It's a tough question. As a government, I think there's not just a duty to defend, but a right to go after the source of the force that's attacking you. On the other hand, there are a million more things to be considered, and this gets into the realm of politics and international relations and such.
It's a tough question. As a government, I think there's not just a duty to defend, but a right to go after the source of the force that's attacking you. On the other hand, there are a million more things to be considered, and this gets into the realm of politics and international relations and such.
As far as those among us; I think we have to be very careful. I think, in general, we need to be gracious to people that we may not necessarily agree with because a) there are people out there who are less ideological than we think, and there are plenty whom we can "win over" b) in a Christian sense, our default should be welcoming c) not all with whom we disagree are our enemies and d) getting into purity tests of belief will kill us. On the flip side, we've got to put up defenses too, that we not believe that everyone is "like us", that there aren't people who want to do very bad things, that it's not wrong to set boundaries - and defend them - where we must. Especially the idea of defending things takes a lot of courage, and so we need to be exercising that skill, strengthening our souls, and being ready to stand up for "small" things along the way.
It's a tough question. As a government, I think there's not just a duty to defend, but a right to go after the source of the force that's attacking you. On the other hand, there are a million more things to be considered, and this gets into the realm of politics and international relations and such.
As far as those among us; I think we have to be very careful. I think, in general, we need to be gracious to people that we may not necessarily agree with because a) there are people out there who are less ideological than we think, and there are plenty whom we can "win over" b) in a Christian sense, our default should be welcoming c) not all with whom we disagree are our enemies and d) getting into purity tests of belief will kill us. On the flip side, we've got to put up defenses too, that we not believe that everyone is "like us", that there aren't people who want to do very bad things, that it's not wrong to set boundaries - and defend them - where we must. Especially the idea of defending things takes a lot of courage, and so we need to be exercising that skill, strengthening our souls, and being ready to stand up for "small" things along the way.