General Discussion

I never have. I never will.

I was raised in the Mennonite tradition, but WWII and the massacre of millions who were no threat prevent me from being fully Mennonite. I can accept that I should lay down my life, but I could never expect someone else to do so, and sadly, there was another person involved - the father.

I still follow most of the ways and rules, but I can not accept that it was either right or dutiful to exercise non-violence against the Nazis. God did not want those people dead.

The essence of being liberal, to me, is to recognize that each life has value of its own. If one person (or three, or 50 million) do not agree, then I see nothing liberal about expecting the best to sacrifice their lives to the worst. That just leads to more deaths.

I think all those who think it is wrong to defend immediate aggression against life with violence either do so out of some sort of religious principle (even if they don't think it is religious - it's axiomatic), or are basically illiberal.