{"id":1998,"date":"2009-10-16T07:07:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-16T07:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/war-peace-and-texts\/"},"modified":"2009-10-16T07:07:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-16T07:07:00","slug":"war-peace-and-texts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/10\/war-peace-and-texts.html","title":{"rendered":"War, Peace, and Texts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Commenter Scott Gray left a detailed comment<\/a> on a recent post<\/a>, which I thought deserved to be highlighted in a post of its own. The original post asked whether it is appropriate to \u201cdo violence to\u201d violent texts. Scott explored some of the different types of \u201cpeace\u201d and \u201cwarfare\u201d that one might engage in with respect to texts:<\/p>\n

a few thoughts on textual violence:<\/p>\n

\u2018hot peace\u2019 baseline: interactive collaboration; mutual prosperity; no mistrust or suspicion; absence of violence or intimidation: \u201chonor thy father and mother, and their heritage and traditions, especially their sacred texts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018cold peace\u2019 baseline: mutual indifference; no mistrust or suspicion; no violence or intimidation: \u201cignore thy father and mother, and their heritage and traditions, especially their sacred texts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018cold war\u2019 baseline: antagonism without open conflict; armed truce; mutual intimidation prevents violent engagement; mistrust and suspicion on both sides; feeling of immanent violence if conditions change and one party sees the possibility of an advantage; no covert violence: \u201cbe wary of thy father and mother, and their heritage and traditions, especially their sacred texts. and be ready to pounce when conditions are favorable. p.s: parodies and other forms of ridicule are ok.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018hot war\u2019 baseline: violent warfare; the destruction or violent suppression of one\u2019s opponent: \u201ckill and burn thy father and mother, and their heritage and traditions, especially their sacred texts.\u201d<\/p>\n

it\u2019s difficult, actually, to engage in \u2018hot war\u2019 with the texts, unless they are suppressed, or the object of a book burning, or banned, or the authors have jihad placed on them.<\/p>\n

so the best we can do for \u2018violence\u2019 is cold war. parodies. cartoons about the characters. political responses, filled with fallacies and emotionally charged rhetoric.<\/p>\n

oddly enough, the \u2018honorers\u2019 of the sacred texts view \u2018cold peace\u2019 as violence. in fact, they seem to view anything less than \u2018honor\u2019 for the text as \u2018hot war.\u2019 when these texts are not available for worship, evangelization, or other forms of \u2018honor,\u2019 in public school, say, it is viewed as suppression or book banning.<\/p>\n

actually, the dismissal of these texts in school is \u2018cold peace.\u2019 the texts are ignored. or the texts are given the same degree of \u2018honor\u2019 as any other text\u2014something to be studied.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What do you think? Is the analogy between war\/violence and the ways we treat and interact with texts a helpful one?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commenter Scott Gray left a detailed comment on a recent post, which I thought deserved to be highlighted in a post of its own. The original post asked whether it is appropriate to \u201cdo violence to\u201d violent texts. Scott explored some of the different types of \u201cpeace\u201d and \u201cwarfare\u201d that one might engage in with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWar, Peace, and Texts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Commenter Scott Gray left a detailed comment on a recent post, which I thought deserved to be highlighted in a post of its own. 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