Filed under: Politics
There was a wonderful article hiding in the New York Times ‘Beliefs’ section on February 12th by Peter Steinfels about Lincoln’s Second Term Inaugural Address. He includes a quote from Mark Noll’s book, “America’s God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln,” (Oxford University Press, 2002):
Almost alone among his contemporaries, Lincoln did not presumptuously assume that the moral high ground belonged to only his side. By questioning the righteousness of the North and by failing to denounce the South in absolute terms, he joined a very small minority in the spring and summer of 1865. If Lincoln’s magnanimity and his moral evenhandedness were generally religious, his view of providence was distinctly theological. More than any other feature of this address, Lincoln’s conception of God’s rule over the world set him apart from the recognized theologians of his day.
And, in my opinion, Lincoln’s understanding of the world, even today, sets him far ahead of the leaders, religious and political, of this country. Neither north nor south were alone the ‘chosen.’ Both sides were dealing with horrible loss, and terrible pain. And now, in Iraq, in Cuba, in Afghanistan, on September 11th here, all sides are suffering in some way. As many as 100,000 Iraqis have died, among them thousands and thousands of civilians. As I pointed out in the blog I wrote about St. Valentine and torture, neither side is justified in committing acts of torture, not both sides.
War is wrong. War is terrible. War should be avoided at all costs, and if it is undertaken, it needs to be stopped. From Lincoln’s Second Term Inaugural Address:
“Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away…”
WordPress database error: [Can't find file: 'wp_comments.MYD' (errno: 2)]
SELECT * FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_post_ID = '55' AND comment_approved = '1' ORDER BY comment_date
Leave a comment
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>