Welcome to summer. The kids are home. Every day is an adventure.

Or a headache.

Or both!

Today's page is interesting. I think any devout Christian has to come to grips with this issue. The Bible's pretty clear. Thou Shalt Not Kill. There aren't any qualifiers. Any exceptions. Four words is the whole rule.

So, what do soldiers do? Cops? Action heroes like Theresa? That's something she has to deal with.

What do you think?

Lukkai
 


Once you start leaving a certain comfort zone, certain rules you will not be able to follow and live.
And that comfort zone usually needs other people to not follow those rules to exist.

Harsh, but that's the way the world currently is.

Cerberus
 


Here's one Christian's perspective:  I take exception to your statement that there are no exceptions.  Wink   Actually, there are scholars who believe that "Thou shalt not kill" in the Old Testament is a mistranslation.  When Jesus himself taught the Ten Commandments, he didn't say "thou shalt not kill", he said "thou shalt do no murder" (Matt. 19:eighteen), which has an entirely different intent.  Self-defense, or the defense of innocent persons, is not murder.  His apostles, or at least some of them, carried swords (Matthew 26:51; Luke 22:thirty-eight) and Jesus made the statement that everyone that did not own a sword would someday have to sell his garment to buy one (Luke 22:36).  Yes, he also said that "all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword", but I think in that case he was acting to prevent his apostles from fighting (and probably dying) to prevent what God sent him to do.
Of interest to me is the fact that while Theresa's father was a soldier and obviously taught her how to shoot, it's sounding like he didn't speak to her about the possibility that she might have to actually shoot another person - or, if he did, that lesson may not have taken root as it should.  One should never use something that is capable of taking another person's life (and that includes a car, by the way) without considering the responsibility that it entails.  Of course, she's only 16, so to her, it was probably just fun and games (and a way to spend more time with her father) up until someone lost her life.  Unfortunately, there are many adults in the world with that same "fun and games" mindset - towards cars as well as towards firearms and other weapons.  Soapbox

Edited to add: for some reason, all number "eight"s in the post came out as weird smileys, hence the spelled-out version.


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Lukkai
 


Hear, hear! *tableclap*

Cerberus
 


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misa
 


Well said, Cerberus.

David
 


Cerberus is right. Going out with the intention to kill is clearly an unforgivable act. But should the need arise to fight, in order to protect your loved ones from harm, while it is still a difficult thing for a good person to morally justify, is less harrowing than to allow them to be hurt or killed, particularly when you know that you will be going into potentially hostile territory.

Peaches
 


True. King James' translation simplified a lot of the original text,( and incidentally caused the death of thousands, if not millions ), and changed it to match the verbiage of the times. The original in Hebrew reads roughly "You shall do no murder." which was changed to "Thou shalt not kill." Pretty big difference between those, especially when you look at the number of times God sent his children into battle to both die and kill.

Plus there's the argument that the Commandments, while a really good set of rules to live by, weren't actually given by the Lord to the world, but were instead given to Moses to pass to the children of Israel, whom He had brought out of slavery and taken on the path to the promised land, and who had begun to worship idols.

JGray
 

All excellent points, my friends. And deeply and well thought out, theologically...


But does Theresa strike you as the type to dig so far beneath the surface of what she's being taught in CCC?
Lukkai
 


That depends, really. She's about in that age where you start to question things like this. And her experiences here will most likely add fuel to that process.

Of course the start of it, in her case, is particularily difficult and loaded with complications.

Cerberus
 


No, I was only giving my own opinion.  I certainly don't think that Theresa has pondered it to this degree - I know I hadn't when I was that age.   But I agree with Lukkai that she's at the age to start, and (forgive the cliche) she's between a rock and a hard place - she either continues on the road she's started down, which could mean having to kill or harm another person again, or she turns her back on it, hangs up her pistol, and risks losing someone else she cares about through inaction.
There's also the fact that she ended Debby's life, which has been preying on her - of course, I don't say she killed her friend; the ones really to blame for that are those who assaulted her and caused her brain death.
My guess is that the whole "thou shalt not kill" was brought to the fore by shooting Ruby, but her feelings about Debby not being resolved play at least as large a role.
One thing's for sure - if Theresa's not just going to turn her back on everyone (or go insane), she's going to have to do a lot of growing up in a very short time.