Pirate Freedom and the Morals Of Gene Wolfe

Jeff Wilson · 19 Mar 2009, 12:18 · from 2009-March.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:18:19 -0500
Subject: (urth) Pirate Freedom and the Morals Of Gene Wolfe
In-Reply-To: <1f7617370903181049l7502b541k43dd0087ff11c1c5 at mail.gmail.com>
References: <9312.67.142.130.31.1237352483.squirrel at brunians.org>	<410253.92468.qm at web50707.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
	<1f7617370903181049l7502b541k43dd0087ff11c1c5 at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <49C2380B.1040900 at io.com>

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 10:41 AM, Jerry Friedman
> <jerry_friedman at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>> I don't know how Aquinas and others reconciled that with
>> Jesus's teachings, but apparently they did.
> 
> It is lawful to use violence to protect one's goods and chastity. Jesus
> never said it wasn't. However, Jesus called men to a higher standard
> than the Law: He called them to moral perfection, and that means not
> resisting the evildoer.

I'm not sure that follows. It might be a fine literal distinction below 
the level of resolution of the translation, but "not resisting" and "not 
restraining" are different concepts morally.  "not restraining the 
evildoer" implies don't presume to judge the rightness of other people's 
business, leave enforcement of man's law to Caesar and the other 
temporal authorities. I believe "resisting the evildoer" in the sense of 
  protecting yourself and your dependents against other people is 
scripturally supported by turning the other cheek to avoid a retribution 
spiral, and by the millstone verse that overtly says extreme measures 
are preferable to submission when protecting your children.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
< http://www.io.com/~jwilson >

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