Militants attacked a convoy of mini-buses and killed 49 soldiers in Iraq, according to weekend news reports. If it hadn’t been for the number of dead, we might not have noticed. The daily count of killed and wounded no longer shocks us. It is a common story.
It seemed to start off simply enough, this intervention. And there were plenty of reasons for doing what had to be done: an evil dictator, weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, regional instability.
But all those excuses, boiled down, equal only this: Oil from the Middle East powers our free market economy, and Iraq sits on the world’s second-largest known supply. Saddam Hussein’s resistance of the western world threatened our financial security. His rumored weapons programs and ties to terrorist groups gave us all the evidence we needed to justify a pre-emptive strike.
Where has the Church been? Some believers have opposed the war. Others have stood on their Sunday soap-boxes and preached the righteousness of violence on behalf of the oppressed.
But violence can never defeat violence. And Christians who support the idea of a "just war" may not be serving the same God that Jesus called his Father.
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But all those excuses, boiled down, equal only this: Oil from the Middle East powers our free market economy, and Iraq sits on the world’s second-largest known supply. Saddam Hussein’s resistance of the western world threatened our financial security. His rumored weapons programs and ties to terrorist groups gave us all the evidence we needed to justify a pre-emptive strike.Uhhh... that's fine except it all doesn't come down to this. We didn't invade Iraq because of oil. We invaded Iraq because after 9/11 (and before, really, but as a nation we were unwilling to face facts) we could not afford to let an amoral dictator with billions of petro-dollars, the resources of a nation-state, and the willingness to develop WMDs and pass them to terrorists have the freedom and ability to do just that.
If it was all about the oil, we'd have our troops securing the oilfields and pipelines while the rest of Iraq stewed in its juices. Or, we would have just reached an accomodation with Saddam: kill as many Iraqis, Kuwaitis, and Iranians as you want as long as the price of oil stays below $15 a barrel.
But violence can never defeat violence. And Christians who support the idea of a "just war" may not be serving the same God that Jesus called his Father.Fortunately, violence can, and has, defeated violence. In fact, violence in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing. Violence is a tool, and like any other tool the morality of violence is determined by the purpose of its use. Was it immoral to use violence to defeat Adolf Hitler and the Nazis? Even the Bible states that there is a purpose for violence... "To everything there is a season... "
The problem with condemning all violence is that you end up throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Yes, it is obviously right to condemn the violence of, say, a rapist, just as it is obviously wrong to condemn the violence of the police officer... or victim... who uses violence to defeat the rapist. To believe otherwise is to morally equate the status of rapist with that of victim, or policeman... the sinner is no worse than the one protecting from sin. In other words, there is nothing wrong with sinning. And that obviously flies in the face of everything that we Christians believe.
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