Bishop Strickland's carefully worded plea to President Trump is quite instructive for those willing to continue to grow in Christ. I found the last paragraph to be noteworthy. "The United States has long been shaped by Christian principles, yet it stands at a crossroads." Notice the Bishop is careful not to make the common mistake of saying "America was founded as a Christian country," but rather much more accurately says we have "long been shaped by Christian principles." An explicitly Christian nation has the following of the Lord Jesus Christ and the teachings of His Church as part and parcel of its founding documents, and, by extension, its code of laws.
Catholic teaching holds that there are four sins that cry out to Heaven for vengeance: 1) willful murder; 2) sodomy; 3) oppression of the poor; 4) defrauding laborers their wages. The United States of America has all four sins codified into law: 1) willful murder in the form of abortion; 2) sodomy in the legalization of same-sex "marriage"; 3) oppression of the poor with systematically imposed economic dependency on "government services"; and 4) defrauding laborers their wages with an unjust tax code.
Bishop Strickland's entire letter to President Trump is permeated with a principles-first thought process. It is a letter meant to teach, not just to plead. Would that the Lord would send His Church more shepherds like Bishop Joseph Strickland, men who are truly concerned with the salvation of souls.
I don’t disagree with what he said however, this is something he should have said directly to President Trump and not in a letter to the public. This letter is dividing people… ones that have never had to defend itself and others from evil and those who have. Evil doesn’t play nice. Obama and Biden created this evil, President Trump is cleaning it up. Biden says he is Catholic and this letter would have been better suited to go to him… Trump has been more Catholic than any President we have had for the last 30 years. He is working hard to bring peace. It doesn’t happen over night especially as these wars are not in our country but affect it.
Please… he is the only one and his administration that wants peace. All the warmongering Democrats want to keep the wars going… so the money keeps flowing.
The current rage over the Signal chat debacle and the center of attention is Mike Walz, a known Neocon, and warmonger. He lied about his association with Goldberg, he is a corrupt politician who is owned by the Israel lobby. Trump is a clown in foreign policy and he is being led by the nose by the Israel lobby and his Zionist backers. Trump is not seeking peace, he is seeking accommodations for Zionism and money for his donors. We the people get his domestic actions to distract us from what's going on in the larger world and it isn't peace.
A small disagreement from me would be, "Clinton, Obama, Biden did not create the evils abroad in USA but failed to respond properly and in a timely fashion to the corrupting influence of the neo-marxist on the youth through institutions."
Actually, they (during Obama’s administration) created some of the terrorist groups which continue to do much evil. Biden just helped and kept it going. Greed and power are evil’s driving force that controls weak men. This priest is weak which is a shame because there is much good he could do.
Amen! Perfectly expressed. The United States of America, I was ultimately saddened to learn, was founded as a Freemasonic country, not a Christian country.
The founding fathers were deists, not Christians in the sense that we understand the term today. This is not some deeply concealed or camouflaged secret.
When the chosen people of God lived sinful lives despite all His blessings and warnings He used a pagan nation to conquer them and lead them off into captivity.
The virtue or vice of a mighty leader of a nation does not inhibit God from using them for his purposes.
The mystery to me is Trump's abominable treatment of heroic Ukraine
Your comment was thoughtful and expressed wonderful sentiments, but I cannot agree with your closing statement. Ukraine is not heroic, at all. It was mislead and influenced by Neocons in a revenge war against, not Soviet Russia, but the Russian Federation, an Eastern Orthodox Christian Nation. Ukraine is run by an atheist Jew who has outlawed the Ukrainian Orthodox church (UOC), and is the puppet of globalists. The poor Ukrainian people have suffered, but they we mislead by the USA who have used Ukraine to launder millions of US tax payer money and enriched countless political grifters all for the likes of George Soros, Blackrock, and the greater Global reset. Trump came into office the peace candidate and he's threatening more war, for whom?
Kirill has lauded the Russian invasion of Ukraine, justifying the war as a struggle against "forces of evil".
The World Russian People's Council under his leadership described the conflict as a "Holy War".
Clergy in other Orthodox Churches have condemned his remarks, with Bartholomew I saying that Kirill's support for Putin and the war were "damaging to the prestige of the whole of Orthodoxy"
Data from reality: Putin is ex-KGB, Kirril is ex-KGB from the same era.
Both aim at re-establishing Kievan Rus, an ancient Slavic empire.
Neither the Moscow Patriarchate nor the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church approved the document. You misinterpret the meaning of this document which displays your ignorance. I put little stock in this document nor do I misinterpret the meaning like you have to use as a straw man argument for supporting Zionism in Ukraine and elsewhere in Israel and the Middle East.
Zelensky has outlawed the UOC, and it's no secret there are those in Russia who may disapprove of the SMO, but Russia was provoked by the USA and the neocons who turned Ukraine into the most corrupt nation in Europe while pocketing billions of laundered dollars, OUR tax payer money into their pockets and the pockets of our politicians who make bank off of corruption and bribes from the Israel Lobby. Your usage of the term Kievan Rus is just another attempt at painting Russian intent to recreate the Soviet Empire. That is a false claim. Uniting the Russian people in the areas of Ukraine that are and have been Russian for 100's of years as is the Crimea. Do you know any history at all?
Proportionality in war does not mean proportional to the attacks waged upon the state. Proportionality means in proportion to the goals of the state. In this battle against Hamas, Israel is attempting to eliminate Hamas. And to do so, they must venture into civilian areas because Hamas hides behind civilians. Israel does not indiscriminately kill civilians; they have the greatest ratio of terrorist to civilian deaths in modern urban warfare history. They are extremely precise at what they do. Any civilian death is tragic, yes, there is no doubt about that. But that is the price of war. Israel has done a phenomenal job of keeping the civilian death toll to a minimum while still carrying out their goals. Furthermore, the civilian deaths are not on Israel or the United States--they are on Hamas.
Spoken like someone living in the comfort of his own home and country. Israel is just as responsible as Hamas in the amount of death it doles out to innocents.
What is your solution to this? Send the message that terrorist organizations can take over land, ruin the lives of civilians in the area, then commit terrorist attacks against neighboring states, and then hide behind those civilians and get away with it? They're off target now because they hide among civilians? That's not how this works.
Have you ever been to Israel?Gaza? Seen the situation spoken to the people? You want a true education go experience it yourself and not read about it in a textbook or lecture!
These experiences are not foreign to me and I too have spent time in Israel and visited Palestine. I have a son in Israel volunteering, working to ensure the innocent victims of this war receive critical medical care they need. He is doing the Lord's work in the land of our Lord and Savior and has been prior to and during the war. Where as a majority of men and women his age were protesting in the relative safety of the freedoms we enjoy in this country. People, who much like are friend here you defend, who rely on what they read not what they experience for themselves. He is not spot on. He is regurgitating academic theory and conjecture. Christ is the Lord for both gentile and Jew and a staunch advocate of non-violence. What did he preach about loving our enemies?
I am military and my boyfriend actually goes and rescues those who are kidnapped… so your son is protected by the very people who I know. And you want him to be… they are very good at their job. When your son goes door to door, hunting these evil people, let me know what his thoughts are.
No he's is 180 degrees out of phase and totally reliant on propaganda to be informed. there is considerably more to the story and you are, unfortunately, unaware.
Are you aware the USA and Israel fund more terrorism in the middle east then Iran has? You have no idea how it works you only know what you read which is propaganda to turn the uninformed into allies for ethnic cleansing.
I think Bishop Strickland addresses the issue perfectly. Please do more reading of the origin of this mess, how Hamas was created, and by whom. Don’t succumb to the propaganda we have been attacked with by the government and the MSM. Lastly, I truly hope you never find yourself burying your blown to bits children amidst the rubble of your destroyed city. You may not be a Christian, but if you call yourself a Christian please ask Jesus to help you think and act like one.
I hope you never have Hamas sitting in your kitchen with you and your kids tied up… while you watch them pluck the eyeballs out of your children’s eyes. Hamas has said over and over that they will kill every single Jew and they have shown that they will do it violently.
Oh, please stop with the Hamas rhetoric. It's not a convincing argument when Israel and the USA fund more terrorism in that part of the world than any other nation.
You are woefully ignorant of the wider issues at play here. Israel is neither friend nor ally and they fully control our government through AIPAC and the Israel Lobby. We are waging war on the world for Oligarch's and for Israeli expansion and theft of the scarce resources of other nations. Criticizing Israel does not mean I support Hamas, but I do support the innocent people who are the recipients of a strategic ethnic cleansing to rid the people in the way of Israeli expansion.
Also, the onus is on you to prove that “this is just silly” with solid factual premises based in Roman Catholic Moral Theology that are logically developed. You haven’t done that. You haven’t given any citations at all. At this point it’s just your opinion and we all know what opinions are often likened to.
Bishop Strickland, on the other hand, is a theologian and everything he wrote is founded on solid irrefutable Catholic teaching. Any credentialed Catholic theologian would know his premises and how he reached his conclusions just by reading his letter.
My guess is what you wrote is nothing more than opinion. Please disabuse me if it isn’t.
And yet he said nothing about the Hamas attack on 7 Oct. His claims of indiscriminate killing of civilians is not backed up by the facts, only by the Hamas propaganda of such claims. The IDF rules of engagement prohibit indiscriminate warfare leading to the lowest civilian to combatant loss ratio of any war in history. The only indiscriminate killing of civilians is Hamas against Israel and even “innocent” Gaza population, their own people. The bishop also does not understand warfare and the need for complete victory over the enemy as the only means to stop the war. Israel has only 3 conditions to stop the war: release all hostages, total disarmament of Hamas, and barring Hamas governing of Gaza. They cannot live with the threat of another 7 Oct which is exactly what Hamas, Hezbolah, and Iran are committed to, as they have stated openly over and over. Israel takes them at their word.
Do you have a degree in warfare… or how about a degree in evil. Do you know anything about Hamas, the actually evil they did to individuals especially the child/babies, or what their ideology is? Your comment is based on Hamas following God’s law… I hated to tell this but they don’t.
I have a question, can moral theology which studies what individuals should do be applied to governments who are at war? Admittedly I don’t know the answer but a late friend of mine (who was very knowledgeable about international affairs) told me that Rheinhold Niebuhr had argued that this was not the case. I know that Niebuhr was a Protestant, but this does not seem to me to be an issue for which that should matter.
On the issue at hand, I don’t have any idea regarding how to diplomatically solve the situation in the Middle East that does not result in the entire population of Israel being destroyed. If that is correct, then we have 6 of one and a half dozen of the other.
Niebuhr is irrelevant to the discussion as he is not Catholic. He can argue or say whatever he wants, however as a non-Catholic he cannot represent the Catholic position. We need to remember that despite what the Modernists would have us believe all Protestant views are heresy. Full stop. No Catholic may assent to them without seriously endangering their salvation.
I did not say I agreed with him, in fact I don’t even know if what my friend stated was really what Niebuhr taught. But thank you for replying even though you did not answer my question.
“Proportionality means in proportion to the goals of the state” implies there should be no limit to how the state conducts itself in war. Does this suggest Israel should use even nuclear weapons to “eliminate Hamas,” if eliminating Gaza itself would affect such an outcome?
“Proportionality” is a concept that aids the control of escalation; otherwise every conflict would escalate indefinitely until one side no longer existed.
As a Christian, failure to attribute blame to the evildoers is profoundly defective.
HAMAS is the spawn of the Muslim Brotherhood
The faith from which it originates is false and its official moral law, sharia, is incompatible with the Decalogue.
A murderous invasion of the homeland of the Jewish people started this phase of the chronic warfare between Islam and all other faiths.
The invaders, at the time, swore that they would do the same thing over and over until the land they are trying to re-occupy has been purged of all Jews from the river Jordan to the sea.
The Muslims of Yemen are interfering with worldwide trade of medicine, food and fuel by lethal attacks on shipping transport; out of their arrogance they take no notice of words and will only be stopped by lethal force.
You seem to forget the innocents killed by the IDF include many Christians. If your issue is with Islam and your hate is directed at Hamas then why are you not asking why they are killing innocent women and children? Your head is filled with propaganda and calling yourself a Christian seems to be conflict with your thirst for genocide.
HAMAS wages war from within the civilian population
All wars get civilians killed, this one is particularly evil because the mujahidin use women and children as human shields and wage war from hospitals, schools, church grounds and market places.
You are the one deceived by propaganda
And, by the way, have you noted the pro-Islamic bias from the Patriarch long serving in Judea and Samaria. It is not the first time in history that Christians have been murderous to Jews.
How much more evidence of Israeli lies and propaganda do you want me to cite?
I am not pro-Hamas, I am pro-Truth and Israel is not the good guy here. there are no winners in genocide.
I am not surprised there would be pro0Islamic clerics. I've been witness to the Israeli harassment of Christians in Jerusalem and the wider Palestine region.
You are not convincing me that you are without sin of the pro-genocide actions that are being perpetrated in Palestine.
There is no Palestine, there is no compatibility between Islam and Christianity and there is incontrovertible certainty that the murder of Jews is official, dogmatic religious teaching in Islam
Genocide is a neologism of neomarxism and you are deceived - the only human ethnic group ever in deliberate danger of being wiped off the face of the earth are the Jews. Killing HAMAS murderers in war poses no threat to the existence of ethnic Arabs who swarm across the globe and breed like rabbits.
In addition, Phillip, if you weren't so uninformed you would know that citing Islam and Hamas as the pivotal reason for unrest in the Middle East is what you are expected to believe. It's not Islam or Hamas that drives the conflict it's the Zionist desire for the acquisition scarce resources and expansion. The conflict is just a pretext to disguise what is really going in in the M.E. and the Ukraine. Look to the City of London. You are just an uninformed bigot trashing a people who do not have the benefit of the largess of the US tax payer who subsidizes the Zionist quest for scarce resources for wealth and power.
Islam and Judaism are two sides of the same coin. The Old Testament (and likely the Talmud in reference to Gentiles) instructs to kill all Amalekites and all non-Jews are Amalakites to them.
They are the only ethnic group to be wiped off the face of the earth? Why is that, Phillip? Your comments are disgusting example of anti-Islamism the mirror image of anti-Semitism and you are a prime example of ethnic hatred.
Thank you, Bishop, for sharing this letter which is very much on the mark. I hope you shared these thoughts personally when you celebrated at Mar a Largo recently.
As far as Gaza goes, around 70% of those there support Hamas. Hamas thought and thinks nothing of murdering the innocent, whether the innocent are in Israel or in their own territory. Those in Hamas controlled areas are killed if they go near supply trucks. I have serious issues with Israel. What was required of Israelis during COVID alone was horrible. Heck, listening to things coming out of the JFK files show the Israel has a sordid history. That being said, innocent Israelis were raped and brutally murdered, not only on October 7th but throughout the years. Hamas murdered two tiny children and their mother. They parade the bodies of the innocent like prizes. We must always pray for the conversion of terrorists and that justice will be dealt. Stopping Islamic terrorism is not as simple as not going on the offense with weapons and military. There are more than one cause that contributes to one subscribing to terrorism. In that part of the world, and in Islamic communities worldwide, we are dealing with an ideology that affects the whole of the life and culture of those in it. Islam takes over cultures completely and brainwashes people. We must pray for the conversion of the Muslims and the Jews. That will happen. We also have to pray that President Trump, Vice President Vance and the Cabinet are instilled with the virtues necessary to be good, moral Christian leaders that strive to be an example to the world.
To make matters worse, this war will never end and is only creating future terrorists. The people of Gaza who want to destroy Hamas (an Israeli creation I might add) should be supported and any moderate should be encouraged. Otherwise, the scourge of Hamas will continue.
As humans, we can only get so far. Truth is often skewed or manipulated and we have seen that done throughout history. We have seen monstrous, manipulative dictators use fear, suffering, anger and confusion in order to persuade their people that what they are doing is good, moral, "correct." When truth is gone, when people are stripped of their dignity, all evil things are in play and a society will accept these evils as acceptable. Hamas is an example of a terrorist group using fear and manipulation to accomplish what they want. Do we pray for their conversions? Yup but we also still have to prevent those like them from also hurting the innocent. If Hamas disappears, there will still be other groups like Hezbollah that will act up too. In the end, you are correct. Jesus is the only answer. Conversions will end this madness in the world. It is really the only way that we see peace, true peace, in the Middle East.
Things are made much more difficult when the enemy desires the destruction of innocents on the other side. We can talk about the innocents on all sides. But I believe that the attacks on the Houthis are targeting military facilities. And with Gaza, how do we respond to when the Hamas terrorists use innocents to hide beneath. a most difficult challenge in striving for lasting peace. But we know from the Bible that peace will not come eventually leading to the final battle of Armageddon. The answer is simply prayer…and trusting in God that His perfect Will is done.
Maybe his excellency should focus more on correcting the manifest sins and misdeeds of his own church before seeking to advise the secular authorities.
I’m pretty sure Bp Strickland can walk and chew gum at the same time and for the record, he has been very vocal and public regarding the problems in the Church and has suffered greatly for it. We all come from flawed families yet we never refrain from holding back our opinions regarding what happens outside of them, and in his case, it’s his actual job to do so.
Bishop Strickland’s job is to lead his flock forward in the path created for us by Jesus Christ. He is doing exactly what God has commissioned him to do. Thank you Bishop Strickland!
Sean Anderson, perhaps it is you that doesn’t have full comprehension of the history and intent of this debacle. Try a deep dive into this subject. I think that Bishop Strickland is fully informed of what the situation is. The Christians in Gaza are being slaughtered along with everyone else, but not by Hamas or Muslims. They are begging for help. Christian churches sheltering their congregates have been attacked by the IDS, with those seeking shelter murdered. Indiscriminate killing is occurring, not to fight a true enemy, but to take power.
you lack the slightest clue as to the perpetual war of the followers of a fake prophet speaking for a pagan God directing true believers to kill all Jews, heretics and apostates
HAMAS, spawn of the Muslim Brotherhood, it just one of the most recent groups putting their faith into practice.
The Israeli military had the capacity to kill every man, woman and child in Gaza in the first two or three weeks after the invasion and murders and rapes and hostage taking.
Their DISCRIMINATE warfare tactics, guided by the Mosaic Law, spared as many non-combat people as possible but the diabolical enemy used and still uses women and children as human shields and wages war from church property, schools, hospitals and markets.
Please explain why there is no mention of suspending the Fatwa against Israel and the Ishmaelite’s call to eliminate Israel from the “river to the sea” or the other atrocities that are committed in the name of Allah that Christianity condemns.
A poor letter. The USA is not fighting in Gaza so that part of the steering is entirely misplaced. And the Bishop defames the actions of the IDF. Indiscriminate killing of civilians? Really? Do some homework please.
As for USA action against Houthis in Yemen there might be more merit in the Bishop's opinions. Might.
Emeritus Professor of Law Rex Ahdar and a disciple of The Lord among with the good Emeritus Bishop
As we can see in the comments (some of which are very prickly) below, this is a divisive issue. While our beloved bishop has every right -- legally and morally -- to make his arguments and to address it to his audience (which is, basically, the readers of his substack), I question the means by which he did so and the utility of doing so. People of goodwill can and do disagree vehemently on this issue, as we see in the comments. If His Excellency's purpose was to provide us his assessment of moral instruction on this subject, fine. But he addressed his essay as a letter to President Trump and the Administration. That seems most disingenuous. I concur with MayBella 82, who in comments below said the bishop should have addressed this matter directly to President Trump, rather than delivering it to us under the guise of a letter to the president and his "administration" (whatever that means). I hope His Excellency will seriously reflect upon his own motives and methods for writing this "Letter" in the manner he did.
Agree with all the arguments he makes for discontinuing the war, but I believe it justifies wiping out the terrorists who use women and children for shields, and spread terror throughout the world
Bishop Strickland's carefully worded plea to President Trump is quite instructive for those willing to continue to grow in Christ. I found the last paragraph to be noteworthy. "The United States has long been shaped by Christian principles, yet it stands at a crossroads." Notice the Bishop is careful not to make the common mistake of saying "America was founded as a Christian country," but rather much more accurately says we have "long been shaped by Christian principles." An explicitly Christian nation has the following of the Lord Jesus Christ and the teachings of His Church as part and parcel of its founding documents, and, by extension, its code of laws.
Catholic teaching holds that there are four sins that cry out to Heaven for vengeance: 1) willful murder; 2) sodomy; 3) oppression of the poor; 4) defrauding laborers their wages. The United States of America has all four sins codified into law: 1) willful murder in the form of abortion; 2) sodomy in the legalization of same-sex "marriage"; 3) oppression of the poor with systematically imposed economic dependency on "government services"; and 4) defrauding laborers their wages with an unjust tax code.
Bishop Strickland's entire letter to President Trump is permeated with a principles-first thought process. It is a letter meant to teach, not just to plead. Would that the Lord would send His Church more shepherds like Bishop Joseph Strickland, men who are truly concerned with the salvation of souls.
I don’t disagree with what he said however, this is something he should have said directly to President Trump and not in a letter to the public. This letter is dividing people… ones that have never had to defend itself and others from evil and those who have. Evil doesn’t play nice. Obama and Biden created this evil, President Trump is cleaning it up. Biden says he is Catholic and this letter would have been better suited to go to him… Trump has been more Catholic than any President we have had for the last 30 years. He is working hard to bring peace. It doesn’t happen over night especially as these wars are not in our country but affect it.
If he's working so hard for peace why is he threatening more war?
Please… he is the only one and his administration that wants peace. All the warmongering Democrats want to keep the wars going… so the money keeps flowing.
I strongly disagree. He says he wants peace, but his rhetoric suggests another agenda. https://sonar21.com/trumps-negotiators-fail-to-understand-russia-and-europe-crashes-and-burns/
The current rage over the Signal chat debacle and the center of attention is Mike Walz, a known Neocon, and warmonger. He lied about his association with Goldberg, he is a corrupt politician who is owned by the Israel lobby. Trump is a clown in foreign policy and he is being led by the nose by the Israel lobby and his Zionist backers. Trump is not seeking peace, he is seeking accommodations for Zionism and money for his donors. We the people get his domestic actions to distract us from what's going on in the larger world and it isn't peace.
A small disagreement from me would be, "Clinton, Obama, Biden did not create the evils abroad in USA but failed to respond properly and in a timely fashion to the corrupting influence of the neo-marxist on the youth through institutions."
Actually, they (during Obama’s administration) created some of the terrorist groups which continue to do much evil. Biden just helped and kept it going. Greed and power are evil’s driving force that controls weak men. This priest is weak which is a shame because there is much good he could do.
Amen! Perfectly expressed. The United States of America, I was ultimately saddened to learn, was founded as a Freemasonic country, not a Christian country.
The founding fathers were deists, not Christians in the sense that we understand the term today. This is not some deeply concealed or camouflaged secret.
It is simply history: https://www.tumblarhouse.com/collections/tumblar-house/products/the-star-spangled-heresy-americanism-solange-hertz
When the chosen people of God lived sinful lives despite all His blessings and warnings He used a pagan nation to conquer them and lead them off into captivity.
The virtue or vice of a mighty leader of a nation does not inhibit God from using them for his purposes.
The mystery to me is Trump's abominable treatment of heroic Ukraine
Your comment was thoughtful and expressed wonderful sentiments, but I cannot agree with your closing statement. Ukraine is not heroic, at all. It was mislead and influenced by Neocons in a revenge war against, not Soviet Russia, but the Russian Federation, an Eastern Orthodox Christian Nation. Ukraine is run by an atheist Jew who has outlawed the Ukrainian Orthodox church (UOC), and is the puppet of globalists. The poor Ukrainian people have suffered, but they we mislead by the USA who have used Ukraine to launder millions of US tax payer money and enriched countless political grifters all for the likes of George Soros, Blackrock, and the greater Global reset. Trump came into office the peace candidate and he's threatening more war, for whom?
Kirill has lauded the Russian invasion of Ukraine, justifying the war as a struggle against "forces of evil".
The World Russian People's Council under his leadership described the conflict as a "Holy War".
Clergy in other Orthodox Churches have condemned his remarks, with Bartholomew I saying that Kirill's support for Putin and the war were "damaging to the prestige of the whole of Orthodoxy"
Data from reality: Putin is ex-KGB, Kirril is ex-KGB from the same era.
Both aim at re-establishing Kievan Rus, an ancient Slavic empire.
Classical imperialism
Neither the Moscow Patriarchate nor the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church approved the document. You misinterpret the meaning of this document which displays your ignorance. I put little stock in this document nor do I misinterpret the meaning like you have to use as a straw man argument for supporting Zionism in Ukraine and elsewhere in Israel and the Middle East.
Zelensky has outlawed the UOC, and it's no secret there are those in Russia who may disapprove of the SMO, but Russia was provoked by the USA and the neocons who turned Ukraine into the most corrupt nation in Europe while pocketing billions of laundered dollars, OUR tax payer money into their pockets and the pockets of our politicians who make bank off of corruption and bribes from the Israel Lobby. Your usage of the term Kievan Rus is just another attempt at painting Russian intent to recreate the Soviet Empire. That is a false claim. Uniting the Russian people in the areas of Ukraine that are and have been Russian for 100's of years as is the Crimea. Do you know any history at all?
Quite obviously far more than you do
The US education system has failed you as it has your whole generations since the end of WW2
all it taught you is individualistic arrogance
Sad but true.
EXCELLENT comment! Thank you!
This is just silly.
Proportionality in war does not mean proportional to the attacks waged upon the state. Proportionality means in proportion to the goals of the state. In this battle against Hamas, Israel is attempting to eliminate Hamas. And to do so, they must venture into civilian areas because Hamas hides behind civilians. Israel does not indiscriminately kill civilians; they have the greatest ratio of terrorist to civilian deaths in modern urban warfare history. They are extremely precise at what they do. Any civilian death is tragic, yes, there is no doubt about that. But that is the price of war. Israel has done a phenomenal job of keeping the civilian death toll to a minimum while still carrying out their goals. Furthermore, the civilian deaths are not on Israel or the United States--they are on Hamas.
Spoken like someone living in the comfort of his own home and country. Israel is just as responsible as Hamas in the amount of death it doles out to innocents.
What is your solution to this? Send the message that terrorist organizations can take over land, ruin the lives of civilians in the area, then commit terrorist attacks against neighboring states, and then hide behind those civilians and get away with it? They're off target now because they hide among civilians? That's not how this works.
Have you ever been to Israel?Gaza? Seen the situation spoken to the people? You want a true education go experience it yourself and not read about it in a textbook or lecture!
He is spot on. I wonder how you can criticize… have you been in the middle of the war or involved with the undertaking to end these wars?
These experiences are not foreign to me and I too have spent time in Israel and visited Palestine. I have a son in Israel volunteering, working to ensure the innocent victims of this war receive critical medical care they need. He is doing the Lord's work in the land of our Lord and Savior and has been prior to and during the war. Where as a majority of men and women his age were protesting in the relative safety of the freedoms we enjoy in this country. People, who much like are friend here you defend, who rely on what they read not what they experience for themselves. He is not spot on. He is regurgitating academic theory and conjecture. Christ is the Lord for both gentile and Jew and a staunch advocate of non-violence. What did he preach about loving our enemies?
I am military and my boyfriend actually goes and rescues those who are kidnapped… so your son is protected by the very people who I know. And you want him to be… they are very good at their job. When your son goes door to door, hunting these evil people, let me know what his thoughts are.
No he's is 180 degrees out of phase and totally reliant on propaganda to be informed. there is considerably more to the story and you are, unfortunately, unaware.
Thanks bot.
Are you aware the USA and Israel fund more terrorism in the middle east then Iran has? You have no idea how it works you only know what you read which is propaganda to turn the uninformed into allies for ethnic cleansing.
I think Bishop Strickland addresses the issue perfectly. Please do more reading of the origin of this mess, how Hamas was created, and by whom. Don’t succumb to the propaganda we have been attacked with by the government and the MSM. Lastly, I truly hope you never find yourself burying your blown to bits children amidst the rubble of your destroyed city. You may not be a Christian, but if you call yourself a Christian please ask Jesus to help you think and act like one.
I hope you never have Hamas sitting in your kitchen with you and your kids tied up… while you watch them pluck the eyeballs out of your children’s eyes. Hamas has said over and over that they will kill every single Jew and they have shown that they will do it violently.
Oh, please stop with the Hamas rhetoric. It's not a convincing argument when Israel and the USA fund more terrorism in that part of the world than any other nation.
Stop with i yo our Anti- American crap.
Anti-American? You try to smear me for disagreeing with your ignorant arguments? Grow up and get informed. You do not know what you are talking about
How are you getting this information, MayBella2?
I am retired military…you get to know people when you are in as long as I was.
You are woefully ignorant of the wider issues at play here. Israel is neither friend nor ally and they fully control our government through AIPAC and the Israel Lobby. We are waging war on the world for Oligarch's and for Israeli expansion and theft of the scarce resources of other nations. Criticizing Israel does not mean I support Hamas, but I do support the innocent people who are the recipients of a strategic ethnic cleansing to rid the people in the way of Israeli expansion.
Do you have an advanced degree in moral theology?
Also, the onus is on you to prove that “this is just silly” with solid factual premises based in Roman Catholic Moral Theology that are logically developed. You haven’t done that. You haven’t given any citations at all. At this point it’s just your opinion and we all know what opinions are often likened to.
Bishop Strickland, on the other hand, is a theologian and everything he wrote is founded on solid irrefutable Catholic teaching. Any credentialed Catholic theologian would know his premises and how he reached his conclusions just by reading his letter.
My guess is what you wrote is nothing more than opinion. Please disabuse me if it isn’t.
And yet he said nothing about the Hamas attack on 7 Oct. His claims of indiscriminate killing of civilians is not backed up by the facts, only by the Hamas propaganda of such claims. The IDF rules of engagement prohibit indiscriminate warfare leading to the lowest civilian to combatant loss ratio of any war in history. The only indiscriminate killing of civilians is Hamas against Israel and even “innocent” Gaza population, their own people. The bishop also does not understand warfare and the need for complete victory over the enemy as the only means to stop the war. Israel has only 3 conditions to stop the war: release all hostages, total disarmament of Hamas, and barring Hamas governing of Gaza. They cannot live with the threat of another 7 Oct which is exactly what Hamas, Hezbolah, and Iran are committed to, as they have stated openly over and over. Israel takes them at their word.
Do you have a degree in warfare… or how about a degree in evil. Do you know anything about Hamas, the actually evil they did to individuals especially the child/babies, or what their ideology is? Your comment is based on Hamas following God’s law… I hated to tell this but they don’t.
Stop being an ass and get yourself informed. You are peddling the exact line the propagandists hope ignorant Americans will do.
I am informed. You sound like a paid bot.
If you were you wouldn't be spewing misinformation on this blog site. A paid bot, oh, please that's just dumb.
I don’t recall addressing you. Mind your own business and stay out of other’s business.
Nice comment Father. You do realize that God holds you to a higher standard and that there are Priest in Hell. Don’t be that Priest.
How judgmental of you. You really are a sanctimonious busybody. And you realize that you have committed sacrilege? You do need to learn your place.
I will put it bluntly.
HAMAS follows sharia
Catholics, and I, follow the Decalogue
They are incompatible. No-one needs quotes from the third hand musings of theologians when we have Scripture - do no MURDER
You write like an ignorant tyrant
that's not an answer that's excuse to remain ignorant about what is really happening..
Give me the proof that Peter, Paul, Luke, John and others all had advanced degrees in moral theology, presbyter, or shut up.
Wow. A hater of Truth, an ignorant dilettante, and a hostile anti-Catholic. How……novel.
An advanced degree doesn't insure against ignorance and you are demonstrating plenty of that.
Not nice😔
Dear Fr Scott,
I have a question, can moral theology which studies what individuals should do be applied to governments who are at war? Admittedly I don’t know the answer but a late friend of mine (who was very knowledgeable about international affairs) told me that Rheinhold Niebuhr had argued that this was not the case. I know that Niebuhr was a Protestant, but this does not seem to me to be an issue for which that should matter.
On the issue at hand, I don’t have any idea regarding how to diplomatically solve the situation in the Middle East that does not result in the entire population of Israel being destroyed. If that is correct, then we have 6 of one and a half dozen of the other.
Why do you worry so about Israel? You should worry about your own country's moral standing and what we are doing is enabling genocide.
Niebuhr is irrelevant to the discussion as he is not Catholic. He can argue or say whatever he wants, however as a non-Catholic he cannot represent the Catholic position. We need to remember that despite what the Modernists would have us believe all Protestant views are heresy. Full stop. No Catholic may assent to them without seriously endangering their salvation.
I did not say I agreed with him, in fact I don’t even know if what my friend stated was really what Niebuhr taught. But thank you for replying even though you did not answer my question.
The answer to your question is yes.
Thank you.
“Proportionality means in proportion to the goals of the state” implies there should be no limit to how the state conducts itself in war. Does this suggest Israel should use even nuclear weapons to “eliminate Hamas,” if eliminating Gaza itself would affect such an outcome?
“Proportionality” is a concept that aids the control of escalation; otherwise every conflict would escalate indefinitely until one side no longer existed.
As a Christian, failure to attribute blame to the evildoers is profoundly defective.
HAMAS is the spawn of the Muslim Brotherhood
The faith from which it originates is false and its official moral law, sharia, is incompatible with the Decalogue.
A murderous invasion of the homeland of the Jewish people started this phase of the chronic warfare between Islam and all other faiths.
The invaders, at the time, swore that they would do the same thing over and over until the land they are trying to re-occupy has been purged of all Jews from the river Jordan to the sea.
The Muslims of Yemen are interfering with worldwide trade of medicine, food and fuel by lethal attacks on shipping transport; out of their arrogance they take no notice of words and will only be stopped by lethal force.
You seem to forget the innocents killed by the IDF include many Christians. If your issue is with Islam and your hate is directed at Hamas then why are you not asking why they are killing innocent women and children? Your head is filled with propaganda and calling yourself a Christian seems to be conflict with your thirst for genocide.
HAMAS invaded Israel
HAMAS governs Gaza
HAMAS wages war from within the civilian population
All wars get civilians killed, this one is particularly evil because the mujahidin use women and children as human shields and wage war from hospitals, schools, church grounds and market places.
You are the one deceived by propaganda
And, by the way, have you noted the pro-Islamic bias from the Patriarch long serving in Judea and Samaria. It is not the first time in history that Christians have been murderous to Jews.
https://thegrayzone.com/2024/11/08/israeli-journalist-intel-officer-torture-palestinians/
https://thegrayzone.com/2024/06/21/israeli-army-friendly-fire-october-7/
https://thegrayzone.com/2024/06/27/palestinian-father-son-confession-debunked/
https://thegrayzone.com/2024/05/21/israeli-soldier-unit-confesses-us-citizens-killing/
https://thegrayzone.com/2024/03/25/israeli-propagandist-hamas-grifter-fraud/
https://thegrayzone.com/2024/03/06/leaked-israel-lobby-officials-war-gaza-mass-rape/
How much more evidence of Israeli lies and propaganda do you want me to cite?
I am not pro-Hamas, I am pro-Truth and Israel is not the good guy here. there are no winners in genocide.
I am not surprised there would be pro0Islamic clerics. I've been witness to the Israeli harassment of Christians in Jerusalem and the wider Palestine region.
You are not convincing me that you are without sin of the pro-genocide actions that are being perpetrated in Palestine.
There is no Palestine, there is no compatibility between Islam and Christianity and there is incontrovertible certainty that the murder of Jews is official, dogmatic religious teaching in Islam
Genocide is a neologism of neomarxism and you are deceived - the only human ethnic group ever in deliberate danger of being wiped off the face of the earth are the Jews. Killing HAMAS murderers in war poses no threat to the existence of ethnic Arabs who swarm across the globe and breed like rabbits.
In addition, Phillip, if you weren't so uninformed you would know that citing Islam and Hamas as the pivotal reason for unrest in the Middle East is what you are expected to believe. It's not Islam or Hamas that drives the conflict it's the Zionist desire for the acquisition scarce resources and expansion. The conflict is just a pretext to disguise what is really going in in the M.E. and the Ukraine. Look to the City of London. You are just an uninformed bigot trashing a people who do not have the benefit of the largess of the US tax payer who subsidizes the Zionist quest for scarce resources for wealth and power.
Islam and Judaism are two sides of the same coin. The Old Testament (and likely the Talmud in reference to Gentiles) instructs to kill all Amalekites and all non-Jews are Amalakites to them.
They are the only ethnic group to be wiped off the face of the earth? Why is that, Phillip? Your comments are disgusting example of anti-Islamism the mirror image of anti-Semitism and you are a prime example of ethnic hatred.
Islam is a religion, you prat, not an ethnic identity.
Thank you, Bishop, for sharing this letter which is very much on the mark. I hope you shared these thoughts personally when you celebrated at Mar a Largo recently.
Thank you Bishop Strickland
I have a high respect for Bishop Stricklandbut he is wrong at this time
As far as Gaza goes, around 70% of those there support Hamas. Hamas thought and thinks nothing of murdering the innocent, whether the innocent are in Israel or in their own territory. Those in Hamas controlled areas are killed if they go near supply trucks. I have serious issues with Israel. What was required of Israelis during COVID alone was horrible. Heck, listening to things coming out of the JFK files show the Israel has a sordid history. That being said, innocent Israelis were raped and brutally murdered, not only on October 7th but throughout the years. Hamas murdered two tiny children and their mother. They parade the bodies of the innocent like prizes. We must always pray for the conversion of terrorists and that justice will be dealt. Stopping Islamic terrorism is not as simple as not going on the offense with weapons and military. There are more than one cause that contributes to one subscribing to terrorism. In that part of the world, and in Islamic communities worldwide, we are dealing with an ideology that affects the whole of the life and culture of those in it. Islam takes over cultures completely and brainwashes people. We must pray for the conversion of the Muslims and the Jews. That will happen. We also have to pray that President Trump, Vice President Vance and the Cabinet are instilled with the virtues necessary to be good, moral Christian leaders that strive to be an example to the world.
Thank you Bishop Strickland. Praying daily for this administration 🙏
To make matters worse, this war will never end and is only creating future terrorists. The people of Gaza who want to destroy Hamas (an Israeli creation I might add) should be supported and any moderate should be encouraged. Otherwise, the scourge of Hamas will continue.
The Muslim Brotherhood spawned HAMAS
Gaza inhabitants are Ottoman Empire Arab Muslims still occupying Jewish homeland
As humans, we can only get so far. Truth is often skewed or manipulated and we have seen that done throughout history. We have seen monstrous, manipulative dictators use fear, suffering, anger and confusion in order to persuade their people that what they are doing is good, moral, "correct." When truth is gone, when people are stripped of their dignity, all evil things are in play and a society will accept these evils as acceptable. Hamas is an example of a terrorist group using fear and manipulation to accomplish what they want. Do we pray for their conversions? Yup but we also still have to prevent those like them from also hurting the innocent. If Hamas disappears, there will still be other groups like Hezbollah that will act up too. In the end, you are correct. Jesus is the only answer. Conversions will end this madness in the world. It is really the only way that we see peace, true peace, in the Middle East.
Things are made much more difficult when the enemy desires the destruction of innocents on the other side. We can talk about the innocents on all sides. But I believe that the attacks on the Houthis are targeting military facilities. And with Gaza, how do we respond to when the Hamas terrorists use innocents to hide beneath. a most difficult challenge in striving for lasting peace. But we know from the Bible that peace will not come eventually leading to the final battle of Armageddon. The answer is simply prayer…and trusting in God that His perfect Will is done.
Do you not know the Israeli's are doing the same thing?
Maybe his excellency should focus more on correcting the manifest sins and misdeeds of his own church before seeking to advise the secular authorities.
I’m pretty sure Bp Strickland can walk and chew gum at the same time and for the record, he has been very vocal and public regarding the problems in the Church and has suffered greatly for it. We all come from flawed families yet we never refrain from holding back our opinions regarding what happens outside of them, and in his case, it’s his actual job to do so.
Thank you for this comment!
Bishop Strickland’s job is to lead his flock forward in the path created for us by Jesus Christ. He is doing exactly what God has commissioned him to do. Thank you Bishop Strickland!
I appreciate his efforts to preserve the true faith. But I just think he’s over his head when it comes to the issues of Hamas and Israel.
Sean Anderson, perhaps it is you that doesn’t have full comprehension of the history and intent of this debacle. Try a deep dive into this subject. I think that Bishop Strickland is fully informed of what the situation is. The Christians in Gaza are being slaughtered along with everyone else, but not by Hamas or Muslims. They are begging for help. Christian churches sheltering their congregates have been attacked by the IDS, with those seeking shelter murdered. Indiscriminate killing is occurring, not to fight a true enemy, but to take power.
you lack the slightest clue as to the perpetual war of the followers of a fake prophet speaking for a pagan God directing true believers to kill all Jews, heretics and apostates
HAMAS, spawn of the Muslim Brotherhood, it just one of the most recent groups putting their faith into practice.
The Israeli military had the capacity to kill every man, woman and child in Gaza in the first two or three weeks after the invasion and murders and rapes and hostage taking.
Their DISCRIMINATE warfare tactics, guided by the Mosaic Law, spared as many non-combat people as possible but the diabolical enemy used and still uses women and children as human shields and wages war from church property, schools, hospitals and markets.
Grow up.
As far as I am concerned all of Gaza is Amalek.
what flock is assigned to a retired bishop?
He does. That's why Pope Francis has kicked him to the curb.
Please explain why there is no mention of suspending the Fatwa against Israel and the Ishmaelite’s call to eliminate Israel from the “river to the sea” or the other atrocities that are committed in the name of Allah that Christianity condemns.
A poor letter. The USA is not fighting in Gaza so that part of the steering is entirely misplaced. And the Bishop defames the actions of the IDF. Indiscriminate killing of civilians? Really? Do some homework please.
As for USA action against Houthis in Yemen there might be more merit in the Bishop's opinions. Might.
Emeritus Professor of Law Rex Ahdar and a disciple of The Lord among with the good Emeritus Bishop
As we can see in the comments (some of which are very prickly) below, this is a divisive issue. While our beloved bishop has every right -- legally and morally -- to make his arguments and to address it to his audience (which is, basically, the readers of his substack), I question the means by which he did so and the utility of doing so. People of goodwill can and do disagree vehemently on this issue, as we see in the comments. If His Excellency's purpose was to provide us his assessment of moral instruction on this subject, fine. But he addressed his essay as a letter to President Trump and the Administration. That seems most disingenuous. I concur with MayBella 82, who in comments below said the bishop should have addressed this matter directly to President Trump, rather than delivering it to us under the guise of a letter to the president and his "administration" (whatever that means). I hope His Excellency will seriously reflect upon his own motives and methods for writing this "Letter" in the manner he did.
Agree with all the arguments he makes for discontinuing the war, but I believe it justifies wiping out the terrorists who use women and children for shields, and spread terror throughout the world