Why Are Christians in the Military?

It's that time of year again - the season for patriotic fervor and pro-military attitudes. We're past Memorial Day and the 4th of July is just around the corner. Flag Day is sometime in June (I can never remember the exact date). These holidays are almost always accompanied by military events of various types. When this occurs, the church in this country never fails to be one of the biggest cheerleaders for both the flag and the military.

One question: why are followers of the Prince of Peace in the military?

(This post stems from an earlier one entitled Sorry, But I Can't Stop Asking Questions.)

Jesus Christ expects his followers to turn the other cheek and love their enemies. Our Lord makes this exceedingly clear in the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus also left an example of non-violence for his disciples to follow. When he was arrested, tortured, and crucified he could have struck back and been justified in doing so. However, Christ instead took the beatings not only to pay for our sin but also to show us how to respond when attacked.

Since this is both what Jesus taught and showed us, how can any of his followers be part of the military? In particular, how can any Christians take part in combat where they may be called upon to kill other human beings on behalf of a secular state?

I used to have no problem with Christians being in the military. After studying scripture I have changed my mind. Christ's teachings simply do not allow for His people to act violently toward others. Jesus offers no loopholes. He never tells his followers that in certain circumstances acting violently is acceptable.

In light of this, why are Christians in the military? In response to this question I've heard some believers say that they are in the military to defend others. This may at first sound like a good answer, but Christ never even implies that we should use violence to defend other people. Additionally, in the military it is not God but government who is giving the orders.

In the end I'm still left with the question: why are Christians in the military?

How Should Christ's Followers Respond to Memorial Day?

It's Memorial Day again. This is the day that our culture tells us we are to remember American soldiers who have died in combat. Some people do this, while many others just enjoy a day off work and maybe a juicy burger.

As those who claim Jesus Christ as Lord, how ought we respond to this day? Should we follow the cultural status quo by remembering the military dead? Or, should we simply ignore the whole thing and enjoy a day of freedom from our normal labors?

I'd like to suggest a third option. We Christians, while enjoying a restful day, ought to spend some time remembering. However, what we remember will be significantly different from what typical Americans do.

Let's remember that war is terrible.

Let's remember that war is always terrible.

Let's remember that "just wars" do not exist.

Let's remember that wars do not solve problems.

Let's remember that wars have all sorts of unforeseen long-term consequences.

Let's remember the war dead from every country, both military and civilian.

Let's remember that Christians ought never participate in war.

38 You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you (Matthew 5:38-42).

43 You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:43-48).

I've Reached Non-Violence, But Not Non-Resistance

I've been giving a lot of thought lately to the issues of non-violence and non-resistance. Having grown up in American evangelicalism, this has been a struggle for me. After much searching of scripture and analyzing of my own assumptions and motives, I've finally reached a point of embracing complete non-violence. I'm determined to respond to all of life's circumstances, no matter what, in a non-violent manner. No exceptions.

I believe we followers of Christ must take our Lord's teachings seriously. Jesus says some extremely straightforward and earthshaking things in Matthew 5:38-42:

You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

Christ continues in 5:43-48:

You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

I'll be honest: the above verses make me uncomfortable. I don't particularly like them. A large part of me wishes they weren't in the bible. However, we don't get to pick and choose. Based on Jesus' life and teachings, it is clear that he expects non-violence from his followers.

When I talk about non-violence, I'm not speaking about politics. I don't care to be part of some sort of flower child, peace sign, pot smoking club. I have no intention of taking Christians to task who are part of the military (although that issue does raise some significant questions). I'm not going to start rebuking Christians for having guns. The list goes on.

This is more about what I'm for than what I'm against. I'm for living a life where every interaction with other people is a peaceful one. This will not always mean agreement. I will no doubt have different thoughts, ideas, opinions, etc. about all sorts of issues than others will. However, this does not mean that things have to get violent. Additionally, just because someone else is violent toward me does not mean I have to respond in kind.

I believe in a sovereign God who oversees all circumstances. This includes violence toward me and my family. I trust him to protect me as he sees fit. When it comes to protecting my own family, I trust God with that as well. Would I respond violently if someone was attacking my family? At this point I do not know what I would do. The husband and father in me says "Yes I would," but I struggle to defend that scripturally.

My goal is to live in a non-violent manner at all times.

As for non-resistance, I'm not so sure. I have an easier time (at least in my mind) defining non-violence than non-resistance. While non-violence seems fairly clear cut, non-resistance feels murkier. When we look at the life of Christ we see Jesus at some times not resisting, but at other times he did. For example, when he cleansed the temple (not a violent act by the way), he was certainly resisting the status quo of the day. When the Pharisees put their traditions in front of biblical truth, Jesus rejected them forcefully. In fact, he resisted anyone who was teaching against God's truth. As for his disciples, Christ consistently resisted their lack of understanding and faulty assumptions about what the Messiah should be.

I'll be pondering non-resistance quite a bit in the days ahead. I've got to come to a clearer understanding and definition of what it means and does not mean. That being said, I do think Christ's call to non-violence is clear. Although it flies in the face of our Republican-loving, gun-toting American Christian subculture, it is what Jesus calls us to do. Will we do it?

Count me in for non-violence.

A Must Read!

It is not often that I refer to a book as a "must read." Here's an exception.

Fight: A Christian Case for Nonviolence is a text that I believe every Christian, at least those who have been raised in the USA, should read. We American Christians have largely ingested a massive dose of militarism along with our Christianity. The church in this country for the most part is one of the biggest supporters when our military goes off to war (at least as long as the president at that time is a Republican). We also relish our perceived right to self-defense. Author Preston Sprinkle, while not writing a great deal about politics in this book, confronts his readers with a strong biblical case for nonviolence.

I appreciate this book for two main reasons. First, Sprinkle bases his conclusions in scripture. This book is simply full of bible. You may not agree with all of his conclusions (I didn't), but you will have to at least deal with the scripture passages he sites. Second, the author addresses difficult questions and objections such as "What about Jesus' cleansing of the temple?" "What about the two swords?" "What about the soldiers who are not told to leave the military?" "What about Israel going to war in the Old Testament?" and "What about the death penalty now?"

Sprinkle spends roughly the first 1/3 of this book looking at violence/nonviolence in the Old Testament. This is an important topic for certain due to Israel's repeated warfare as a nation. Sprinkle uses the next 40% on analyzing the life of Jesus Christ during his first advent and what we have to expect in his second coming. The final 20% of this text focuses first on how the early church lived related to violence/nonviolence, and second on how we should respond to and think about difficult questions related to nonviolence.

Violence is largely accepted within the church as acceptable under a range of situations. But should this be? This is not an easy question to answer. For this reason, I deeply appreciate Fight: A Christian Case for Nonviolence. It challenges us to think through assumptions we have about how we interact with the world. It is not a comfortable book. However, it is well-written, well-researched, and worth your time. I highly recommend it.

One More Reason Why World War II Was Such a Travesty

Wars are generally murky things.

It is often difficult to know who the "good guys" and "bad guys" are. Many times wars involve bad guys fighting bad guys. Secular governments usually struggle to decide whether or not to get involved (unless they have been attacked directly). Individuals face this same dilemma. This is because wars are usually not black and white, good versus evil in nature.

World War I is a great example of the murkiness of war. Europe had managed to make it through the 1800's without any major conflict. This was a great blessing from God. Unfortunately, by the early 1900's few people remained alive who remembered the horrors of war. Additionally, the industrial revolution had brought about new weapons that many in the military wanted to try out. Because of all this (and many other factors), saber rattling began. All it took was Archduke Ferdinand's assassination to unleash warfare like no one had ever seen before.

Who were the "good guys" in World War I? The answer is that there weren't any. This is how we, as followers of Christ, should think about war. The vast majority of the time wars are not good versus evil, but evil versus evil (or at least more evil versus less evil).

This brings us to the one more reason why World War II was such a travesty. On the surface the second World War looks like a clear-cut decision. There were really bad guys who had to be stopped, and we good guys were going to stop them. Hitler attacked, so we attacked back. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, so we nuked them (twice no less!). We were good, and they were bad. End of story.

I believe that Christians should not have been involved in World War II, at least as far as killing goes. However, for the purposes of this post I just want to point out one thing: the additional travesty of World War II is that many within the church still think of all wars as being the World War II type: clear cut good against evil. This thinking, in turn, leads the church (ironically and tragically) to be one of the biggest supporters of the military when we go to war.

If we look at U.S. warfare post World War II we see a murky quagmire. The good versus evil thinking fails when looking at Korea and Vietnam. Were we (the U.S.) really with the good guys? Were there any good guys? What if we were the bad guys?

The first Persian Gulf war seems to be fairly clear cut as wars go. However, our involvement there has led to all sorts of terrible ramifications since (such as the 1993 and 2001 bombings of the World Trade Center). Wars always have unforeseen, negative consequences (see the far too harsh Versailles Treaty that ended World War I and its leading to the rise of Nazism in Germany).

America's involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq post 9/11 has been an absolute disaster in almost every way possible. We've lost hundreds of soldiers, killed thousands of civilians, spent billions of dollars, and left both situations in worse shape than before we arrived. And this makes us the good guys? I don't see how.

Wars are murky. We ought to think of them as they are: much more like World War I than World War II. Additionally, we Christians are members of a far better kingdom: our citizenship is in heaven. Why then would we followers of the Prince of Peace ever kill on behalf of a secular government? We do far better to abstain from warfare as it rages around us.

Let's be people of peace, not war.

Could You Ever Kill? Would You Ever Kill?

I've never been a fan of killing.

The Ten Commandments make it clear that murder is wrong. Jesus tells us to love our enemies. The epistles are full of exhortations to look out for the good of our neighbors. One general theme throughout all scripture is that the taking of another life is not good.

Despite the above, I've previously held to two exceptions when it comes to killing. I believed it was acceptable to kill if it was part of a war I deemed just or if someone was attacking my family or friends.

I've been pondering this issue quite a bit for the past couple of years. It has been a challenging process. I've arrived at the following conclusion: I could no longer and would no longer kill another human being for any reason. No exceptions.

Now, if someone was attacking my family I would certainly defend them. However, killing is no longer part of the equation. As for warfare, count me out. I would never take up arms as part of a national military.

My two questions for you mirror the title of this post: Could you ever kill? Would you ever kill? Why or why not?

I'd love to hear your reasoning. If you differ from me I will not respond with any sort of attack. I may question you further, but I won't let the discussion turn ugly. Thanks for responding.

Please Read This Book

I'm only part way through Fight: A Christian Case for Nonviolence, but I'm already recommending it to all followers of Jesus Christ. I'm not suggesting you read it because I agree with everything author Preston Sprinkle says (I don't). I am recommending it because Sprinkle writes thoughtfully about a topic that is largely ignored within the American church today. We do well to consider Jesus Christ's teachings related to violence and peace.

I'll have a full review after I've completed reading the book, but for now let me simply say that you will benefit from it.