God & Guns....

“I speak as a Christian- one whose commitment to democracy is very deep but whose Christian convictions are deeper. Democracy is not my faith. And American democracy is not my idol. To see the gospel of Jesus Christ bastardized by imperial Christiansand pulverized by Constantinian believers and then exploited by nihilistic elites of the American empire makes my blood boil. To be a Christian- a follower of Jesus Christ- is to love wisdom, love justice, and love freedom. This is the radical love in Christian freedom and the radical freedom in Christian love that embraces socratic questioning, prophetic witness, and tragicomic hope. If Christians do not exemplify this love and freedom, then we side with the nihilists of the Roman empire (cowardly elite Romans and subjugated Jews) who put Jesus to a humiliating death. Instead of receiving his love in freedom as a life-enhancing gift of grace, we end up believing in the idols of the empire that nailed him to the cross. I do not want to be numbered among those who sold their souls for a mess of pottage- who surrendered their democratic Christian identity for a comfortable place at the table of the American empire while, like Lazarus, the least of these cried out and I was too intoxicated with worldly power and might to hear, beckon, and heed their cries. To be a Christian is to live dangerously, honestly, freely- to step in the name of love as if you may land on nothing, yet to keep on stepping because the something that sustains you no empire can give you and no empire can take away. This is the kind of vision and courage required to enable the renewal of prophetic, democratic Christian identity in the age of the American empire.” -Cornel West, Democracy Matters

I've been wrestling with some bog issues in my mind and heart lately...one of them being the Christian's response, participation and posture towards war, military service and killing, unquestioned subservience to authority, empire and rule.

It began as I started using some praying the daily office material. In those prayers there is a spot to pray for those who face trials, tests and suffering. In light of the recent Fort Hood massacre...I was praying for the families who lost loved ones and friends. As I continued to pray...I began to pray for our enemies as Jesus commands us to do. As I continued praying for those who kill, have killed or suffer because of it...my heart and mind began to get jammed up in some deep ethical and theological cramps.

Then I read this article on the suicide rates taking place in the military and my uneasiness increased.

"As of November 16, 2009, 140 soldiers on active duty have taken their own lives, with 71 soldiers not on active duty whose death has also been identified as a suicide. The suicide rate for 2008 was the worst in three decades, and in January 2009, 24 soldiers killed themselves - more than died in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan combined."

This fact disturbed me even more and my prayers extended into the lives of those struggling with the possibilities, consequences and damage of war.

I've always thought "The God & Guns" crowd is scary when it wears a turban:
"You infidels and despotic, we will continue our jihad (holy war) and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks and raise the fluttering banner of monotheism when God's rule is established governing all people and nations," you and the West are doomed as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere ... We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose head tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (killed by) the sword."-Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups that includes al-Qaida in Iraq.But, then I started wondering if it is any different if we begin to weave an American flag into our image of American Jesus and end up with rhetoric like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell gave us ?
Some folks have some profound and challenging positions on whether Christians should even serve in the military like Greg Boyd's article here.

I was talking to a service woman the other day and listening to her issues of conscience and expressing that she was uneasy with the tendency of Christian Churches that seem to blindly embrace right wing, fundamentalist, pro-military stances...when the "Military" does evil things" as she stated it. That was coming from someone who is still serving within the military.

That conversation pushed me over the edge. I have to find a way to support those who serve but that support has to help them come under the rule of the Kingdom of God...not the kingdoms of this world. That process involves extending a healing ministry to those who are separated because of war, be it family, kids or relatives. It has to involve inner healing and presence to those who are walking out the devastation's of war and death. It has to mean we gather, love and support those who have been chewed up and spit out of the war machines, systems and programs that often leave men and women homeless, divorced, mentally unhealthy and socially disconnected.

I'm working towards finding ground that is biblically sound, ethically clear and still patriotic in a way, that is respectful and supportive but not endorsing of that which would be contrary to the spirit and work of Jesus. Remaining prophetic towards that which isn't Kingdom coming but restorative towards those who are still trying to work out their own salvations here on earth. Not an easy task.

I take courage that even the Church Fathers struggled with the issues:

"Emperors could only believe in Christ if they were not Emperors..as if Emperors could ever be Christians." -Tertullian, Apology (ca. 160 – ca. 220 A.D)

As we face more troop increases in Afghanistan, nuclear tensions in North Korea and Iran and the continued path of stabilization trying to happen in Iraq...I find my self praying the Lord's prayer with greater conviction than ever before...Thy Kingdom Come and will be done on Earth as it is done in Heaven...and lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil"

Deep and confrontational words from the Prince of Peace.