The measuer of a person

"The ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Taking Sides

“I am not altogether on anyone’s side because no one is altogether on my side.”

Treebeard from the Lord of the Rings

Fundamentalism

"..."fundamentalisms" all follow a certain pattern. They are embattled forms of spirituality, which have emerged as a response to a perceived crisis. They are engaged in a conflict with enemies whose secularist policies and beliefs seem inimical to religion itself. Fundamentalists do not regard this battle as a conventional political struggle, but experience it as a cosmic war between the forces of good and evil. They fear annihilation, and try to fortify their beleaguered identity by means of a selective retrieval of certain doctrines and practices of the past."

Karen Armstrong

Virtue of War?

War necessarily brings with it some virtues, and great and heroic virtues too… What horrid creatures we men are, that we cannot be virtuous without murdering one another.”
John Adams