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.

A Call For Beasts To Teach Men

I’m back! Now I didn’t see any comments in the box from my last post, but I am just assuming that people are too shy to post or they were too paralyzed by my hilarity to mechanically type a comment onto the screen. I prefer the latter, but if the former is the case, I so encourage you to leave something just so I know you visited. If I am merely talking to myself, then perhaps it was worth it.

I worked a few days at Pretzel Gourmet, went to dinner and a movie with Roland and Erica, and got to talk to a few people from Grove City in the past week. Other than that, I’m doing some reading at the moment. I’m in the middle of three books, which seems like a daunting task (okay it is), but I’m managing quite well. Since they’re all nonfiction books, it makes things a bit easier. The first book I started is by my favorite author, G.K. Chesterton, entitled The Everlasting Man. Most Chesterton fans argue that it is his greatest apologetic, so I figured I’d give it a shot. The second book is by my second favorite author and philosophic mentor, Wendell Berry, called Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community. The title sums up the book. Before you write it off (pun certainly intended) as a boring book, it really brings up a lot of good points (so far) about America’s educational and economic systems. If you want to read an absolutely thrilling piece from the book, click here and tell me what you think.

I had a lot of time at the store today to write, and I wrote a lot more than I anticipated I would. I’ve decided to post what I wrote here. If these were meant to be true essays, I would have polished them more than I had; therefore, I intend the following to be more of a discussion spark than a definitive point on an issue. It is open to criticism, but this is something that was just floating in my mind today.

A Call For Beasts To Teach Men

It’s a shame how people write off the old. They are not the waste of space the country makes them out to be. They only seem that way because we make them like so. When someone hits age 60, the only jobs we offer them are small-scale janitorial work or greeters at Wal-Mart. We hide them from the places they really ought to be: the public.

Why? They simply have more wisdom and knowledge than we do; and in our turbulent times, we could certainly use their assistance. Despite man’s cry that that was their generation and this is ours, man is still man and there are many things our elderly population knows that touch on the foundational aspects of mankind. They worship the same God, struggle with the same earthly sins, have fought for their beliefs (something less common today), know what it means to work for a living and a life, manage a household, love a wife, children and land, and have learned the importance of being thrifty and perhaps even frugal, especially in turbulent times.

No dishwasher, television, Internet connection, XBOX 360, Hummer, birth control pill, pleasure-increasing condom, cyclone vacuum or robot has changed man’s essential responsibilities. Technology and time have not changed man, but merely culture. Man will always have to love. Man will always have to fight for what he deems right. Man will always, as it always has, fall short of the glory of God. Man will always live on land, whether rural or urban, no matter how many feet in the air. Man will always have a finite sum of money. If one denies any of these, he is not a man and truly the one that is a waste of space; for he might as well be the beast, living purely for self and always consuming, and locked up on a cage.

This is what we have done to our old people. We have dubbed them beasts and claimed that they ought to be in cages (“homes”) because all they do is consume. We have trampled upon the responsibilities of man in our culture today in favor of pleasure, money, and ceaseless, bitter competition. We live for our selfish desires and deny humanity’s responsibilities. We have locked up the true men to let the beasts run wild.

This is not to say that the entire elderly population is righteous and the rest of us condemned as fulfilling our role as humans, but our view of the elderly as a hindrance on society and the youth as the truly wise shines a bright light upon our culture. The youth have not experienced what our elderly have; it’s time we reverse our current presupposition and have the former learn from the latter.

Our youth need to learn what it means to live a responsible life, and who better that those who have spent their lives living it (or not living it and dealing with the consequences) to teach them. It’s time we let the “beasts” out of their cages. The elderly ought not to be secluded from mainstream society or reduced to a lower class. They may no longer contribute to the economy (or, for some, the Economy), but what they possess collectively is something far more valuable: wisdom and a history of lives, however they lived them.

Release them. Let them visit schools. Allow them to be active in parks, malls and markets. Moreover, listen to them; they have plenty to talk about. They know more about what it takes to tame the true beast: us.

A Thought On Wal-Mart

For a store that has “everything,” Wal-Mart lacks the canon, books that have wrestled with the human condition and have stood the test of time. Rather, they sell what will make them the most money: bestsellers and romance novels.

Fools and Whores and Sad Highs

The band Augustana is more accurate that they perhaps envisioned when they penned, “We’re nothing more than fools and whores and sad highs. We’re living in a wasteland.”

Against Bratz

Walking down the aisles of the toy section of a department store, I discovered a lot about our present culture. The girls’ play doll section struck me in particular. Now enough has been said about Barbie regarding the near impossibility of a human female having her body proportions and how she has become increasingly immodest over the years. While Barbie has endured her share of attacks, it was a new breed of doll that most disturbed me.

The line of dolls, Bratz, is larger and thicker than its archetypal thin counterpart. Bratz are mostly dark-haired and have fuller lips than the blonde, thin-lipped Barbie. But what makes a Brat a Bratz is its attire, or the lack thereof. Every miniature Angelina Jolie look-alike wears clothes one would expect to see in a red light district. From short skirts to halter tops to leather high-healed boots, Bratz pack the attitude of a whore on her way to a night’s work.

Bratz even come in baby edition! They are scaled up in size so its human playmate can cuddle with her easier, but they still wear the same sleazy itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka-dot bikini as its elder sisters. Bratz are plastic prostitutes sold to children.

So what’s the big deal? Children aspire to become like their playthings. Boys who go into with GI Joe wish that they will someday become a war hero. Girls who play with horses hope that some day they will be as magnificent as the animal they hold. Girls that play with Bratz cannot put them in roles as housewives, teachers, business leaders or politicians. Bratz are bad; they make their own rules and morals, defy parents and live in the moment. Bratz are whores and girls who spend leisure time with these dolls can do nothing but pretend to be a whore and immoral like they.

If the unknowing girl fails to recognize the doll as unacceptable, she will assume her attire (and suggested implications of that attire) is acceptable. Unless an adult tells her that Bratz are prostitutes, they girl will see nothing wrong with promiscuousness.

Do we really want to glorify prostitution to our children? What makes the Bratz so appealing in the first place? Is it because they are more lifelike? I doubt it. Most girls will not achieve the beauty of Angelina Jolie. It is either because they are not Barbie, or because of their dress. They are “trendier,” thus more provocative.

It appears as if the pattern of wearing this “trendier” style is now starting increasingly younger. Girls in high school exhibit fashion that only the most daring college students would wear. Middle school-aged girls, instead of going with friends to a movie, take trips to Victoria’s Secret. The world places such a high standing to beauty that it has started to have damaging effects. School-aged girls should not be concerning themselves this early with how they look compared to other girls. It inevitably turns into a competition to discover who can dress most like the scantily-clad models on European runways and Abercrombie & Fitch catalogs.

The Bratz attitude has got to go. Immodest dress is not acceptable and can only lead to trouble, especially for younger girls. If you’re ever considering buying your daughter a Bratz doll, don’t. Instead, buy her a good book and spend time together reading it in the evenings. You, instead of a prostitute, will then be her role model.