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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Thomas Merton: Belligerent "Christians"


I certainly do not consider myself permanently dedicated to a crusade for peace and I am beginning to see the uselessness and absurdity of getting too involved in a 'peace movement.' The chief reason why I have spoken out was that I felt I owed it to my conscience to do so. There are certain things that have to be clearly stated. I had in mind particularly the danger arising from the fact that some of the most belligerent people in this country are Christians, on the one hand fundamentalist Protestants and on the other certain Catholics. They both tend to appeal to the bomb to do a 'holy' work of destruction in the name of Christ and Christian truth. This is completely intolerable and the truth has to be stated. I cannot in conscience remain indifferent. 
Thomas Merton, letter to Czeslaw Milosz collected in Courage For Truth: The Letters Of Thomas Merton To Writers (1993), March, 1962

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We stumble and fall constantly even when we are most enlightened. 
But when we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not even know that we have fallen. 

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