Customer Reviews

The War on Terrorism and the Terror of God

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This is the finest, most eloquent book on our current situation that I 've read, and I've read quite a few since the fall. Terrorism never works, whether it's state terrorism or non state. Legitimate grievances canot be addressed or avenged by violence.

The author makes the case that there is no biblical justification for terrorism and absolutely none for violent response to terrorism. His reading of the Bible is spot on.

Finally someone has the courage to oppose these awful wars, including the American terrorism, and tell the truth. Violence and murder are immoral and never work, even in retaliation for violence.

Read this book. Pass it on.

Lee Griffith presents a logical perspective that seems to have been ignored in the hysteria that has followed the events of September 11, 2001. (Interestingly Griffith wrote his book before those events.) Griffith points out that our response to terrorism has basically been to terrorize the terrorists, which forces the terrorists to just increase thier commitment to violence.
Griffith also presents an important Christian prespective that we miss far too often. We have divided the world into good and evil realms and have concluded that it is up to the realm of good to defeat the evil realm. However, Jesus never divided the world into good and evil, he saw the entire world as good, but fallen and in need of redemption.

The book is an excellent resource concerning terrorism, which has been the concern today. It focuses on the ethics of terrorism and uses a scriptural foundation to validate reasoning. I am almost finished with this book. I am using this book as a part of our readings in a class on the Ethics and Theology of Violence in seminary.

Even Griffith's most adamant detractors must concede that he makes a substantial and strong case for his point of view, from the perspective of theology, history, and deeply considered ethics. He does have a definite point of view, and it is not one that is deferential towards the powers-that-be, here or elsewhere. He points out the sad state of moral equivalence between terrorist and counter-terrorist that is our present paradigm

In his noble effort to encourage peace, the author has written an indictment of US policies, while glossing over the realities of the present world order. He presents Islam in an irenic way, ignoring the fact that the Islamic resurgence is fomenting violence all over the world. This book is a one-sided view, based more on rhetoric than reality. Don't waste your money on it.