Mongers and Mothers

Earlier today, this Jerry Falwell quote was passed to Kos from a reader:

"Throughout the book of Judges,

God calls the Israelites to go to war against the Midianites and Philistines.

Why?

Because these nations were trying to conquer Israel,

and God's people were called to defend themselves.

President Bush declared war in Iraq to defend innocent people.

This is a worthy pursuit.

In fact, Proverbs 21:15 tells us:

"It is joy to the just to do judgment:

but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity."

One of the primary purposes of the church is to stop the spread of evil,

even at the cost of human lives.

If we do not stop the spread of evil,

many innocent lives will be lost and the kingdom of God suffers."

Now, I'm not going to argue with a tele-evangelist,

but he apparently didn't get to the New Testament

or if he did, he must have missed the part where Jesus said,

Resist not Evil.


Then, the idea that Mothers Day was originally meant to be dedicated to Peace was sent by a reader of Earthfamilyalpha.

Julia Ward Howe ,the author of the words of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, made the first known suggestion for a Mother's Day in the United States in 1872. She suggested that people observe a Mother's Day on June 2 as a day dedicated to peace. She had seen some of the worst effects of the war -- not just the death and disease which killed and maimed the soldiers. She worked with the widows and orphans of soldiers on both sides of the war, and realized that the effects of the war go beyond the killing of soldiers in battle.

She also saw the economic devastation of the Civil War, the economic crises that followed the war, the restructuring of the economies of both North and South. For several years, she held an annual Mother's Day meeting in Boston.

Here is her "Proclamation" for the day:

"Arise, then, women of this day!

Arise all women who have hearts,

whether your baptism be that of water or of fears!

Say firmly:

"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,

"Our husbands shall not come to us reeking with carnage,

for caresses and applause.

"Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all

that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and patience.

"We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country

to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devasted earth a voice goes up with our own.

It says, "Disarm, Disarm!"

The sword of murder is not the balance of justice!

Blood does not wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession.

As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil

at the summons of war,

let women now leave all that may be left of home

for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other

as the means whereby the great human family can live in peace,

And each bearing after her own time the sacred impress,

not of Caesar, but of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity,

I earnestly ask that a general congress of women

without limit of nationality,

may be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient.

And the earliest period consistent with its objects,

To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,

The amicable settlement of international questions,

The great and general interests of peace. "


So who are you going to believe?

A TV preacher or a pop song writer?


Over fourty years later,

Woodrow Wilson signed the declaration creating Mothers Day.

Hallmark bought the day some 50 years later

in their merger buyout of Valentine's Day.



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