Let us refuse to murder. The blood-spilling business is too small for brothers, too savage for socialized men, no matter what their religious faith may be.
Perhaps, brother, you and I do not agree on Christ. But we can be good friends any way, can’t we?
Now, I will tell you frankly, the Peaceful Christ seems to me to be so much grander than a war-preaching preacher, so much nobler than a flunky “fighting parson,” that he gains my sincere admiration. Such a great brave brother he was.
Christ was the most defiant preacher that ever walked the earth or flashed as a character conception in the human brain.
Christ, the historical revolutionary Christ, or Christ, splendid creation of imagination, or Christ divine—whichever or whatever he was—he wins and compels my gratitude:
Because he was neither an automaton nor a tool;
Because official ruffians even before his mockery of a trial viciously pronounced him an “undesirable citizen”;
Because “leading citizens” could not use him, could not rent his influence;
Because he scorned the opportunity to become “successful in life” in the contemptible rôle of intellectual prostitute;
Because he despised the lusting devotees of Mammon;