deconversion

Is Christianity for peace?

March 22, 2007 at 2:16 am The de-Convert 2 comments

I’m not really a Beatles fan, but there came a point that Lennon’s song “Imagine” began to make sense to me.

Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today…

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one

I have to say that the ideas conveyed in this song are very appealing. It is written that the angels proclaimed “peace on earth” with the birth of Jesus. As a result, one would think that “Imagine” describes a life with Christ.

According to the New Testament, Jesus himself said that he did not come to bring peace.

Matthew 10:34-36 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’

Other religious leaders have also encouraged their followers to conduct genocide, crusades, and jihads. If they are not calling for peace, who is?

Like John Lennon and U2’s Bono (though not an atheist), I’m joining the cry for peace on earth and for the world to live as one.

Here’s U2’s song “Heaven on Earth”:

Heaven on Earth
We need it now
I’m sick of all of this
Hanging around
Sick of sorrow
Sick of pain
Sick of hearing again and again
That there’s gonna be
Peace on Earth

Where I grew up
There weren’t many trees
Where there was we’d tear them down
And use them on our enemies
They say that what you mock
Will surely overtake you
And you become a monster
So the monster will not break you

And it’s already gone too far
Who said that if you go in hard
You won’t get hurt

Jesus could you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth
Tell the ones who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
Peace on Earth
No whos or whys
No-one cries like a mother cries
For peace on Earth
She never got to say goodbye
To see the color in his eyes
Now he’s in the dirt
That’s peace on Earth

They’re reading names out over the radio
All the folks the rest of us won’t get to know
Sean and Julia, Gareth, Anne and Breda
Their lives are bigger, than any big idea

Jesus can you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth
To tell the ones who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
Peace on Earth

Jesus this song you wrote
The words are sticking in my throat
Peace on Earth
Hear it every Christmas time
But hope and history won’t rhyme
So what’s it worth?
This peace on Earth

Peace on Earth
Peace on Earth
Peace on Earth

– The de-Convert

Entry filed under: The de-Convert. Tags: agnostic, atheism, Bible, christianity, faith, freethinking, morality, religion, skepticism, spirituality.