The dangers of pacificism…

Now, before you freak out and call the emergent cops on me, let me explain myself. I’m sure that none of us believe that war is a good thing. I mean the earthly kind of war, where people kill each other with bullets, explosive devices and in hand-to-hand combat. There is devastation aplenty to spread around. Growing up I was part of a denomination that were conscientious objectors, did not refuse to serve, but refused to carry weapons. Most of those drafted into the Vietnam War from my group ended up as medics. Some of them died while caring for the wounded. Now that is a different kind of pacificism, don’t you think.

I protested the Vietnam War on my campus, singing folk songs and not really understanding what was at stake. I avoided military service.

Today, there is a similar attitude toward the Iraq War. Since I have never fired a shot, or carried a weapon, or served in the military, or been a political leader who is required to make some of these life and death decisions, I don’t think I am really qualified to determine if this is a "just" war or not. No matter, every wound, every death, every family forever scarred by wars is a person that God loves and cares about.

Okay, now here is where I am going to try to get myself off the hook about the title of this post. I have been thinking a lot about this. With all of our sophisticated theological questioning and ecclesiological deconstruction we may have forgotten as eric keck put it in his post today:

"…we are at WAR, there is a battle going on, and sometimes its behind the scenes, on foreign soils and other times its on us… and rightly so…"

We had better figure this out sooner, rather than later. It is a life and death matter. People are living in a hell on earth, because we don’t take seriously the commands of Jesus. Let’s not let our peacemaking and peaceful attitudes spill over into the area of our sense of urgency about what is important. Yes, the battle starts with our own souls and within our families. But then oughtn’t we take the battle to our neighborhoods, cities, and nations? Isn’t this pretty darn important? God cares about this, doesn’t he?

If we work hard enough, with all of our anti-authoritarian and deconstructionistic tendencies, we might just convice ourselves that we should be anti-war protesters in the spiritual war that rages all around us. And don’t be confused. Our enemy isn’t using "improvised" explosive devices. He is using the cares of this world to distract us from the main thing, the realization that we are at war!