The older I get and the more time I reflect on things, the more I become a pacifist. I see no need for violence and war, even though many argue with me that we have the right to defend ourselves or protect the innocent.
I am usually accused of being a coward or a traitor for not seeing the romanticism behind being a pawn of the state to be sent off to do the state’s bidding. I am not fooled by the nationalism of a so-called Christian nation. I have seen what it is like to be on the receiving end of capitalism and economic imperialism in a third-world country.
I think many Christians in America have fallen prey to the ambiguous axioms of “duty” and “allegiance” to the state.
Perhaps all this nationalistic romanticism would not be as appealing to Christians if they lived in another country. It’s a different ball game when you live under a Stalin or a Gaddafi. The romanticism of patriotism shows its flimsiness then. I don’t buy the “just war” package. It should be returned to sender, marked “Middle Ages!”
I believe that Christ’s life, death and resurrection changed everything. He ushered in a new kingdom that I believe has the power to end the cycle of violence in the world and usher in Isaiah 2:1-5. But it starts with the Church. We have to turn the other cheek, leave the sword to the state, allow vengeance to be God’s, and not return evil for evil. We are to give our lives to end the cycle of violence if need be…but not by storming the beaches of Normandy, dropping a bomb on Nagasaki, or sending an aircraft carrier through the Strait of Hormuz to see what kind of response
we are going to get.
I find it awkward that I have actually lost close friends because I have these convictions and that I was grieved for days after the assassination of Osama bin Laden. Not that I didn’t believe he should’ve been brought to justice, but because as a spokesperson for the Vatican stated, “Catholics rejoice at the death of no man.” I grieve for the wasted life of a man created in the image of God and a continued cycle of violence. Did America decrease the numbers of her enemies that day? Some would laugh and say yes…one. I believe we created dozens more. And I pity the Christians locked into this mindset of cyclical violence that they subscribe to.
Christians ought to be the first people to see the reality of the kingdom present in the world, the true governance is God, that the real king who sits on his real throne is Christ. Our allegiance is to him first and only. If that makes us good citizens, that’s terrific. If not, then we conform to Christ and not Uncle Sam.
Let us therefore be the first to “beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” Call me naïve, but Christians have no business being in a military, under the whims of the state, and being dehumanized by putting bullet holes into other humans, beating infants heads upon stones, or urinating on the corpses of people God loves.
Some say I am extreme, radical or too loving and peaceful and that I live in a fantasy world. Well, I trust that standing before the Judge in roughly six decades (give or take a few) I will rather be accused of being too loving and peaceful than not enough.
January 24, 2012 at 3:54 pm
It is never easy to stand up against the mainstream, but never give up!
Thanks for sharing ur thoughts!
Love Noemi
January 24, 2012 at 4:52 pm
Thank you for the encouragement Noemi! Blessings!
January 24, 2012 at 5:26 pm
When you think of people, ALL people – even those who have been overtaken by evil, as being made in the image of God and children whom God loves, it is so sad to think of what we do to one another.
It is sad to think of the “lives wasted”.
I think you’ve drawn a good illustration on what the Kingdom of God shuold be like here on earth. And I think this is the radical life Christ has called us to.
May the the power of His Holy Spirit help and guide us!
January 24, 2012 at 5:36 pm
Thank you MLKelly…we certainly need the Holy Spirit to help us with this. I was reading a Martin Luther work recently and he brought up Paul’s description in Romans about the Holy Spirit shedding the love of God abroad in our hearts. Thats just it. It is not a love we can somehow conjure up by willing it to happen. Instead we have to surrender to God’s will and allow the Holy Spirit to give us that love as a gift of grace so that we have the love and power needed to create the world scripture is describing.
January 25, 2012 at 9:07 am
An excellent article, and one that needs to be spread throughout the body of believers. The Crusades were a miserable failure: the fusion of God’s kingdom and man’s kingdom(s) have always ended in confusion and a perversion of Christ’s message. We build our church one person at a time, from the bottom up…not the other way around. The only cause worth investing in or giving one’s life for is the cause of LOVE as spoken from the mouth of Christ Jesus Himself! Thank you for sharing this very poignant and immediate message as we approach some challenging times in the very near future.
God bless you and continue to spread truth!
January 25, 2012 at 10:23 am
Thank you Disciple for the supportive comments. The Crusades are an excellent example of how God’s kingdom does not work. I reflect on the US invading Iraq for “defensive purposes.” Now that we are out ten years later, that nation filled with the blood of thousands of young American boys and girls and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis is rapidly turning into a worst state than we arrived–utter chaos. Why does much of the Church subscribe to supporting a method that does not work? I say it’s because they are filled with the false belief in a warrior-piety much like the Crusaders. Jerry Falwell did not sound much different than when Pope Urban called for the slaughter of the infidels all in the name of God. But since he was an American Evangelical it was okay? Wars do not end war.
January 25, 2012 at 9:07 am
Reblogged this on disciplegideon.