Pax, Amor, et Lepos in Iocando

I don't know if you, dear reader, have seen this "Rice for Peace" protest thing or not, but
The e-mail starts out like this:
There is a grassroots campaign underway to protest war in Iraq in a simple,
but potentially powerful way.

Place 1 cup uncooked rice in a small plastic bag (a snack-size bag or
sandwich bag works fine). Squeeze out excess air and seal the bag. Wrap it
in a piece of paper on which you have written, "If your enemies are hungry,
feed them." Romans 12:20. "Please send this rice to the people of Iraq; do
not attack them." (If you are of a different faith than Christian,
substitute a statement from your own faith tradition.) Place the paper and
bag of rice in an envelope (either a letter-sized or padded mailing envelope
- both are the same cost to mail) and address them to:

President George Bush
White House,

and then goes on to give the history of this protest available at the above link.

Here's the e-mail I've been sending out:

I've received e-mails on this often enough that I've come up with a canned response, hope you don't mind.

1. The whole "it stopped a war with China" aspect is patently false. See http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/rice.asp for proof of that. But as we're in a post-modern world and we can't be bothered to let pesky things like facts interfere with how we make decisions . . . emoting is much better suited for such things.

2. I am personally disgusted with the idea that you just "insert your own faith tradition here." This is based on the ridiculous notion that all religions are basically the same and interchangeable, so you can just throw in a quote in from any "holy book" and you'll be okay. What flummery.

3. Let's stick with the Christian "faith tradition" (a phrase watered down for those who can't handle the word "religion"), as that's the default value. So, we're told to quote Romans 12:20, which is a part of Paul's teaching on applying his teaching to our individual lives. Please note that this is not a direction for States to follow, but individual Christians. Moreover, in context we see that Rom. 12:20 is a set-up to Paul's instructions on how to deal with the Government. Feed your enemies, because vengeance is God's (v. 19), so don't do evil, but good (v. 21). We do good in part by being subject to the government that God has ordained to govern us (13:1). One way the government governs is through the sword given to them by God (v. 3-4). And God gave the sword for the State to act as God's Avenger--wielding the sword--in other words, this passage disproves this doctrine of pacifism very quickly and handily.

Now personally, I am not presently in favor of this war--I think it'd be a good thing for Iraq to be rid of Hussein and WMD, but as a Christian who both knows the Biblical requirements for War (summarized in the Augustinian & Thomistic teachings on Just War) and someone who things that the Bible's teaching should actually matter, I'll oppose this particular war on those grounds, NOT on lousy abusing the text like this . . .