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
***
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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