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Thread: From the Front

  1. #1
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    From the Front

    What a bunch of noisy farmers managed to do

    I am always mindful as I read these stories of how the US Government (DOD) lied about the casualties each week in Vietnam, but this one has a touch of comedy with it----and a picture as well.

    Good going for the "home" team
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  2. #2
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    The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible - Arthur C. Clarke

  3. #3
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    I cannot help but feel sorrow for the poor Russian foot soldiers for they are nothing but pawns being led by a madman.
    OPINION....a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.

  4. #4
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    I have none to give to them. Too many of them are busily committing atrocities for me to care what happens to them. My family knows that if Russian troops enter their village, they cannot count on anyone being spared due to noncombatant status or just for the sake of humanity. They live with that terror daily, so F the whole Russian Army but especially F the common foot soldiers that force Ukrainians to live in fear.

  5. #5
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    What we know is that Ukrainians did not abuse or kill their captives. Hopefully, getting that news out to the world will stop or deter Putin from pursuing War Crimes status against Ukraine.

    Hunter
    I don't care if it hurts. I want to have control. I want a perfect body. I want a perfect soul. - Creep by Radiohead

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kevin View Post
    I have none to give to them. Too many of them are busily committing atrocities for me to care what happens to them. My family knows that if Russian troops enter their village, they cannot count on anyone being spared due to noncombatant status or just for the sake of humanity. They live with that terror daily, so F the whole Russian Army but especially F the common foot soldiers that force Ukrainians to live in fear.
    Would that be spoken by the Jesus that ' you know' as stated by you in an earlier post condemning American Evangelical Christians?
    OPINION....a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.

  7. #7
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    I did not condemn American Evangelical Christians. I stated disagreement with Christian Nationalism, a much different group, which relies on racist tropes to support white supremacy. Many of these people use religious imagery and doctrine but if anything, they are a subset of Christians. Evangelical Christians as a group don't recognize these people as in keeping with their doctrine.

    However, if you wish to have a theological discussion about whether Jesus ever got angry, we can do that!

    The problem comes from framing the question the way that you did - essentially, it is a "what would Jesus do?" issue. Catholics do not think in those terms because the answer to that framing of the question is individual, dependent upon the understanding of the person involved. We rely on our Catechism, which is the distilled doctrine of thousands of years of study by maybe hundreds of thousands of people engaged in investigating different issues.

    The Catechism of the Church says that anger itself is neutral. Jesus expressed anger several times in the Bible so anger by itself is not necessarily a sin. For example, Jesus did not politely ask the moneychangers to leave the Temple, he threw them out. The relevant issues are the reason for anger and the way it is expressed, with the danger of anger turning to wrath, which is a different concept entirely.

    Wrath is a sin and it comes when anger is expressed for selfish reasons, or disproportionately to the offense, or leads to actions that are over the top so to speak. "F them" is a dismissal of concern for the fate of the common Russian soldier but is expressed in support of the innocents harmed by these soldiers, so it is not selfish. The offense is murder and slaughter, so the offense is about as grave as can be. And dismissal of concern for the perpetrators is hardly and over the top response, so I'm not engaging in wrath.

    Russian soldiers are killing, raping, torturing people in my family's homeland. No one is forcing them to do this. They are perhaps forced to serve in the military but committing atrocities is an individual choice and indicates to me that they have chosen degeneracy, depravity and evil, freely. Shooting civilians in the street? Execution squads? Raping women? Stealing children and sending them to Russia to become forced adoptees? Targeting hospitals and refugee centers and child care centers for missile strikes, killing hundreds at a blow? Starving nations around the world which rely on Ukrainian wheat? Forcing people to leave everything behind and flee their country for a life as a refugee? My family lives in fear, daily, so to me, concern for the perpetrators of such deeds misses the point.

    I will be happy to pray for the souls of the Russian soldiers who commit these deeds once my family is safe from them. Until then, I can only pray that these soldiers stop what they are doing. Asking me to feel sorry for their plight while they are in the midst of committing their deeds is asking a bit too much.
    Last edited by Kevin; 07-27-2022 at 11:12 AM.

  8. #8
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    Frankly, I thought Russia would walk right over Ukraine without breaking a sweat. I was dead wrong (which delights me).

    Every day the Ukrainians stand up to Russia is remarkable. And, it's satisfying to see most European countries condemning Russia.

    Russia now says it wants to see new leaders in Ukraine. And, Zelenskyy cares enough about his countrymen, that he could take the deal.

    Hunter
    I don't care if it hurts. I want to have control. I want a perfect body. I want a perfect soul. - Creep by Radiohead

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