In answer to that question, Edwin Starr responded "absolutely nothing.” But others say that it protects our freedom and way of life from those who would destroy it.

The seed of violence seems to be in everyone at some level or other. But what does ideology and religion bring to the human propensity towards violent conflict? In what ways does faith help assuage or provoke confrontation?

This morning I woke to an orgy of media-fed delight about a violent death. According to Irenaeus, the second century Bishop of Lugdunum, “the glory of God is a human being fully alive.” According to at least one politician I listened to on the radio, what pleases God most is an enemy brutally murdered.