I found your article helpful.

In particular I noted your comment “By refusing to defend the innocent or themselves, the Christian (pacifist) is complicit with evil by refusing to protect the weak or the innocent.”

The teachings you identified from Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas put into context the burden on us to stand up to evil. Similar to what Pope Benedict told us during his time in New York.

This reinforces my understanding that we need to defend against any terrorists that would spend months or years working on plans to attack the weak or innocent.

This includes the terrorists that carried out: the horrific school shootings in the U.S.; the Oklahoma City bombing on 4/19; the Madrid train bombing on 3/11; the London Underground bombing on 7/7; the WTC bombings on 9/11; and the Bali bombings on 10/1. There are people that heard about most of these evil plans and did nothing to stop them.

If any of us come across such evil plans, we need to find strength and guidance from God on how to stand up to them in the early stages….while there may still be time to help our confused brothers and sisters find other solutions to social justice problems.