General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Most of the Palestinian casualties have been adult males [View all]locks
(2,012 posts)"We can forgive Hamas for killing children but we can never forgive them for forcing US to kill children." And one of the posters today said "Israel has been forced to lower themselves to deal with Hamas." We hear this often: "She bedeviled me til I had no choice but to kill her" and from the "victim": "I just knew he wanted to kill me, so I had to kill him before could." We seldom question this logic; it is always a reason for war. And it's true that humanity has wrestled forever with the hard questions we all have regarding killing, justice, compassion, and vengeance.
The Old Testament told the believers they should love their neighbors but hate their enemies, that when they are persecuted by their brothers and sisters they should forgive them three times, then they could pay them back.
But we read in the New Testament that not only should we love our neighbors but also our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. When Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive a brother or sister who had persecuted him, as many as seven times? Jesus answered, "Seventy times seven".
OMG did he mean 490 times, that's crazy. Glad we're not Christians.