{"id":21318,"date":"2022-05-05T09:45:39","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T13:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21318"},"modified":"2022-05-05T09:55:00","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T13:55:00","slug":"war-is-a-spiritual-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21318","title":{"rendered":"War is a Spiritual Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KVZu9A-dTfA\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>One of the\nCAC\u2019s early prophetic actions was to protest regularly at nuclear arms\nfacilities in the Southwest. In this updated reflection from the 1990s, Father\nRichard reflects on the connection he observed between our focus on smaller\nissues which allow us to feel in control and even holy, while we tolerate war\nand the proliferation of nuclear weapons that create widespread death and\ndestruction: <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The nuclear myth, with its false promises of deterrence and security, gets us off almost all the hooks that the Divine Fisherman uses to draw us to deeper levels of spirituality and consciousness:<\/strong> our powerlessness, our essential insecurity, the desire to give one\u2019s life for something bigger than oneself, our fear of death, our capacity for faith, trust, and forgiveness, our restless hearts that long to be united.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once we squelch spiritual energy in the name of hard-headed intellect and will, three not-so-obvious demons will move in to take the place of Spirit: <em><strong>expedience, law, and propriety. <\/strong><\/em><strong>I see many well-meaning Christians living out of this mindset, unaware that they have abandoned the marrow of the gospel of peace and love and put their hope in \u201cenlightened\u201d self-interest. <\/strong>And we have grown used to it for so long that we think it is the teaching of Jesus!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Let\u2019s take <\/strong><em><strong>expedience. <\/strong><\/em><strong>It is an early stage of moral development, but it finds no support in the words of Jesus<\/strong>. It is reflected in moral Christian parents who are righteously concerned about the evils of premarital sex but, when questioned, reveal that their real concern is for family embarrassment, future marriage prospects, or setbacks caused by an unplanned pregnancy. Understandable concerns, but hardly dealing with real moral evil or Christian spirituality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This brings us to the second false savior: <em><strong>law. <\/strong><\/em><strong>For many people, this is what religion is all about: law and order, control, doing what we\u2019re told, and obeying the commandments. Paul clearly taught the opposite <\/strong>in the whole book of Romans: \u201ca person is justified by faith and not by doing works prescribed by the law\u201d (3:28). But the church got itself into the business of prioritizing good behavior instead of doing what Jesus did: proclaiming and living the new reality of the Reign of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, <em>propriety<\/em>. <strong>Being proper like everybody else on the block seems always to have been a substitute for real transformation<\/strong>. Middle-class religion loves to bless \u201cthe way everybody thinks.\u201d <strong>It makes the Sermon on the Mount into a tidy lesson while the poor remain oppressed, the hungry unfed, and illusions maintained. From this perspective, the human spirit remains without compassion<\/strong>\u2014especially among nice, proper, churchgoing folks. Self-serving behavior takes the place of other-serving love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What does this have to do with nuclear bombs and nuclear deterrence? I am convinced, with Pope Francis, that <strong>even owning nuclear weapons is a spiritual problem. The way forward will depend on spiritual transformation at a corporate level.<\/strong> Yet now Ukraine and the whole world are held hostage because Russia and the United States own nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah Young<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Come to Me for all that you need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Psalm 95:2  <br>Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1John 1:5  <br>&#8220;This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Psalm 19:7 <br>The Law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul;&nbsp;the testimony of the LORD is trustworthy, making wise the simple. The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The instructions of the LORD are perfect, reviving the soul. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hebrews 4:16 ESV  <br>Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the CAC\u2019s early prophetic actions was to protest regularly at nuclear arms facilities in the Southwest. In this updated reflection from the 1990s, Father Richard reflects on the connection he observed between our focus on smaller issues which allow us to feel in control and even holy, while we tolerate war and the [&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":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21318"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21318"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21321,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21318\/revisions\/21321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}