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In
the interest of truth I thought it valuable to offer an opposing conclusion to
those independently arrived at by John Hampton and Beth Pearson. Thus I assert
the possibility that the support of the United States in current and various
military conflicts may well be against the will of God.
Both
John and Beth cite Romans 13 as the guiding principle by which Christians
ought to relate to the government, highlighting that Paul believes God places
our governmental leaders in authority to execute justice and exercise war
powers when necessary. I wholeheartedly agree that Christians ought to support
the government when their ideas and actions do not conflict with the will of
God. However, consider the historical reality that the church has had a long
history of opposition toward governments. This very opposition begins in the
life of Jesus, who was executed by the God-ordained Jewish and Roman
authorities of His day. In addition, Paul spent lengthy amounts of time in
prison and was eventually executed by the same authorities he charged
Christians to obey. But Paul and Jesus are not unique in their disobedience
and suffering at the hand of the government, consider the lives of John
Chrysostom, Dietrich Bonhoffer, Thomas Moore, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Certainly there exists a precedent among these for Christ-inspired and
directed civil disobedience.
While
I mourn with the families and nation for the losses of Sept. 11, I cannot
support the current military conflicts that the United States has entered
because I regard the life and teachings of Jesus to suggest a posture of
nonviolence toward other human beings. As Gandhi proved in India and Martin
Luther King Jr. would later exhibit in America, the possibility of resolving
conflicts justly and by the use of nonviolent means on both the intra and
international level is not merely a possibility. It is an achievable reality.
Given the many faithful and brilliant minds that reside in America alone, a
God-inspired, creative and effective solution to the current situation is not
unlikely. Even if it were not a reality, the life and teachings of Jesus
suggest that perhaps Christians ought to be willing to sacrifice their own
lives before they are willing to take the life of another who is made in the
image of God. In turning the other cheek, the Christian radically trusts God,
the only one able to bring about true justice and peace in a world of
injustice and violence, with the life of him or herself and the lives of
others. I do not suggest this is an easy thing, but only that it may indeed be
precisely what God commands us to do.