War brings restless sleep. Jesus despises war, war is contrary to the will of God. The Reign of God is a time of peace. The Kingdom of God is a place of harmony.
Hence, I shout "No!" when the Tomahawks seek their targets, when the fighters straif the columns, and when the Hellfires incinerate another tank.
Jesus cries out, "Would that you knew the things that make for peace." "Blessed are the peacemakers, for of such is the Kingdom of God."
Yet, we are committed to another war in Libya. We didn't ask for it. We encouraged peaceful regime change. We hoped for another Egypt. Sadly, Muamar is not Mubarek. Libyan mercenaries are not the Egyptian army.
What is a Christian to do? Christians have options. Christians are not privileged to blindly go along with government decisions. We are always facing ethical dilemmas. War is a messy fog. There is no easy passing of the moral buck. Indeed, we must engage the ultimate moral choice: As a Christian, in what direction will God's grace free my faith and conscience in response to war?
How is a Christian soldier to respond? Soldiers are not off the hook. Soldiers can disobey orders if the order is contrary to their conscience. Obedience to orders is not a free license to kill. In Germany it is mandatory for soldiers to go through the Resistance Museum in Berlin and be reminded that there are moral limits to soldiering.
Soldiers and civilians can rest upon the guidelines of the "Just War" tradition. Tried and true. Augustine spelled them out in Christian terms even though the essentials were born within an earlier moral philosophy.
We can live out our pacifism: no war, no killing, no exceptions.
We can be committed to nonviolence with the "Gandhi caveat": "Where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence." Yet as Walter Wink observes: "But Gandhi believed that a third way can always be found, if one is committed to nonviolence."
We can be selective conscientious objectors saying not this war, but maybe another.
As we choose how to respond to the realities of war, I find these helpful paths: 1) The Jesus Way is that of nonviolence. We are not created to kill, but to love and seek life for all; 2) Jesus forgives and restores. Because we sin ("I do what I do not want to do, but what I do not want to do, that I do", Paul), we are reconciled to God and each other in Christ by grace through faith; 3) Bonhoeffer unveils the complexity of action, "Before other men the man of free responsibility is justified by necessity; before himself he is acquited by his conscience; but before God he hopes only for mercy." (Ethics, p. 248) To Bonhoeffer, there are times when we must risk standing guilty before God, trusting in God's mercy for our restoration.
May our sleep be restless.
Peace!
Ron
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My life was changed when I asked the question of myself "How can I as a friend and servant of Jesus pray for peace and pay for war?" I couldn't reconcile the two so I gave up one.
ReplyDeleteTo intervene nonviolently in Libya seems that it would be an act of self-immolation. That takes more faith than I have. But it is more faithful and, in the long term more powerful, than striking with weapons.
ReplyDeleteWhat happens if our weapons succeed?
Or if they fail to work quickly?
Both questions seem pretty academic when the slaughter of so many seems immanent and we have F18's.
So we work today to teach a different way and pray for those who have gone to war.