I have not included cost of destruction to buildings, infrastructure and loss of world production? as a result of war, presumable those who are the main instigators of war are not those with a begging bowl but are so called well educated including scientists who are constructing the present and next implements of destruction, here we can see the quoted saying in its full fruition that what ever you do all is OK, for is all forgiven in the fullness of time.
David , ”is God a terrorist ?” you ask . no ! but we are. Deicide comes in many forms — obvious and subtle . we must never forget that it was the religious people who always kill the godly : Caesar was worshiping Rome feeding the followers of Jesus to the lions. the Hindu that shot Gandhi, you know the list .
and ”what you have not done to the least of my brethren , you have not done to me ” as Christ said . ..in referring to those who ignore those in prisons , don’t feed the hungry , don’t clothe the naked…. our omission is terrorism .
No –the one true and living God has never been a terrorist , but we sure have terrorized God who has manifested that Godhood in the least .
Well it was intended as a rhetorical irony ~ of course such terror prior to the French revolution, was best exemplified by the tactics of Ghengis Khan that are now emulated by “IS.” I had a prescient vision of this incipient mayhem almost 40 years ago, of unrestrained anarchic cruelty rolling out abetted by power-assisted ordnance.
No, my intended meaning was to infer that such terror perpetrated in the name of God has always been abhorrent and psychopathic. Its history is long and excruciating. So now, we in the corrupted West have fallen prey to our own confirmation bias, and comfortably sanction exponential atrocity to be exercised in the name of the highest religious “moral” authority ~ even as an epic refugee flood of biblical scale is already overwhelming the absorption capacities of Eastern Mediterranean agencies.
Francis seems to be calling that evil bluff, by redirecting our narcissistic gaze. The consequences may be unprecedented, but also deeply unpredictable ~ as we still have to factor in and neutralise the insane beliefs of apocalyptic fanatics with nuclear capability. Something literally seismic is needed to shake the precipitous foundations of imperial smugness, I feel sure….
The problem with the Church killings is that their are not enough killings? if their were a extreme outbreak of gun deaths their would be a critical mass whereby the public would be forced to review the the conditions of gun laws, at present the gun lobbyists are able to rationalize guns, we have to look on death as a feature of martyrdom it is the constancy of evil to the degree of often the innocent being slaughtered that change normality to become seen as abnormal, you can see this concept throughout history such as the example of Waterloo? here 47,000 forty seven thousand found dead excluding wounded, check battles Wiki, List of battles by casualties? WW2, 50 million deaths?
Recent stats I have read on war manufacturing cost are approximately two and a half million dollars a minute, I estimate the same cost in destruction of buildings and infrastructure, besides costs relating to migration and loss of man hours work?
What we need is a radical reassessment of where we are going? the Church killings are a token of a far more reaching problem? our purchase of Japanese submarines and so on is not a solution, we cannot trust governments nor corporations, the solution lies with the people but the people cannot get it?
Don , in replying to what you said above concerning Jesus statement on the cross ”Father forgive them….. let me say this –it is exactly why people do not understand nor practice this fundamental axiom of forgiveness which is at the heart of the gospel that we have the Atom Bomb and other such weapons of mass destruction .
why do i say this ? because there is HUBRIS in those who create such evil in this world that has to do with thinking not only that they are better than who they do evil to , but that they see others as not being human . in other words they see man as being ”something” instead of being ”someone”. This is how they rationalize their conscience and snuff out others .
By thinking and acing this way , they have forfeited their own humanity in the process. This is self loathing projected into violence toward others in the name of ideology . This insane cycle continues..on and on and on – be it secular or religious .
But ..along comes the gospel of Christ and states categorically that all men and women are equal , which was the antithesis of the Roman Empire’s mentality in their slave culture. It is still the antithesis of the Imperial mindset be it within governments or self deification . None of can earn salvation therefore we have no right to judge even the most evil . if this last statement offends someone then they are part of the problem and not the solution .
the job of the true blue Christian practitioner is to never judge others . NEVER. but to extend mercy , for as the Apostle James states ”Mercy triumphs over judgement ”, and even Christ himself says ”Blessed are the merciful , for they shall obtain mercy ”. ..and ”He who is without sin cast the first stone” .
it is Christ who will judge , and believe you me he will judge first those who judge others , for as he said ”judge not lest you be not judged . by the same measure you judge , YOU WILL BE JUDGED”. There is a side of Christ that extends mercy now. However , there is the other side that will hold evil men accountable . in the meanwhile , we have all got to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling , and stop pointing fingers .
As I see in your philosophy is that if we have all sinned therefore we as individuals must not speak up against gross injustice and cruelty? my point is if as I were brought up by depraved and corrupt and yet parents who were seen as normal by the outside world it would take me some deacades if thought and application to become reborn? would it not? it is not for me to take a position of non action because of my past sins the important thing is to comprehend and understand the mind set of my self being indoctrinated by a corrupt culture, for me not to speak out of militarism, cruelty to animals and government corruption besides my commentary on individual or institutional corruption is unforgivable, what you are sugesting is we all keep quiet and not speak out against evil? my further point is that you are culpable for collusive and being all part of corruption.
I am telling you about inconsistencies of what is purported on Christs teachings, I have read all heretical gospels in the early 1970’s, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, I would say that many of these scrolls are of a higher spiritual nature than the four gospels, such as a comment by Christs comment on animal cruelty which as far as I know is not mentioned in the four Gospels, what your problem rocketkirchner is you adherence to your own prejudices and interpretation you are indoctrinated with, your problem is sit on the fence, and my point here is you are acting from moral cowardice.
Don …tsk tsk .. me not speaking out about injustice ??? you know me better than that . or maybe you dont . speak out ! condemn the sin , but not the sinner . We have no right to judge . none of us do .
i have studied all the non canonical gospels inside and out , and have cross referenced them … and studied them for 40 years …and have been inspired by them . You think i have not , but i have .
you really dont me or who i am or what i do daily and monthly and yearly with my soup kitchen for the poor , homeless activist , prison outreach on death row ..speaking out against war , abortion , the death penalty , euthanasia , speaking for prison reform , worked with animal rights people , done thousands of benefit concerts …… on everything you cannot even imagine … since i was 16 , and am now 60 . Ask Lo.
working almost around the clock in 2000, 2004 , and 2008 for Ralph Nader for president . .on and on and on …. saving the environment around me working with the Green Party , and also standing up for Gay rights …. and Arabs who have treated bad becuase of their race . i am used to being attacked . so your words come as no surprise to me . indoctrination , moral cowardice , etc.. i have heard it all before ( yawn ) …
no Don ..you dont know me , and yet … you judge . this is called Christophobia .Let me say it again : CHRISTOPHOBIA . it is just as bad as Homophobia , islamophobia , Anti-semitism , etc…
the word prejudice comes from pre–judging . this is what you have done . and you have not even made a point that adds to the conversation of this article . it is counterproductive .
I am happy for you Kirchener that you were born in to a family that had outstanding spiritual qualities that have served you so well, unfortunately I had no such luck having been born in to a family that I would describe as a dysfunctional family furthermore I suggest they were most likely insane, that’s if I am allowed to say that from your high moral ground, however having in time came from this to RD Laing my next family finding myself with adepts of the Laing high moral stature who did work with Iyenga, the Bhagavita, and all discursive into all spiritual disciplines, it was some time later I found out about this new family as what I would say are depraved, from your point of view I am not allowed tos ay such? if so why is the word in the English language?
Having been to India and met Goenka, and completing his meditation course and thanking him for his course, I was shocked when he said to me where did your anger go? I suppose directed to me? this is after he had been involved for some twenty years of meditation, my problem was I had been involved with LSD with thanks to the CIA through “The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations” as you would know Laing was at that time or just before in the late 1950s head of this Institute? I was in India to recover from this drug, your high moral ideology is that the individual is not allowed to say nor have discernment on evil, if any part of the picture of Christ is so he would be a subversive, the coin situation and Caesar is not a critique of what values are.
My point of view as opposed to yours is I do not know yours is a confident appraisal as who you are? that’s the difference.
I agree with Rocket’s comment. Don, please do not attack others here on Dandelion Salad. If you’ve read any of Rocket’s articles, you should know what you said it blatantly untrue.
Dear Rev, I see you have the same problem, when you say do not attack on this blog site I see you are judgmental? you remind me of Q and A on the guy who is supposedly a terrorist yet in spite of his 10 years questioning the Islamic doctrine and also paying for his crime in prison is some one undesirable? what are you on about? and he is condemned by the Liberal Government and many others? is this freedom of speech yet in Australia the government promotes bigotry?
I have no idea what you are saying, Don.
I’ve always asked that there be no personal attacks on my blog. There is no freedom of speech here; I’m not a government.