Thou Shalt Not Kill
Most world cultures and religions contain some
variant of "Thou shalt not kill." It seems a little odd that the Old Testament
suggests this (Deuteronomy 5:17) right alongside commands from God to besiege a
city, slay the men, and rape the women (Deuteronmy 20:10-18). Seems like a
contradiction, but really it's just reading a lot more into the guidelines than
were originally intended.
If you read
the Bible in context, it's pretty clear that all this "be nice to your neighbor"
stuff applies only to people in your own social group -- in this case, other
Jews. If they're not Jewish, kill 'em all you
want.
Christianity expands this concept
a bit, but has obviously been interpreted in non-pacifist ways for millennia.
But since one can become a Christian (one is born a Jew), the range of folks it
might not be OK to kill is somewhat wider. As communication and transportation
have improved in recent centuries, in general, our definition of who is an
unkillable "neighbor" has, for the most part, gotten larger and larger. Now the
most advanced parts of the world for the most part think all humans qualify as
neighbors to some extent, and are not to be slain without darned good
reason.
That's
nice!
Of course, exactly what
constitutes "darned good reason" varies quite a bit. In America, we think that
blowing up a skyscraper full of innocent people is definitely wrong, while
blowing up a country full of innocent people because we think some of them might
be dangerous is justifiable.
I think
that maybe we should at least think about the Golden Rule a bit when we act, and
that we should treat all people everywhere as neighbors to some extent. How
would we feel if some other country thought that we were being run by a fanatic
tyrant, and used that to justify liberating us with extreme prejudice? I know I
wouldn't be so keen. And if you look at it from some other countries' points of
view, it's an easy case to make.
I'm
glad we have a kick-ass military that prevents wackos from around the world
from threatening us. And I'm all for reducing threats -- not just to ourselves,
but to everyone and to the progress of humanity. But I sure don't like to use a
sword to jam our ideals down everybody's throats. They don't like it, and it
probably won't make them our friends -- though they might fake it until we
stop.
When I face a dilemma like this,
I like to ask myself, "Who would Jesus kill?"
Filed Thu - February 3, 2005, 02:16 PM in
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