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A Mary T. Hoffman Commentary from All-Creatures.org

 

"Joyful Curmudgeon" An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful.  At the same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true peace and compassion.

 


Moral Courage – 24 March 2007
By Mary T. Hoffman

“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.”
– Mark Twain

“There’s no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war, except its ending.”
– Anonymous

Do you see the common thread in these two quotations?

The physical act of killing or destroying is so common in the world because it is admired and applauded when done as an act of courage or patriotism against enemies. It is also easier to do when the enemy is “them” and not “us”; not someone who is like us – not someone we know personally.

Being “disconnected” helps to make it easier to hate and kill humans just as it makes the killing of other animals easier. It takes “moral courage” to live a truly peaceful life – a life in which, as far as possible, we do not contribute to the death and destruction of any of God’s creatures.

Hopefully, more people will wake up to the fact that the root of all this killing among humans lies in the way “lower” animals are viewed and mistreated. How many times must we see that those who commit acts of cruelty toward human victims have merely graduated from similar acts toward “expendable” animal victims?

Go on to: Greek Independence Day – 25 March 2007
Return to: Thank God – 23 March 2007
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