Never is peacemaking more needed than with families during these holy day get togethers. Interfention when there is conflict - working things out - and somehow overcoimgin the divisions cvions that exist so foten between parents and adult offsrping. As a single and now elder mother of sons who live 3000 miles away, it is a time when I so hope for a closer relationship with them throughtout the year. Like so manyparents, I ahve become a bit player in their lives. Their wives don't think parents matter after a certain age - and want nothing to do with me. But in our culture the paent is always pblamed, rarely the offsrping or offspring in law. I have file cabinet filled with such material - but most publications don't want to hear it. Anyone who wants to share their storeies please do. We must intervene and support one another. Christians mostly believe only in the nuclear family. Negelct kills too, it just takes longer. Bette Be

It's interesting that non of those theologians seem to give much thought to how one deals with evil. Are we suppose to give in and allow violent, evil people to make slaves of us all? That would be the result of peace making at any cost. Hitler and his people would be ruling the world today, people would be evaluated according to their mental and physical abilities and those who are for whatever reason unable to participate and contribute would end up in concentration camps. Muslim extremists are not all that different. Perhaps Mr. Bush and his people were wrong for starting the war and as he himself has said, we might never know the answer but evil and injustice must be fought against with every thing we have. Jesus commanded us to do good and that includes putting down evildoers. As long as there are violent self-serving leaders in charge of underdeveloped countries there is nothing we can do. The poor will never benefit from our charity.

Donald, We expect our leaders to follow our christian moral values when it comes to abortion and marriage, but not war and torture? That Sermon on the Mount stuff is Ok for Sunday School, but not really life?

US evangelicals seem to be using a new translation which has the wording 'Blessed are the warmakers, for they shall obtain the kingdom of oil'. But this wording is not well attested in the surviving Greek manuscripts. Many Christians seem to believe that Jews are some kind of 'super-Christians' in spite of 1 John 2:22-23. The Edomites, perhaps the most cursed people in the Bible, were converted as a group to become Jews by John Hyrcanus, in about 120BC (Josephus, Antiquities, XIII ix 1; XV vii 9). Flavius Josephus the Jewish historian who lived just after the time of Christ, says 'They (Edom) were hereafter no other than Jews'. These people are still represented within the Jewish people as the Book of Revelation makes clear, and they control 'Babylon', represented by Hollywood etc.

Over the week end I watched a 60 Minutes episode, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Found it interesting from a number of angles, but those don't fit into this discussion. However in an interview of Duncan Hunter by Lesley Stahl, Duncan said a very profound thing comparing our troops (without gays) and NATO troops (many with gays serving openly). I paraphrase; "They serve, you know, mostly in peacekeeper situations, not in heavy combat like our troops." I believe what that says about our country, if one believes Hunter to be correct, is that we are warmongers and NATO, European countries are Peacemakers. Now the question; which countries then are Christian? Or actually practice His Teachings?