It is not long ago that much of America was anti-Semitic, anti-German, anti-Japan, anti-Vietnam, anti-Korea, anti-Poland, anti-Iran, anti-Russia, anti Iraq, anti-China, etc, etc
Do you remember that we once were at war with almost ALL of those countries in the last century, and parts of this, and t THAT was the reason we were correctly against them?
Well, it may seem strange but there is this idea that you should 'love your enemy'.
'Blessed is the peacemaker'.
During wars, including cold wars, there is always deliberate propaganda to try to make people hate 'the enemy' so that they will keep on fighting or keep on being scared. The men actually doing the fighting are
sometimes full of hate but as often as not they are simply doing their job as professionally as they can primarily to keep themselves and their buddies alive. They are not motivated by hate but by love for their fellow man. They certainly do not all hate their enemies, many of them love their enemies and, given a chance, they will be friendly with them. Temporary truces for football matches between the trenches for example. Temporary truces to recover the injured.
Propaganda is a terrible weapon. It deliberately dehumanizes the enemy and instills hatred in place of our natural fairness and compassion. Without propaganda it is difficult to get most people to kill someone or to hate someone. It is also a very effective weapon because it fools so many impressionable, people. Maintaining a sense of justice and proportion when all around you people are baying for blood is difficult but I guess that is what Jesus would ask you to do. The 'baying' that we are all experiencing at the moment are the misleading reports of crimes etc that seek to tar all Muslims with the same brush. Don't fall for it and don't be part of it.
When I started travelling the world I was truly shocked at how grossly wrong my impression of some nations was. Time after time I have seen stupidly wrong explanations of what happens in place a, b or c. Those explanations are wrong because people believed propaganda and did not bother to ascertain facts. Up until the 90's
only 3% of Americans even held passports!Think about that! If only 3% had passports, HOW could they possibly know what other countries were like?
Most of the Americans who went abroad went abroad to kill people! Is there any wonder that so many have a disjointed view of the world? If you want to know what a country is like or what the people are like, GO THERE. There is no substitute.
In 1971, at the height of the 'Cold War', I went behind the 'Iron Curtain' - just to have a look for myself. Everyone kept telling me not to go and that it wasn't safe. What I actually experienced was a welcoming, curious people who expected
me to be aggressive rather than friendly. When I got back and related my experiences, many people simply wouldn't believe me. They preferred to believe the propaganda.
You were probably taught by propaganda to hate all the people I listed above BUT you were
also taught to love your enemy. If you love someone, the least you can do is not to spread misinformation about them. To avoid making errors, we need to stop and think rather than make knee-jerk reactions.
Just remember that propaganda is a mixture of lies and truth. You need to sort the two out clearly in your mind.
Aardverk said:
80,000 rapes by Christians
So now for the SECOND time I am asking you to substantiate that first claim of "80,000 rapes by Christians" or withdraw it. After we deal with that, we can address other issues, OK?
Rather than me writing it all out a SECOND time, have a look back at post #93 which answered your question very clearly.
