Peaceful…? Really?…

I have to wonder at the irony of this, it was from an article by a reporter covering the NATO 60th anniversary summit in Europe.  He had put a small quote in from a “Peace” activist before the activist went to march in a street protest against the military organization.  Sounds good right?  Peaceful protest marches are nothing new – MLK Jr and Gandhi used them to good effect.

But then he added the following observation that once the protestors met up with riot police they [the "Peace" protestors] hurled empty glass bottles at the police until routed by tear gas.

Correct me if I’m wrong but these protestors were against war and aggression right?  So what’s with the glass bottles?

Reminds me of the disciple of Christ who hacked off the ear of a soldier sent to take Christ into custody.  Christ ordered him to put away his sword and then healed the ear that had been injured.  How can people take the peace movement seriously when they don’t even adhere to their own ideals?  The same could be said of many organizations and religions.

Now I by NO means claim to be perfect.  I know full well the areas I fall short, but at least I also have an idea of what I’m supposed to be doing…sometime if for no other reason than so I know which way to run in opposition.

But that observation just sort of sadly amused me…there is so much more to learn if we will truly listen…without having made up our minds what the proper outcome should be…and without our assumptions about the motivations and actions of others.

If we are a peaceful people, why are we condoning war or in our protests of it, doing violence to those who disagree?

Original article can be found here:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599188932000  It’s the last paragraph.

~ by jademark1 on April 3, 2009.