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Turn the Other Cheek

February-Saturday

Devil Worshiper
that is quite the leap.....
from a seriously bad event upon you
to a seriously bad event unto many

perhaps another op of your own to cover the expanse?

I'm sorry, I really don't understand this reply. What's a leap? Which "seriously bad event unto many" do you mean? What do you mean by "op?" What expanse needs to be covered?
 

oldbadger

Skanky Old Mongrel!
have you tried?
You ask.....
I seem to remember that you are the person who is ready and prepared to gun down any intruders, and you described folks who just fit stronger doors as 'hiding behind them'...... Ha ha!

You? Turn the other cheek?
I do not believe you! :)
 

oldbadger

Skanky Old Mongrel!
I don't, as it's not a component of my philosophical views.
Hmmmm...... I won't slap you then....... slap-backs are so ..... yuck!

Christians however should since that's what their Jesus taught.
But I'm amazed at how so many of 'em are guns-awash, and moaning about the price of bullets.
One minute some of them 'indwell within Christ' and the next they are 'Bring it on!' Rambos.
All very strange.......
 

oldbadger

Skanky Old Mongrel!
Yeah, U.S. conservative Christians seem to loathe everything their proclaimed messiah commanded and taught. Very strange indeed.
^^^^ This ^^^^
Now this condition, when I notice it in Christians, I can never be sure whether it's hypocrisy or schizophrenia. One of those conditions leads from illness, the other from wickedness, imo.
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
Yeah, U.S. conservative Christians seem to loathe everything their proclaimed messiah commanded and taught. Very strange indeed.
In part because all so many of them have bought into secular right-wing politicians and their media that panders to them, especially on the theme of abortion. Trump obviously knew that, thus switching from being pro-choice to supposedly being pro-life just in time to run on the Republican ticket.

And he even bragged about that strategy in his book the "Art of the Deal" whereas he would tell potential buyers or investors what they wanted to hear and how good he was at that. Out East, he's long been known as being a "con-man", which is why he couldn't even secure loans here in the western hemisphere. This is why he eventually turned to the notorious Deutsche Bank, which had to pay a HUGE fine last year for money laundering.
 

IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
have you tried?
I watched a John Wayne movie that addressed this supurbly. A bad guy whacks John Wayne on the face and says, "What do you think about that?" John Wayne replies, "The good book says to turn the other cheek." The bad guy hits him on the other side of the face and says, "And what does the good book say about that?" John Wayne says, "I reckon it doesn't say nothing about that." And then John Wayne proceeds to fight with the guy to defend himself.

If you let others abuse you, you will continue to be abused.
 

PearlSeeker

Well-Known Member
3 years ago, I was taken and they poured acid on me, plucking me with blades. For hours, I could do nothing but scream as I burned. And then they would come back and do it again. Eventually, I was found by EMTs, and I did have to take me to surgery. I'm still healing from the ordeal to this day, and I might be permanently disfigured, but it's barely noticeable and mostly in places my clothes cover. Those wounds still sometimes bleed, and they ache.

When you're being tortured, the pain isn't what's unbearable. I felt the pain shooting through my body, so much so that I couldn't think or focus on anything other than the pain. As they knicked me and insulted me, I barely noticed. The hard part is being left alone with your anger for them, or your sense of powerlessness where you're still trying to control a situation that gives you a significant advantage. It's not the pain, it's when you're left alone. The pain, no matter how bad it is, is bearable. It's your mind that turns it into torture.

Do you believe that Martin Luther King, Jr. offered the other cheek in his protests as an insult and a dare?
That's really bad. I wish you healing. May your wounds (also inner) turn to scars.
 

sojourner

Annoyingly Progressive Since 2006
I'm convinced that the "turn the other cheek" teaching has nothing to do with pacifism. It has to do with passive resistance. In Jesus' culture, there were strict social conventions governing acts against another. One could strike another on the cheek with the right hand for an infraction of some sort -- showing discourtesy, etc. The right hand was the hand of "honor." The back of the hand was used. Therefore, the hand of honor would "discipline" the right cheek of the offender. If, however, the "offender" presented the "other cheek" (turned his face, that is), it would force the discipliner to strike with the left hand (the hand of shame). Since no honorable man would strike another with the left hand (bad social form), he would be forced to not strike, or else become as "guilty" as the offender.
 

Hellbound Serpiente

Active Member
Yes, I've tried, and always regretted it. You are just encouraging evil with this approach. Some people are sadistic in nature, turning the other cheek is equivalent to aiding and abetting them in their evil and asking for more. Silence only helps the oppressor and never the oppressed. Crimes should be punished in exemplary way, then and only then do people reform.
 

Thief

Rogue Theologian
You ask.....
I seem to remember that you are the person who is ready and prepared to gun down any intruders, and you described folks who just fit stronger doors as 'hiding behind them'...... Ha ha!

You? Turn the other cheek?
I do not believe you! :)
you must have missed the follow up post....
with consideration
 

Nimos

Well-Known Member
returning harm for harm?
an eye for en eye?
such would be your methods?
I would prefer preventing things getting to that. But if there is no other option then yes.

If a terrorist decides to blow himself up in the middle of a crowd, then surely I will consider him an enemy. If we should do as the bible say we should all gather around him and hopefully through the power of love it could save him.

If someone beats a child would you teach it to just take it or go to the police?

The saying is all poetic and loving, but in reality it is non sense.
 

Thief

Rogue Theologian
I would prefer preventing things getting to that. But if there is no other option then yes.

If a terrorist decides to blow himself up in the middle of a crowd, then surely I will consider him an enemy. If we should do as the bible say we should all gather around him and hopefully through the power of love it could save him.

If someone beats a child would you teach it to just take it or go to the police?

The saying is all poetic and loving, but in reality it is non sense.

Does eye for an eye refer to avenge or is it a punishment that equals the crime and nothing more?

I will attempt both sides at once....

turning the other cheek is a pause in the violence
giving both sides a moment as the next gesture could dispel or escalate

as for the harm done unto someone else
yes of course.....do something
 

firedragon

Veteran Member
I will attempt both sides at once....

turning the other cheek is a pause in the violence
giving both sides a moment as the next gesture could dispel or escalate

as for the harm done unto someone else
yes of course.....do something

This is what Rashi's commentary says about the Exodus version of Eye for an Eye.

עין תחת עין EYE FOR EYE — If one blinded the eye of his fellow-man he has to pay him the value of his eye, i. e. he pays him how much his value would be diminished if he were to be sold as a slave in the market. In the same way all other cases are to be dealt with, but it does not mean the actual cutting off of the offender’s limb — just as our Rabbis have explained in the chapter beginning with the word החובל (Bava Kamma 84a).

Then, the New Testament doesn't say what you said. Instead, Matthew is saying to give the other cheek.

So your assessment is not biblical.
 

Thief

Rogue Theologian
This is what Rashi's commentary says about the Exodus version of Eye for an Eye.

עין תחת עין EYE FOR EYE — If one blinded the eye of his fellow-man he has to pay him the value of his eye, i. e. he pays him how much his value would be diminished if he were to be sold as a slave in the market. In the same way all other cases are to be dealt with, but it does not mean the actual cutting off of the offender’s limb — just as our Rabbis have explained in the chapter beginning with the word החובל (Bava Kamma 84a).

Then, the New Testament doesn't say what you said. Instead, Matthew is saying to give the other cheek.

So your assessment is not biblical.
seems to me.....

if the aggressor bruises my eye
and I offer the other …...

THAT would be risky

if the aggressor was willing the first strike
he would be willing the second

therefore (especially in my old neighborhood)
offering the other cheek IS risky
it is a DARE

as for the notion of payment.....
not buying that

it dealt literally.....and for a spell it may have been
the severity would cause some hesitation in forethought

would you raise your hand?.....if you knew in advance…..the consequence
 

firedragon

Veteran Member
seems to me.....

if the aggressor bruises my eye
and I offer the other …...

THAT would be risky

if the aggressor was willing the first strike
he would be willing the second

therefore (especially in my old neighborhood)
offering the other cheek IS risky
it is a DARE

as for the notion of payment.....
not buying that

it dealt literally.....and for a spell it may have been
the severity would cause some hesitation in forethought

would you raise your hand?.....if you knew in advance…..the consequence

Cheers.
 
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