Tonight at the gym, I was talking to my friend about the female soldier who was photographed with the prisoners being tortured. We weren't talking about whether or not we even agreed on the war. We were just saying that it is sad that it is so easy for mentally unstable people to enter the military. I made the comment that the military is recruiting by all of the ads we see in the movie theater, for example.
And then some guy next to us decided to interrupt to make sure that I knew that he thinks that we should be defending our country. He wanted a confrontation, I didn't respond, we left the gym. (Actually I did say something mean in Spanish. But I don't think he heard me. Dennis said that I should have said "hey, who invited you into our conversation?")
It really bothered me and still bothers me. Suddenly, because I support things like taxes and peace, I'm a borderline communist. Not only am I being anti-American because I don't support bombing for peace, but I am now a communist.
So I am officially saying that yes, I am a hippie. I am absolutely against this war. I get that "just war" theory says that we are allowed to defend ourselves. But I do not, as a Christian and as a human being, understand why we are okay with killing people. I know it's a lot more complicated then that but more people are dying in this war, on both sides, then even died on 9/11. And not all of them are terrorists.
My biggest influences for believing this, on an intellectual level, are found in the Bible and in books and essays by people like Lee Camp and Joan Chittester- Christians who oppose the war. Camp writes, "We wage a war to save a civilization itself," asserts George W. Bush. And the stakes are thought to be so high, the way of Christ will not suffice. Instead of loving our enemies, the president would have us "hunt down our enemies." (Mere Discipleship, p. 34).
"You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Matthew 5:43-44
I think that it is okay to know that even if we stopped, if we worked for peace instead of "peace through violence", etc., that maybe terrorists would continue to try to fight us. Studying the book of John right now, I am reminded of how Jesus knew that he was going to the cross. And he did not fight it. He loved even Judas, even the soldiers, even the ones that nailed him to the cross. And so if I say that I follow Christ, I should also follow him to that cross.
"So Christians refuse to fight wars not because they naively believe they will thus rid the world of war; instead, we do not fight wars because the kingdom of God has come... Christian nonviolence, then, is always rooted in the narrative of redemption. We worship a God who, in Christ, has nonviolently dealt with the injustice, the alienation, the sin, and the unrighteousness of this world... We have learned in Christ a particular way of dealing with enemies: to love them. In Christ, the long-awaited day of the prophets was revealed- the time has come for beating swords into ploughshares, for putting away our conceit and pride, for abolishing the bow and warfare, for admitting that we are not in control of human history. Unless our lives embody that good news, our worship is in vain." (mere discipleship, p.127)
So, officially, I don't support this war. I pray for peace. I pray for the soldiers fighting in Iraq, on both sides. I pray for the families affected by all of this chaos, on both sides. I pray for the young men, on both sides, who are so anxious to fight in this war without even knowing what war is. And I pray that I can practice what I preach.
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