Inside Tehran

This is an absolutely fascinating documentary by a very skilled BBC reporter and cameraman. It looks at people and life in Tehran, Iran. It is 1.5 hrs., but I believe it is well spent time. Enjoy and learn.

Theological Compromises Led to Mennonite Nazism

This paper by James Peter Regier is part of the new writings which are looking at Mennonites and their relationship to National Socialism in Germany. I highlighted some of the key lines so that you do not have to read the whole paper, although it is all worth reading. Click here to download as a Word document. Click here to download in .PDF format.

Surrender

My kingdom is not very big,

But as I prepare to surrender it,

It feels like the most precious and desirable in the world.

Still, conquering King, mount the thrown.

Sit in the place of power.

Here is the crown, the deed, the key to the treasury.

The scepter with which I maintained justice for myself is by your elbow,

And the sword with which I protected myself is by the door.

You now fight my battles and choose how justice is served to my enemies.

I leave the palace with only a staff and a sackcloth shirt.

Yet with a King like you, I have more than all the Kingdoms of this world

Because you are exalting me.

A Facinating Look at Military Desensitization

More articles are available from the same place as the following: http://www.killology.com/publications.htm

Aggression and Violence”

By Dave Grossman
Oxford Press, 2000

To understand the nature of aggression and violence on the battlefield, it must first be recognized that most participants in close combat are literally “frightened out of their wits.” Once the bullets start flying, most combatants stop thinking with the forebrain (that portion of the brain that makes us human) and start thinking with the midbrain (the primitive portion of our brain, which is indistinguishable from that of an animal).

In conflict situations, this primitive, midbrain processing can be observed in the existence of a powerful resistance to killing one’s own kind. Animals with antlers and horns slam together in a relatively harmless head-to-head fashion, and piranha fish fight their own kind with flicks of the tail, but against any other species these creatures unleash their horns and teeth without restraint. This is an essential survival mechanism that prevents a species from destroying itself during territorial and mating rituals.

One major modern revelation in the field of military psychology is the observation that such resistance to killing one’s own species is also a key factor in human combat.

A Slight Verse

We little know what adventures or dangers tomorrow’s path holds, but it is this that gives us the curiosity to push on and the fear to keep our trust in God.