We must look squarely in the face the fact that bullets often fly out of love. As a young boy in elementary school I had a friend whose father was paralyzed. He was paralyzed because he came to the rescue – perhaps with gun in hand – of a neighbor and was shot and made paraplegic himself. Surely such sacrifice made out of love must be honored. I am past 70 years old and still have not come to terms (like many before me) with an unqualified defense of pacifism. It seems to me obvious, for example, that the police power of the state must bear arms to protect justice on the local level. At a minimum, countervailing force of rough parity is essential to enforce justice--which is, after all, a facet of love. Public justice without muscle to back it up is delusional escapism. Pacifism can make sense in those circumstances wherein oppositional power can be trumped by a broader, higher power or by conscience. In cases in which such appeals are not possible, force – even deadly force – can paradoxically be an expression of love.
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