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David Simmons @frdavid.org · 11d

Criteria for waging war justly: The Jus in Bello Principles.

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David Simmons @frdavid.org · 11d

Criteria for Justly Initiating War: The Jus Ad Bellum Principles.

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David Simmons @frdavid.org · 11d

Can Christians Ever Justify War? #JustWar #Christianity #episcopalchurch #war

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David Simmons @frdavid.org · 11d

The traditional Christian Just War principles of “Discrimination” and “Proportionality” are what our Secretary of Defense rejected today. There is nothing Christ-like about this at all. If you’d like to know more about Just War theory, I did four one-minute videos on it, linked in the comments. ⚓️

Hegseth: "We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy. We also don't fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement."

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David Simmons @frdavid.org · 12d

— A Year with Thomas Merton: Daily Meditations from His Journals - A Spiritual Guide for Reflection, Gratitude, and Self-Care in the Pursuit of a Mindful Christian Life by Thomas Merton

Jesus, Social Identity Theory, and Charlie Kirk

David Simmons @frdavid.org · 12d

“A magnificent line from Karl #Barth: ‘Everyone who has to contend with unbelief should be advised that he ought not to take his own unbelief too seriously. Only faith is to be taken seriously, and if we have faith as a grain of mustard seed, that suffices for the devil to have lost his game’” ⚓️

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David Simmons @frdavid.org · 13d

Superman (2025) is great. But why does the movie industry insist that all people who live outside of cities have southern accents, like his adopted parents in KANSAS? As a native Kansan, raised in Kentucky, THEY ARE NOT THE SAME.

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David Simmons @frdavid.org · 19d

The story and practice of our faith tell us that we are one community and that God loved us so much that God sent God’s only beloved Son to reconcile us. Considering this mighty work of God that unifies us, our human-created differences are petty. ⚓

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“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked. The man replied, “The one who…

medium.com

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Reposted by David Simmons

slate @pleasebegneiss.bsky.social · 19d

the rapture isn’t happening tomorrow but we can still have a little fun and pretend our christian coworkers don’t exist

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David Simmons @frdavid.org · 19d

Yes, the “two swords” theory was a Medieval innovation out of the Universities of Germany that became hard baked into Lutheranism, but also German Catholicism. Lutherans have done a lot of painstaking, difficult work since WW2 addressing this.

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David Simmons @frdavid.org · 20d

Note that the problem here is NOT Erika Kirk's speech, but the theology implied in Allie Stuckey's tweet.

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David Simmons @frdavid.org · 20d

You can read more in a blog post I did back in 2018 when Jeff Sessions used this dangerous interpretation roodscreen.org/why-we-as-ch...

Why We as Christians Cannot Ignore the Misuse of Romans 13

You all know that I usually preach primarily from the lectionary text, but today is a little different as It appears I can’t go on vacation…

roodscreen.org

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David Simmons @frdavid.org · 20d

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, “The Bible does not recognize an unconditional obedience to authority. It is the God-given authority itself which demands that obedience should be conditional upon justice.” (DBW 6:342)

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David Simmons @frdavid.org · 20d

There are NOT two separate realms of forgiveness and punishment envisioned by Jesus. The entire world is his kingdom, and justice and grace cannot be separated.

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David Simmons @frdavid.org · 20d

While only a small portion of the population of Germany became part of the actual German Christian movement, they succeeded in creating enough of a "both-sides" argument that average Christians in Germany were mired in inaction, even as atrocities and suppression increased.

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David Simmons @frdavid.org · 20d

I wanted to understand the process by which the teachings of Jesus became so distorted that people could support the actions of the Nazi state. German Christian Theologians like Hossenfelder and Hirsch routinely used Romans 13 to claim that Christians should uncritically support the state.

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David Simmons @frdavid.org · 20d

Risking Godwin's law, This echoes Nazi Christian theology and is very dangerous. For the past decade or so, I've spent a lot of time studying the "German Christian" (Deutsche Christen) movement in Germany in the 1930s, which was the part of the protestant church that overtly supported the Nazis.. ⚓

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David Simmons @frdavid.org · 23d

Charlie Kirk, Jimmy Kimmel and the Future of Free Speech in America (Gift Article) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/o...

Opinion | Charlie Kirk, Jimmy Kimmel and the Future of Free Speech in America

www.nytimes.com