Despite anti-drone verdict, we are 'all one family'

Thank you, John. I am so sorry.
Sue

Thanks Fr. John to you and your co-defendants who bravely took up this task and went throught the justice system to try and put a stop to these drones. Thank you for promoting peace and encouraging others, including me, to do what we can for peace on earth as well.

This article by Fr. John Dear was enlightening for me since I understand more fully the reason why the protesters crossed the line in order to bring more people to understand the evil in the drone system of warfare.

Finally, Catholics to be proud of :-) Thank you...

The judge missed a great opportunity to take a stand for justice and peace, to do the right thing, to help end terrorism.

In the end, the judge sentenced us to time served. We didn’t go to jail

John, it looks to me like he did take a stand for justice and peace. He didn't
jail you. Jailing you, or not, was within his discretion.

He also heard you out and gave you a public forum, which was within his discretion to do or not to do.

Other judges have not done as much.

Instead, he sided with the war machine.

No, he did what the law required, according to the oath he took, likely with his hand on the Scriptures. Just as you do not have the discretion to proclaim polytheism and remain a Catholic priest, he doesn't have the discretion to accept your (admit it, rather preposterous) 'immediate necessity' argument and remain a judge, and in a position to let you folks plead your case and send you home with slaps on the your collective wrists.

Sounds to me like you're casting your nets a bit wide for enemies.

Blessings to you Fr. John and all those who courageously spoke and acted for peace against the Drone weapon systems. Someone must speak out against the
impersonal and foolhardy war the U.S. is pursuing in Afganistan. How can one make friends with a fist in place of an open hand? How can we be real brothers
if we are so callous in killing the innocent? Where is the Spirit of Christ in the way we treat people we wish to conquer? Let there be peace on earth. Let the use of Drones be discontinued immediately.

If i not, know you in person, i know you in love, as it is the innate ability in every individual to seek love and nurturing to be united and at peace. We know the people being bombed as we know our selves. Fulfill the intended...

The fact that the judge sentenced you all to "time served" indicates that, in his heart of hearts, he knows or at least strongly suspects that you are right. He just doesn't know the way our of the machine.

Okay, judge apologists, you are not all wrong but when will people just take a stand because it is the right thing to do?

This hungry war machine is killing our country. It's consuming our treasury. It assures we cannot do for people what should be done. It's making the military the career choice of necessity for too many kids. It's scarring individuals and families. Here and abroad.

If AMericans would honestly face the degree to which WAR and it's accoutrements are the ONLY thing we produce, we would be appalled. I am appalled. We are a smarter and more able country that that.

But only until the great majority of us stand up and say, "NO MORE!" will the tide turn against this national disgrace.

Fr. Dear, I belive that your are morally correct and support your efforts. The Judge even might agree with your moral and Holy Spirit filled motives. How ever the Judge by law found that you did trespassed. Do not fear, Pilate found Jesus guilty of sedation and had Him crucified. So you are following in Jesus footsteps quite well. A Gold Crown will be at heaven gate for you and all who support in the efforts for peace on earth. Jesus is smiling on your work here on earth.

Sorry, Father, but you and your crowd broke the law. It is as simple as that. I know that you feel that, because you were protesting, you should have gotten away scot-free, but that is not what happened, nor should it. If you are willing to break the law in such a flagrant and public fashion, you should be man enough to accept the judgment of the court.

The fact that you do not see that what you did was legally wrong and that you were rightly and justly found guilty disturbs me. It either means that you lack the ability of self-reflection, or you have little or no respect for the rule of law. The former is a personal weakness that has little impact on others, the latter is a serious failing in one who has a relatively prominent voice among a certain element in our society.

If one can violate the law and expect to get away with it simply because he or she believes that law to be immoral, or because one believes that he or she is acting in accord with a higher law, that type of thinking can lead to utter civil chaos.

Suppose I am unemployed with a family and I believe that I am being obedient to a higher moral law by breaking into a supermarket and stealing food, is that morally praiseworthy? Of course not. Suppose someone suspicious is seen lurking around my family's home, am I justified in shooting that person because I believe that I am acting to protect my family, which is a higher law than the law prohibiting murder? Of course not.

Yet, the argument that you and your crowd make, that you should not be held to account for your illegal actions because you are somehow responding to a higher law, could be applied in both of those circumstances and in literally dozens, even hundreds, more. If I can break the law then claim that my actions were in accord with a higher law or moral code and thus should not be found guilty of breaking the law, then the law becomes meaningless and the right order of society and the protection of the innocent, which is the purpose of law, is no longer assured.

You broke the law, claiming to protect individuals, but your actions were in violation of right order, and taken to extreme, place the protection of the innocent in grave jeopardy, and the judge was absolutely correct in rendering a verdict of guilty.

I took part in a activist demonstration against drone manufacture in our local area, as well.

I am proud to have been given the opportunity. It was mostly a non-Catholic event, largely sponsored within another denomination. I probably was the only Catholic at the demonstration. (Unfortunately I do know of some naive, local Catholics who work at our local drone research/manufacturing facility.)

Thank you God for the opportunity to protest, at least at one such event. Lord please help us/and me to be peace to each other.

18 inches from the drone operator's face to the computer screen. That's roughly the same distance it is for any of us from our knees to the ground. From our collective knees we can dispatch not drones, but prayers for forgiveness and peace. Ultimately, such prayers will proove to be much more powerful than any militaristic folly.

Every drone 'pilot' should be required to spend a week in Afghanistan hearing first-hand tragic stories of affected families. Being 7,000 miles away at a computer screen greatly reduces personal moral responsibility from their job. Perhaps it won't eliminate drones, but it will show how evil they can be.

The judge is ruling based upon the law of the land. As in the movie Gandhi when a judge honored Gandhi by the judge fulfilling his appointed role as a "servant" of the State, yet he admitted his personal displeasure at the law, the judge cannot go beyond what is written.
And as in the movie Gandhi, it takes years for a non-violent campaign to evoke the kind of response it seeks from a violent and impersonal government.
The result in Fr. Dear's situation is not the judge's action. He cannot act or decide Biblically or spiritually. Fr. Dear and his friends did what the gospel compels him to do. They reaped the rewards of following the gospel in our world. The US is not a Christian nation, so I'm unsure what Fr. Dear and his friends expected; a judge to act contradictorily to his assigned role? That won't happen. That the judge would suddenly interpret the law in a more Biblical perspective? Nope. Do innocent people get killed and maimed in war? Yup. Unjust and unfair? Yup. War is not a just and fair activity; collateral consequences happen. As regards to the NY bomber ... Well, depends on where one stands in terms of interpreting the why: the bomber was reacting to US drone attacks; the US is reacting to al-Qaeda attacks; what gives the bomber any more right to revenge? One does not justify the other.... according to the gospel, that is. Perhaps Islamic law allows for revenge, maybe even encourages it; I don't know.
The law is a stern and cold juggernaut. Ask anyone who has been convicted "unjustly". Perhaps that's one reason why St. Paul urges us to abide by the Spirit and not the law. If Fr. Dear was surprised by the judge's ruling, or even disappointed, then I think he will continue to be ever frustrated in his non-violent protests.

After reading, and initially accepting, the forgoing comments that imply a mistaken, exagerated, or naive expectation on the part of the Creech 13(CWG, C.Bullough, Dave), I was compelled to stop and think. After that reflection, I must agree with those comments that support and admire the actions of these 13 committed Christians. It seems to me that while the 13 were certain that their actions were in conformance wiht the law of God, they were reasonable to hope that their actions were permissible under the law of the land, and in conformance with the law of the necessity.

Per the judge in the case, the law does allow that trespass on property may be ignored "when an inherent danger is present and immediate action must be taken, such as breaking a no-trespassing law to uphold a higher law, and save life". From Fr. John's earlier reports, at trial the 13 presented credible, persuasive, and unsettling evidence about the indiscriminate destruction and death that results from the use of the drone weapon system in Afghanistan, while controlled from Creech AFB, Nevada. I mean really, 50 non-combatant men, women, and children killed for every 1 combatant killed. There can be no justice in such attacks, or in such a national policy. The 13 were not delusional to consider the direct control from Creech AFB, of the murderous system in Afghanistan, to be an inherent danger requirng immediate action to save life. So, a prayerful, peaceful group gathered within the boundaries of the base.

Yeah, no surpise the judge found against them; and he probably did swear on a bible to uphold the law of Nevada. What an irony that is. I cannot, however, agree with the criticism of these 13 fellow followers of Christ. They believed and, I exepct had faith, that the law of God might just be consistent with Nevada law, or prevail in spite of it.

The judge, as he is empowered to do, discounted the evidence when he found that "no inherent danger was present". I believe that Fr. John's statement, that the judge "...sided with the war machine", is accurate. Fr. John did not say that the judge was now an enemy in his net. He simply and probably sadly stated that the judge had sided with the war machine. Let's face it, one of the biggest forces operating in our current culture is the war machine, aka the military industrial complex. This everpresent complex of forces is the very same danger that Dwight Eisenhower warned us about as he faded away. Pontius Pilot was also sworn to serve a war machine when he found Jesus guilty.

The action of the Creech 13 (and now the brave people of Egypt) has reminded me, as Fr. John so frequently has, that it will take such personal action to change the "law of the land"; a land where presently there is no inherent danger in our indiscriminate delivery of death and destruction into the lives of some the most desperate people on the planet. All from the secure comfort of Creech AFB; secure even from 13 praying Christians.

This isnt about war. After all, the problem isnt some Sargent Nobody in the Air Force, or some obscure judge. The problem is the Commander in Chief who orders these wars.

But the left-wing pro abortion wont criticize one of its own. He sends 100,000 men to Afghanistan, starts wars in Yemen and Pakistan, fetes the Dictator of China. Then he gives a speech, and no antiwar movement. No protests, no civil disobedience, no marches. Nosiree.

It was said 40 years ago the anti-war crowd was just deceitful left wing pro abortion propagandists. After this, how can anyone deny it?

To CWG, You wrote that you are embarrassed by a Catholic Priest who refuses time and again to obey the law. Jesus repeatedly disobeyed the law to show the inherent injustice in the law. These defendants are following the teachings of our Lord. Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.

Thank you Fr.John Dear and those who stand with you, for all you do to end WAR in all its forms.

May God forgive us for our inhumanity to each other.