{"id":21306,"date":"2022-05-03T10:27:36","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T14:27:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21306"},"modified":"2022-05-03T10:38:14","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T14:38:14","slug":"a-climate-of-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21306","title":{"rendered":"A Climate of Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cF9CM850p78\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In 1977,\nCatholic bishops in Latin America gathered to name their situation of shared\nviolence and to commit themselves anew to the gospel of peace: <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We live in a whole climate of violence. There is violence\nin the area of economics by reason of acute fiscal crises, the repeated\ndevaluation of our currencies, unemployment, and soaring taxes\u2014the burden of\nwhich ultimately falls on the poor and helpless. There is violence at the\npolitical level, as our people in varying degrees are deprived of their right of\nself-expression and self-determination and of the exercise of their civil\nrights. Still more grave in many countries are human-rights violations in the\nform of torture, kidnappings, and murder. Violence also makes its appearance in\nvarious forms of delinquency, in drug abuse as an escape from reality, in the\nmistreatment of women\u2014all tragic expressions of frustration and of the\nspiritual and cultural decadence of a people losing their hope in tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here we may not scurry for cover to empty theories or hide\nbehind condemnations of one group by another group. The violence is here; it is\na fact. Injustice exists; this is reality. As Christians we may not abide this.\nWe may not allow ourselves to grow accustomed to evil, least of all to an evil\nthat is daily and constant. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In a series of sermons,\nradio addresses, newspaper articles, and public speeches, Archbishop \u00d3scar\nRomero (1917\u20131980) of El Salvador called the people of his church and his\nnation to return to gospel values, particularly those of justice and love as a\nway to end violence.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I will not tire of declaring that if we really want an\neffective end to violence we must remove the violence that lies at the root of\nall violence: structural violence, social injustice, exclusion of citizens from\nthe management of the country, repression. All this is what constitutes the\nprimal cause, from which the rest flows naturally. [2]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When the church decries revolutionary violence, it cannot\nforget that institutionalized violence also exists, and that the desperate\nviolence of oppressed persons is not overcome with one-sided laws, with\nweapons, or with superior force. . . . As long as there is not greater justice\namong us, there will always be outbreaks of revolution. [3]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Reminding listeners of the\ncommandment to love our neighbors as ourselves, Romero preached:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If there were love of neighbor, there would be no terrorism, no repression, no selfishness, none of such cruel inequalities in society, no abductions, no crimes. Love sums up the law. Not only that, it gives a Christian meaning to all human relations. . . . Love gives plentitude to all human duties, and without love justice is only the sword. With love, justice becomes a brother\u2019s embrace. Without love, laws are arduous, repressive, cruel. . . But when there is love\u2014security forces would be superfluous, there would be no jail or tortures, no will to beat anyone. [4]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah Young&#8230;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You cannot serve two masters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Revelation 2:4:  <br><strong>4<\/strong>Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ephesians 3:16-17:  <br>I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God\u2019s love and keep you strong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Psalm16:11;  <br>You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1977, Catholic bishops in Latin America gathered to name their situation of shared violence and to commit themselves anew to the gospel of peace: We live in a whole climate of violence. There is violence in the area of economics by reason of acute fiscal crises, the repeated devaluation of our currencies, unemployment, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21306"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21306"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21312,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21306\/revisions\/21312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}