As far as the church goes you are right that we are failing miserably at taking care of the poor. I wish that we as the church could all work together and provide for the needs of the poor in all of our communities. That would be the best solution that we could find.

Just asking for sources cuz I'm truly interested.

Two years ago, Sojourners undertook a major “The Budget Is a Moral Document” campaign. Shamefully, they never even mentioned the military budget, the largest item in the budget and one with clear moral implications!

Sojourners once played a prophetic role, but it has long since tossed that aside and instead curried favor with establishment political figures. Since the leaders of both parties are firmly committed to increased militarism, taking a prophetic role on peace would not have served this drive for mainstream respectability and they simply abandoned it.

Veterans' high suicide rate is only one of war's negative consequences for our fellow countrymen. Post-traumatic stress disorder, disabilities, and the separation of families are a few others. We should do everything we can to care for our soldiers and their families when they are hurt by war.

We cannot forget that war also devastates the countries we invade. Iraq and Afghanistan painfully taught us how much more difficult it is to rebuild countries than it is to destroy them. We cannot expect our military to seamlessly replace bad governments with good ones. What we can expect are difficulties, mistakes, and civilian deaths, despite our best efforts to avoid them.

Military action may sometimes be necessary, despite all of its costs. We do need to protect ourselves from terrorist attacks, and this may involve destroying things such as training camps. There are also arguments that, as the reigning superpower, we have a responsibility to protect everyone as much as we can. However, our current strategy of maintaining a huge number of nuclear weapons (and bases all over the world) as well as attempting to install good governments does not appear to be the best recipe for avoiding terrorists and promoting peace.

We need to advocate a responsible level of military spending as well as an appropriate and careful use of our military power. We can do this by discussing military issues with people around us, writing letters to our representatives, or even prayerfully protesting. Thanks, Shane, for reminding us of this heavy responsibility.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by PaulAbspoel: Shane Claiborne bindt de strijd aan met militair industrieel complex http://bit.ly/1GBYCD USA is in mega-crisis maar blijft met geld smijten…

What person has found life by killing to save it?

But there is a time to fight. We have an enemy, they are Islamic extremists and they hate our nation and want to destroy it. And they don't hide that fact. Ft. Hood is the latest example.

The United States of America feeds more hungry, sets free more captives, and prevents more violence than any nation in the history of the world. What other nation comes alongside the weak? The United States of America.

The only way we can do those things is through our strength

Thankfully, the most needed commodity costs nothing: vision, courage, love, imagination, leadership and brains.

We could cut the budget 50%, reduce our footprint around the globe, and still increase our capacity to serve as global cop.

The military hawks really need to be taken to task on their own terms; as to whether arming the world and going to fight all over the world has delivered any of its promises.

I think there are strong arguments for a strong military. But they can only be made when the vision, morality, humility, character and strategy of the nation are stronger, more durable, more transparent and more enduring than the military we fund. If we used that as the measure–the military budget ought be reduced about 90%.