My thoughts on the war in Iraq
I think what I'm going to say will make a lot of my conservative friends mad, but I believe what I am about to say is true so I don't feel too bad about it. Before I start my rant I would like to say a few things about me: I still consider myself to be a conservative, a Republican, a Christian, a Bush-lover, and an American.
So I'm still reading this book by Shane Claiborne, the reason it has taken me so long to go through the book is because the things he talks about are very challenging to take in and so I can only read one chapter at a time. Today I read a chapter that was devoted mostly to the war on Iraq. Shane does not "support" the war on Iraq and he said a lot of things that I have been thinking about in the last year or so. I can still remember when congress voted to go to war and being very supportive of our nation's decision. I also remember a year after the decision and having a lot of my Christian friends waver in their support. However, I have always taken the stance that "what is done is done, and let's just finish the job." However, more and more I am becoming disturbed by this stance. The biggest reason I am becoming uncomfortable about the war in Iraq is that it seems like more and more those who are for the war identify themselves as Christians.
Yet, the more I read the Bible, the more I see contradictions between Christians supporting war and Jesus. Luke 9:56 says that "the Son of Man did not come to destroy people's lives but to save them." Jesus also said that if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword as well as blessed are the peacemakers. But what bothers me the most is that Jesus came to earth not as a political figure, and did not have a desire or a plan to bring a new political order to earth. In fact, so many people did not believe in Jesus because of his lack of political authority; and it seems like this was God's plan. Yet somehow over the last 2000 years, Jesus or at least Christianity, has become part of world and US politics. This has not been a bad thing altogether as I'm sure it has brought the Gospel to more people than otherwise would have. But should Christianity have ever become political?
I don't think Christianity was ever meant to be political. In Acts God brought thousands to Jesus and all throughout the New Testament people came to Christ without the need for a political movement. In fact, Christianity was almost anti-politics. So this brings me back to my concern from a couple of paragraphs ago. I find it rather difficult to support a war based on my faith or the faith of my President. What I mean is, knowing what we know now about Iraq and the war it seems difficult to maintain the same stance that I had from a few years ago.
I believe our decision to go to war with Iraq was based a lot on emotions. I'm not saying this to blame anyone or anything, as I think a majority of the people who are against the war now were for the war back then. But the war has also seemed to hurt and kill a lot of innocent Iraqis. There are casualties in any war, but I don't think Christians can be utilitarian and write off these casualties.
I think we made a mistake going to war with Iraq. We should have waited for the UN, for more evidence, for something more. Saddam is a very bad person and killed many innocent people, but our war has (accidentally) done the same. I find it hard to believe that our God is not creative enough to stop Saddam in any other way than war. But with that said, we all make mistakes and have to deal with the consequences of them, why should our government be any different? However, now comes the tougher question. Just because I believe we made a mistake going to war, does that justify us pulling out of the war. The economic side of me says yes- because all the costs incurred are already sunk and should not come into consideration. But the human side of me says it doesn't seem fair to go into a country, destroy it, realize its a mistake and leave without fixing it. So I don't really have an opinion on this part of my thoughts.
But I do believe that I need to be honest with people (mostly democrats and those who are against the war) and say that I made a mistake in supporting the war and that as a Christian I have to support peace and that it should never come at the cost of another person's life. But I am also called to submission to my government and will not protest against it as God is also the one who has put the government into place.
The point of my ranting is that I think we need to divorce our Christian identity from our American identity. Peter gave to Caesar what was Ceasar's and I think we can give to our government what is our government's and segregate our faith from politics. Thomas Jefferson understood the perils of having the government influence religion and it seems like he was right. Christians should not support war. Americans should support its government (and vote if they don't like it!). Do the two have to be mutually exclusive? I don't think so, at least it wasn't back in Jesus' day.
So I'm still reading this book by Shane Claiborne, the reason it has taken me so long to go through the book is because the things he talks about are very challenging to take in and so I can only read one chapter at a time. Today I read a chapter that was devoted mostly to the war on Iraq. Shane does not "support" the war on Iraq and he said a lot of things that I have been thinking about in the last year or so. I can still remember when congress voted to go to war and being very supportive of our nation's decision. I also remember a year after the decision and having a lot of my Christian friends waver in their support. However, I have always taken the stance that "what is done is done, and let's just finish the job." However, more and more I am becoming disturbed by this stance. The biggest reason I am becoming uncomfortable about the war in Iraq is that it seems like more and more those who are for the war identify themselves as Christians.
Yet, the more I read the Bible, the more I see contradictions between Christians supporting war and Jesus. Luke 9:56 says that "the Son of Man did not come to destroy people's lives but to save them." Jesus also said that if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword as well as blessed are the peacemakers. But what bothers me the most is that Jesus came to earth not as a political figure, and did not have a desire or a plan to bring a new political order to earth. In fact, so many people did not believe in Jesus because of his lack of political authority; and it seems like this was God's plan. Yet somehow over the last 2000 years, Jesus or at least Christianity, has become part of world and US politics. This has not been a bad thing altogether as I'm sure it has brought the Gospel to more people than otherwise would have. But should Christianity have ever become political?
I don't think Christianity was ever meant to be political. In Acts God brought thousands to Jesus and all throughout the New Testament people came to Christ without the need for a political movement. In fact, Christianity was almost anti-politics. So this brings me back to my concern from a couple of paragraphs ago. I find it rather difficult to support a war based on my faith or the faith of my President. What I mean is, knowing what we know now about Iraq and the war it seems difficult to maintain the same stance that I had from a few years ago.
I believe our decision to go to war with Iraq was based a lot on emotions. I'm not saying this to blame anyone or anything, as I think a majority of the people who are against the war now were for the war back then. But the war has also seemed to hurt and kill a lot of innocent Iraqis. There are casualties in any war, but I don't think Christians can be utilitarian and write off these casualties.
I think we made a mistake going to war with Iraq. We should have waited for the UN, for more evidence, for something more. Saddam is a very bad person and killed many innocent people, but our war has (accidentally) done the same. I find it hard to believe that our God is not creative enough to stop Saddam in any other way than war. But with that said, we all make mistakes and have to deal with the consequences of them, why should our government be any different? However, now comes the tougher question. Just because I believe we made a mistake going to war, does that justify us pulling out of the war. The economic side of me says yes- because all the costs incurred are already sunk and should not come into consideration. But the human side of me says it doesn't seem fair to go into a country, destroy it, realize its a mistake and leave without fixing it. So I don't really have an opinion on this part of my thoughts.
But I do believe that I need to be honest with people (mostly democrats and those who are against the war) and say that I made a mistake in supporting the war and that as a Christian I have to support peace and that it should never come at the cost of another person's life. But I am also called to submission to my government and will not protest against it as God is also the one who has put the government into place.
The point of my ranting is that I think we need to divorce our Christian identity from our American identity. Peter gave to Caesar what was Ceasar's and I think we can give to our government what is our government's and segregate our faith from politics. Thomas Jefferson understood the perils of having the government influence religion and it seems like he was right. Christians should not support war. Americans should support its government (and vote if they don't like it!). Do the two have to be mutually exclusive? I don't think so, at least it wasn't back in Jesus' day.
posted by chen at 3:20 PM
1 Comments:
Chen - it is probably obvious that I would respect your new decision (it comes more easily when the change is in a direction I already agree with). But even above that, I think it is commendable to be humble in your political position. I am sure I fail at it quite often, but I certainly notice when people on either side of the fence are able to look at what is going on in the world without a set of preconceived, concrete ideas that aren't ever subject to reevaluation. Humility is most definitely a quality in Jesus that we should emulate. So HIGH FIVE to you.
Bernie - Jesus IS God. Since the war began, there have been more than 33,000 Iraqi deaths (that's the conservative estimate) and 2300 American deaths. I don't know that Iraqis would agree that there is now hope. Those who can have fled abroad. Those who are left are surrounded by chaos.
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