When you agree to live simply, the ethics and economics of war reveal themselves in all their evil and stupidity. Some say security systems, weapons, and armies actually demand 80 percent of the world’s resources, and everything else is made to fall into place behind that. How could that possibly be the will of God? Wars are initiated by imperial thinking. Only people intent on their own protection and their own material advantage need wars and war economies. A Christian can only tolerate clearly defensive attempts to protect the defenseless and the innocent. War must be the very last resort after all other means have truly been tried.
When you agree to live simply, people cease to be possessions and objects for your consumption or use. Your lust for relationships or for others to serve you, your need for other people’s admiration, your desire to use other people as a kind of commodity for your personal pleasure, or any need to control and manipulate other people, slowly falls away.
—from the book Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi
by Richard Rohr
