A recent comment caused me to think more about why I am a pacifist. One part of the comment was that “it is the christians responibility to stand up and yes even fight for it, even if it is not popular.” The words “even fight for it” especially stick out.
I wonder, if the United States were not the superpower it is, would Christians really be thinking war is the answer? What I mean is, if victory in war was not a foregone conclusion (though the current situation should call that into question any way), would the attitude prevalent among evangelicals be the same? It’s one thing to think you can go in and overthrow a government with a nice shock and awe campaign, and quite another to know you are going in and might not win. You may be there for years or decades. Then the Christian’s “responsibility” would be that of a lifestyle of war.
Maybe the question doesn’t seem all that important, I don’t know. To me, it seems profound. You see, if we would have to say honestly that war’s only okay if we can kick major ass and the other side loses a lot more lives than we do, can we really say that’s the Christian responsibility?
And if fighting against oppression by use of violence is the Christian’s responsibility, shouldn’t we look on the period of church history where Christians laid down their lives without a fight, becoming martyrs, as a blight on our record? Shouldn’t they have been fighting for justice with all the sin and oppression going on in the Roman Empire?
Just as Jesus said there will always be the poor, there will always be the oppressed. This doesn’t mean we do nothing, but if “fighting” means violence and war, we can draw no other conclusion than the Christian is called to a lifestyle of war. There will always be the oppressed in this corrupt world. If violence is the answer, we are a people called to violence. We should raise up arms and fight. Do you think that’s what Jesus calls us to?
I do not. I do not think the martyrs were wrong for laying down their lives. I don’t think the anabaptists were wrong when both Protestants and Catholics murdered them because of their belief that persons should be baptized again if their first baptism wasn’t performed out of a confession of genuine faith.
If you are a Christian who believes in “just war,” I implore you to think through the issue. Why aren’t we fighting in Darfur or Korea right now? There are many other nations who suffer from oppressive regimes. Are we called to a lifestyle of war? If you support the war in Iraq on grounds of it being the “Christian” thing to do, you are advocating that the Christian life is a lifestyle of war.
i ran across this a few weeks ago.
kind of fitting for this thread.
http://www.geocities.com/savageparade/poj a simplified summary of John H. Yoder’s classic book: The Politics of Jesus
of course you won’t let me add the hyper link… blah. =) i understand you have to deal with the spammers…
hazey
July 20th, 2005
Is this the Alan Hartung from Yellowcreek Lake? If it is, this is Marc Bowyer from there as well. If not, nevermind.
I forgot you were out here in CA somewhere. I’m in San Fernando Valley…work at Shepherd of the Hills in Porter Ranch. Drop me a line. marc at strobealific dot com.
Anonymous
July 21st, 2005
Marc! How’s life, man? I am the one and the same Alan Hartung from Yellowcreek Lake…
Anonymous
July 21st, 2005
Really appreciate this post Alan. I’ve had questions about the war in Iraq since it first became a rumor. While questions about the war rage on in my mind, there is no question for me about supporting our troops. They are simply doing what has been required of them by our nation, and for that they deserve our utmost respect and support.
I’ve never been able to put a christian label on the war, but for our country, fighting terror makes sense to me. I did read a comment on another blog about how we should love our enemies, even these particular enemies we call terrorists. My question to that is how or where do you begin to fleshout a love for these types of enemies who only wish to kill you if given a chance? What would that look like? I wouldn’t even know where to start.
Good thoughts in your post. Peace to you.
st. valdez
July 26th, 2005
Heck yeah, brother. See the link above for a lot of Christian peacemaking resources I’ve managed to find…sadly they’re too few.
Here’s another resource: The new Colossians “anti-commentary,” Subverting The Empire: http://www.stjohnadulted.org/colossians.htm
Mike Morrell
August 1st, 2005
have you read “The Powers That Be” by walter wink?? i finally found a theology of non-violence after reading it. before that i just “felt” pacifist. now i have some answers. so what led you to pacifism?
lucas
July 19th, 2005
Pacifist Alans of the world unite!
Keep making people think it through man.
+ Alan
July 19th, 2005