By Dr. Paul Blackham

Does anyone else find it perverse that Taliban bandits are not only dictating what serious nations from East and West can and cannot do, should or shouldn't do... but also the leaders of these nations are actually taking them seriously?

It must have been like this in the mid 7th century....

... when wonderful, advanced, beautiful civilisations in Arabia, north Africa, Persia and Anatolia were swallowed up by thugs.

Jesus never wielded a weapon and yet commands the love and obedience of hundreds of millions.

His followers have BUILT so many marvelous civilisations on every continent... with principles of human rights, religious freedom, individual liberty, social justice and advanced science, art and society.

The basic foundations ofJesus are...

• love your enemy;

• serve with humility;

• turn the other cheek;

• chastity triumphing over lust;

• love over violence;

• generosity over greed;

• and truth over deception.

Some of the great debates of Church have been....

...should we all be pacifists?

...Should we really sell ALL we have and give to the poor?

...Is it ever right to desire a man/woman?

The zealous followers of JESUS almost compete to be less violent, less lustful, more humble, greater servants, to be the very least and more generous. What a wonderful basis for true civilisation!!!

Think how the pinnacle of creation in the Bible is the woman created out of the wounded side of the man....

• Church born from the spear-pierced side of Jesus....

• the husband sacrificially dying to glorify & redeem his wife.

Always look for how women are valued and glorified in any and every ideology....

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