Sept 15, 2006

"Love your enemies..." - following Jesus , the War in Iraq, and related -

While I don't want to offend anyone, and while I realize I may hold a minority view, I feel compelled to speak out on matters that have been burning in my heart. I speak here only as an individual person of faith in Jesus and not as a representative of my church or any other organization I am affiliated with.

First, I want to acknowledge that I'm keenly aware of those (myself included) who have family or close friends in the military who are now or will soon be in Iraq, and some in the most dangerous zones. For us these issues are even more raw and volatile regardless of where we fall on the political or theological continuum. I have debated writing and sending this out primarily out of my deep love, respect and care for those who's hearts are in Iraq (or in some other area of military service) in the person of a loved one, as well as my desire to offend no one. However, these are serious times and serious issues; those of us who hold faith based scriptural views that differ from those being most loudly and predominately expressed need to raise our voices even when it is painful to do so.

Additionally, if President Bush didn't repeatedly claim to be speaking and acting under the guidance of God and if he wasn't a professed Christian, I might not be as compelled to speak out; but when he speaks in the name of our Savior, that is a very different matter. I keep struggling with the best Christian, most loving, Kingdom-of-God response - still working on that - but in the meantime I can't stay silent any longer. So, here are my thoughts on this night:

First, from a purely faith perspective:

• Those who follow Christ must examine our passions, thoughts, beliefs about all things in light of scripture and especially in light of the example Jesus lived out for us - in what He said and did, and what He didn't say or do.

• We must not be motivated by any fear, other than a reverent fear of God.

• We must not be motivated by hate, other than hate for the evil and sin in our own heart.

• We should suspect and reject anything and everything that is not consistent with scripture and the example Jesus gave us in his own life.

Second, there are political outcomes to faith perspectives (brace yourselves…)

• There is an all too prevalent acceptance that we as American Christians somehow were divinely mandated to spread freedom, democracy, and capitalism to the world and that the death of innocent civilians in other countries as a result of our military actions is somehow acceptable to achieve this greater good (sounds a lot like the logic the "evil doers" use.) This is a myth that hinders rather then promotes the Gospel. The Lord's commission is to spread the Gospel and make disciples of the nations, not to spread our culture and make democracies of the nations. His command is to love, not kill, our enemies.

• We should be on guard and discerning when listening to the voices of power, of leaders who make mistakes and rather then admit them try to justify them, especially when they use the catastrophic outcome of their mistakes as justification for the original precipitating misguided action! And especially when they do so in God's name!

• We should be on guard when listening to men who were unwilling to face combat themselves during the Viet Nam war but now boldly send others into battle. Personally, I find it particularly despicable that our president joined the National Guard during the Viet Nam era* and now turns around a sends today's Guard into combat in Iraq, and extends their stays, and sends them back for repeated stays… It's hard for me to trust such a man. (*During the Viet Nam war, joining the National Guard was a face saving, jail-avoiding, legal way to avoid being sent to combat in Viet Nam; by and large the Guard was kept home and draftee's were sent to Nam). While I don't condone, would never support, and in-fact would actively resist a draft - it would be much more honest to reinstate a draft, especially if he really believes this to be a just and necessary war supported by most Americans. A draft would sure reveal just how deeply the war is, or isn't, supported. Personally, I suspect support would have waned fast if this war were fueled by draftees rather then by folks who's need for a supplemental income motivated them to serve in the National Guard or Reserves and now has thrust them into war which in many cases has cost them their jobs, families, and their lives. Even if you believe this war is right, indeed, especially if you believe this war is right, then continuing to carry this monster on the backs of the reserves and the guard is wrong; if you believe in the war, then call for an across the board (no rich kid or college kid deferments) draft. (…and it that happens, I'll be volunteering - as a draft counselor to help persons resist it!)
  

• I think it despicable that our president uses language of faith, Christian faith, to perpetuate fear, hate, and a willingness to kill persons in another land in order to preserve ourselves and protect "innocent American lives" as though our lives are more important to God then all the innocent civilians in Iraq who have died as a result of this war and who's numbers exponentially exceed the number of folks killed on 9/11/01.

• For the record, as of September 15, 2006:

2,992 persons were known to have been killed from the combined terror attacks on Sept 11, 2001.

According to an Associated Press count, at least 2,680 members of the US military have died since the war began in March 2003 (and at least 19,945 have been wounded according to official military reports, though some sources put it as high as 48,000).

In contrast to the 5,672 combined military and civilian US deaths on 9/11 and in the Iraqi war, there have been between 43,145 and 47,921 Iraqi civilians killed as a result of our war in Iraq. Further more, Osama bin Laden remains at large, there are more insurgents and jihadists in various countries then ever before, we are fomenting increased anger and hatred towards the US and towards Christianity (since we've done such an effective job of distorting and perverting the term "Christian" by adulterously bonding it to American Nationalism), and, well, all I can say is yes, by golly, we sure are doing a "hell of a job"…

• I cringe when President Bush speaks of "Islamic fascism" when it can be effectively argued that he himself is a "Christian fascist".

• I suppose President Bush is right when he say's that we are in the midst of a world-wide "struggle for civilization", but I’m not so sure we are necessarily the knights-in-shinning-armor as much as we are co-perpetrators of the problems.

• How many persons do we expect to be drawn to the transforming love of Christ when they are dying by bullets and bombs sent in Christ's name? How many spiritual conversions result from forcing pro-American political and economic systems on people who in the end rarely truly benefit themselves?

• Where, oh where does President Bush find justification for secret prisons, convicting persons with undisclosed evidence they have not opportunity to answer too, or the use of forceful (almost but not quite torture) measure when interrogating persons? Certainly not in anything Jesus taught. Furthermore, such actions will not make us safer because in the end they will only serve to rot away the very fabric that makes America, America.

• President Bush scares me alright - but not with his warnings about terrorists and the struggle for civilization; no, he scares me with his beliefs, emperor-like statements, actions, and policies.

• As Christians we are called to be willing to die (not kill) for the sake of others. Is not Calvary love - Jesus death on the cross, what gives us our very life? Why do we think preserving our lives (while confident of our heavenly after-life) and killing others (who are at enmity with Jesus and thus not at a good point to be dying) is somehow ok in God's eyes? How does that imitate the example Jesus gave us? We are in essence more willing to condemn nonbelievers to hell by killing them in an unsaved state (to promote "freedom" and to protect ourselves) then we are willing to love them to openness to Christ, to love them to the point of our death if need be with the hope that somehow the Lord would use that to begin changing hearts and drawing many of them, any of them, even one of them, to Himself. "Evil doers" are no less loved and longed for by Jesus then those who think themselves good and righteous; the question is, are we willing to love them and sacrifice for them as Jesus did for us and as He commands us to do as well?

• The way of Jesus is not and never has been the way of the world, the way of governments, of politics. The way of Jesus is something very, very other… are we willing to focus our concern on His way, or will we continue to settle for and conform ourselves to the counterfeit way of men and governments, including our own?

Words of others worth pondering:

• Christianity has sufficient inner strength to survive and flourish on its own. It does not need State subsidies, nor state privileges, nor state prestige. The more it obtains state support the greater it curtails human freedom. -William O. Douglas
  

• I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity. - D.Eisenhower
  

• When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war. - D.Eisenhower
  

• If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom. - D.Eisenhower
  

• "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable..." - T.Roosevelt
  

• "The power of the executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious, and the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist." - Winston Churchill
  

• "How fortunate for leaders that men do no think" - Adolf Hitler
  

• "If this were a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator,..." - GW Bush ( "joking" in Dec 2000)

Not so funny when you consider that no United States President in history has been more radical then GW Bush in terms of trying to change constitutional law, undermining checks and balances, focusing unchecked power in the executive office, breaking down the separation of church and state, pre-emptive war (something no US president of either party has ever supported), disregard for international law, disregard for American civil rights, etc.

• "If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." - James Madison
  

• "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." - Sinclair Lewis
  

• "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ." - Mahatma Gandhi
  

• "But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." - Jesus Christ (Luke 6:27-36 TNIV)
  

• "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." - Jesus Christ (Matthew 5:43-48 TNIV)