The war and the War

Hello hello! Last night was the 230th birthday of our great nation! Though we have many problems and are a nation divided, I am still reminded of what it means to live in the freest country in the world. Those who say we are not free are foolish. We have freedoms people all over the world would die to obtain. As a Christian-American, I do not have to fear persecution unto death on a regular basis.

The war and the War

Version 2.0

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

~1 Corinthians 3:4-8

Imagine 55,000 people killed every year for something in which they believe. We can hardly fathom this being possible in America due to our numerous freedoms, but it’s happening to one group of people you may not expect: Christians.

According to a recent study, 55,000 Christians are persecuted on average annually. It is an impressive figure and one I decided to compare to the death toll in the current Iraq war. Since the war started on March 20, 2003, a total of 2539 American soldiers have died. But I must take it further, for American lives are no more precious than Iraqi lives; to exclude all others killed by the war would be an injustice. According to Iraqi Body Count, around 40,000 civilians have died. Though sources vary (greatly) on the following figure, approximately 10,000 additional Iraqi insurgent troops and police/guards have died in the conflict. In short, in the nearly 40-month war in Iraq, around 53,000 people have lost their lives in the name of war, 75% of whom never picked up a weapon.

Every year, more Christians are killed than the amount killed in the present 40-month Iraq war. Taking the per-month average and multiplying it by 40 months, 183,333 have died in that span, nearly three-and-a-half times that of the Iraq war. 183,333 Christians killed for proclaiming Christ as their Savior, for adhering to the Great Commandment, for praying for those less fortunate than they, for building churches, for feeding the poor, for clothing the naked, for nurturing the sick, for visiting those imprisoned, for giving drink to the thirsty, for essentially adopting children and caring for their every need, for knowing the Almighty God.

There are clearly two kinds of war that we wage today. The first war, the war against Iraq and “terrorism” (as if one can destroy an idea with bombs), is a war that must cease. I have heard enough of the showy politicking: a war for “liberation”, “freedom”, “security”. I am probably not a good Grove City Republican (though I have no political affiliation) in writing this, but this is what I know: that war, an expression of hatred, can never and will never be more effective than peace, an expression of love. And what is “effective”? It is simple; our goal is peace, and the only way to achieve peace is to practice peace. War cannot breed peace, as hatred can never breed love. Only love will do. Jesus said, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.” (cf. Luke 6:27) These words are not accepted today as applicable, but they must be.

The war apologist is shouting, “What of the attacks? What of the terrorists? Do you not remember the Towers and the anguish of that day? They capture our soldiers and kill them without remorse! They want to kill us all and then hang our bodies naked in the streets! Do you seriously suggest that we lay back and let them build armies and bombs to destroy us all?!” They are all valid questions and what they assume is probably correct. They want us dead and will do whatever they have to do to wreck havoc on us all. “Why?” seems like a logical question to ask. I don’t have an answer, or even any concrete guesses, but it seems like a great question to propose. Also, the use of revenge as a reason for war (and ultimately, to end all wars, as it has been said) will never result in peace. Wendell Berry writes, “The logic of retribution implies no end and no hope. If I kill my enemy, and my brother kills his brother, and so on and on, we may all have strong motives and even good reasons; the world may be better off without all of us…The essential point is an ancient one: that to be peaceable is, by definition, to be peaceable in time of conflict…It is not passive. It is the ability to act to resolve conflict without violence...In the face of conflict, the peaceable person may find several solutions, the violent person only one.” (Wendell Berry, Peaceableness Toward Enemies in Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community, 86-87) Dead-on words. I enjoy reading the essays of Berry, but in writing this essay, I could not help but be reminded of this passage. Killing only leads to more killing; and no matter how “prominent” or “dangerous” a madman is, there are always more madmen in the making. As I understand it, there are plenty more madmen scheming about how best to destroy the world; we seem only to be unconcerned with the madmen we can trust (probably through some economic exchange, but I merely hypothesize).

But Berry’s greatest contribution is that peaceableness is not passive and it is not intermittent; it is active (even assertive) and constant. It is something that must be true during war and peace. And it is more than a process; it is an attitude, a conviction even. It is being patient, kind, content, humble, gentle, charitable, quick to be merciful, slow to anger, protective, trusting, hopeful and perseverant. (cf. 1 Cor. 3:5-8)

We have not been a peaceable country in the past, but we can start. If there were any country that would have the greatest impact in taking the first steps to peace, it would be the United States. We have the most weapons and enough nuclear bombs to kill millions in a second. We also possess the greatest economic influence and can stop supplying our trusted madmen with weapons to later turn against us (or others). If we truly are the greatest, freest nation in the world, we must take the greatest, freest step imaginable in working towards peace. I do not endorse disarmament or the destruction of nuclear warheads or the dissolution of the military. I merely endorse a philosophy that has been and will always be: Love.

As for the current war in Iraq, I can only mirror the statement made by Jeannette Rankin, the first woman ever elected to Congress and the only person to vote against World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War, concerning her plan for Vietnam: “boats…lots of boats.” Bring our soldiers home. A man with a gun to his head will obey orders to be peaceable, but only when the gun is removed can the foundations for true peace begin to be laid. Stop the death. Stop killing the innocent. Stop killing the children. Come home.

The second is the true War, and the one we have been fighting from the beginning of time. It is the War spoken of in Genesis 3:15:

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and
hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

The words are from God to the serpent that tempted Eve into sinning in the Garden. The verse here sets the stage for the rest of history; it designates two seeds or lineages, the seed of the snake and the seed of the woman. God says that the two seeds will hate each other, but ultimately, the seed of the woman will prevail (Christ’s victory over sin and death on the Cross, as well as Christ’s return to destroy Satan once and for all). It is God’s first action on the path to Christ, since man has now fallen and is in need of a Savior. It is also God’s first statement of setting aside his people. Throughout the Old Testament, both the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent clash (i.e. Abel/Cain, Jacob/Esau, Israelites/Pharaoh, etc). Satan’s rule over death and sin ultimately ended on the Cross on which Jesus Christ died. The clash was not complete, however, because man still sinned and the world in which he lived was sinful. The battle, or War as I will call it, continued through the New Testament and continues today.

Want proof? 55,000 Christians die every year for recognizing themselves as part of the seed of the woman, one of the Children of God. Christians, when not persecuted, are laughed at for believing in something the world cannot see and scorned upon for trying to spread the so-called love of Christ. In America, Christianity, the bedrock of this country when it was founded 230 years ago, has been expelled from schools, removed from nearly all political decisions, and trampled upon by our perverse sins, i.e. homosexuality. Christianity, according to today’s culture, is anti-intellectual, unnatural, superstitious and hypocritical. It seems like as time marches on and the War becomes more intense that Christianity is losing the battle.

But it is not, and it will not. Statistically, Christianity is experiencing phenomenal growth outside the Western World. The number of Christians in Latin America has doubled since 1970, with the amount in Asia and Africa tripling in size during that same period. Annually, Christianity grows 1.25%, despite the 55,000 Christians persecuted and petty attempts by the seed of the serpent to win the War in this world.

The final victory belongs to Christ and the seed of the woman. God has never backed out on a promise before, and being an unchanging, everlasting God, he cannot. Each one of those 55,000 Christians live by the words of Mark 1:15: “’The time has come,’ [Jesus] said. ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!’” They know the words of Paul: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Phil. 1:21) They have fought the peaceable War: they have loved their enemies, blessed they that curse them, done good things for those that hate them, and prayed for they which despitefully use and persecute them (cf. Luke 6:27). The War they fought was one they were guaranteed to win. Though they, like a person in war, have died being peaceable, they know that “when a peaceable person is killed, peaceableness survives.” (Berry, 88) They have found the greatest weapon of all, and it is astoundingly not made of radioactive explosives or toxic poisons. They have discovered love, love received from the Father, and go out to all the corners of the earth boldly proclaiming God’s perfect Message in full knowledge that “love never fails.” (1 Cor. 13:8)

~fin~

That took a really long time to write, but probably the essay about which I am most passionate. let me know what you think! Pray for those facing persecution. Pray for this war. Pray for the persecutors, and our enemies, and your enemies. The time is near, there's no time for hatred.