The distinction between having one's cheek slapped and being stabbed in the face is not one that Matthew's Jesus was interested in. And there is nothing to suggest he had much regard for people who resort to violence to defend themselves. It is one of the themes of the Beatitudes that those who are assured of heavenly consolation are explicitly those who are weak, helpless and persecuted. And he himself joins their number, when after the Last Supper he surrenders his power, and without a struggle lets himself be taken away unto a painful, shameful, violent death.

Why in the world do you "take it" that I "advocate total disarmament of the country"? I advocate no such thing; I believe in the "responsibility to protect," and agree with Nicholas Kristof that the US should all along have done more to save Syrians from the attacks of their government. Nevertheless, killing is ALWAYS an evil, and prominent aspects of US militarism are sinful.