When the missles go up.
"When the missiles go up
who cares where they come down.
"Not my department," says Verner von Braun." -Tom Lehrer
The economics of war.
"The theology of violence must not lose sight of the real problem which is not the individual with a revolver [or a bomb tied to him] but death and even genocide as big business. But this big business of death is all the more innocent and effective because it involves a long chain of individuals, each of whom can feel himself absolved from responsibility, and each of whom can perhaps salve his conscience by contributing with a more meticulous efficiency to his part in the massive operation." -Thomas Merton
Not my department.
"In a country where half of the government's traceable use of tax money goes to war, and in a society that sells more arms to the world than all 51 of the other arms-exporting countries combined, and in a culture where 80% of the people designate themselves "Christian," tens of millions of Christians beyond the Christian Verner von Braun are saying daily to themselves and to God, "Not my department." And of course, as has been the case, almost always in Constantinian Christianity, its non-profit bishops, priests and ministers teach as Gospel truth, explicitly or implicitly by their behavior or silence, the Theology of "Not My Department."
The Beatification of Franz Jagerstatter, the lone Catholic layman to refuse to participate in Hitler's military, is an explicit repudiation by this Pope, at least for Catholics and their bishops, priests, chaplains and laity, of the Theology of "Not My Department." Hopefully the leaders of other Churches will, in their way, denounce this corrupt Theology of "Not My Department."
Verner von Braun or Franz Jagerstatter-given the choice which of these two men would the average Christian today prefer to be? And why? Which of these two men does the average Christian most closely resemble in a world where the biggest business on the planet is the for-profit technological destruction of human beings? And why?" -Rev.Emmanuel Charles McCarthy
(Thanks to my Hutterite brother and friend for these provocative thoughts.)
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