Died

 '..about three thousand people died that day. ' Exodus 32:28

We have here a Jewish September 11. An act of religious violence so extreme which on a superficial reading would seem to give grounds for atheism.

There's a lot of talk about extremism these days in the UK, and pacifists go to the extreme of saying no violence is ever justified. It's a position I was pretty sympathetic to when I was young and idealistic, but now I'm older the idea of an entirely MLK type non violent reaction to someone like Hitler seems increasingly unrealistic. Surely when evil is real, we should fight it? But how? The Catholics & the Quakers are the 2 extremes within the broader Christian world on this. I respect Quakers for their commitment to pacifist theology & praxis, but ultimately I side with the Catholic more pragmatic idea of 'just war'. Quite how liberal Catholic Biden will put this into practice, though, remains to be seen. How far is he willing to go? I'm sure China, North Korea and Iran would love to know..