sorry about the bad lighting
I was sitting here trying to think of a single story that would serve as a wonderful analogy to my relationship with my father. A story when he passed on some profound truth about our Heavenly Father. There are no shortage of stories. There is canoeing down the Guadalupe River and injuring my foot only to have him tell me that I should not have hung my foot out of the canoe. There is him telling me that I cannot have dinner until I have hit the punching bag 200 times. There is boxing matches that we had at the house on Riverview. There is climbing onto the roof at Riverview with the fisher price telescope to look at the moon. There are family trips in the travel trailer and riding through the mountains outside Red River. There is going to the shop as it was being built. There is him swinging the ball on a rope in the front yard. There are little league games, basketball games, ski trips, mission trips, the trip to Colorado in junior high, the trip to Mozambique, hunting, fishing, wrestling, preaching, teaching, him giving away my baseball cards as prizes to kids at Sunday school who had the right answer. There are solemn moments like after I was injured in Junior high and hysterical moments where there were no deer anywhere near us because we were laughing too hard in the stand. There is him yelling his approval over all the other parents at my elementary play. He is there consoling me after our loss in the playoffs my senior year in high school. He is there preaching my wedding. There when I graduated from College and Graduate school. He is there to give me my first job outside of grad school. He is there telling me how neat my tiny cubicle at SAIC was. He is there holding my firstborn daughter and proclaiming her to be 100% Jeffrey, and doing the same nineteen months later with Brylee. He is there for my job changes. He is there on the phone to talk me through car problems or life problems. He is there holding my son, the next generation of Jeffrey. I started to realize that there is not a moment in my life where he is not there. There has never been a moment where I doubted his love for me. I have never considered a doubt that he would always be there for me. He has always been slow to anger and quick to bless. He readily reminds me that this world is not my home and to remember that all things worldly will pass away. I slowly came to the understanding that while I am sure there were those profound moments filled with wise sayings spoken as the sun set, that is not how my father taught. He was always there. He sought a relationship with the eternal God of unending love, and just happened to model to me what that love is like.
A while back I told myself and a few others that I was done blogging and I still have every intention to stick with that, but there are certain issues that seem to call me out of retirement. I have recently repeatedly run into one that simply boggles my mind: pacifism. Obviously I have known about pacifism for many years, but only as a universally recognized antecedent to war (World War II), but I have recently come into contact not only with people who believe that this is a viable foreign policy, but much more dangerously, believe it should be preached from the pulpit of the churches of Christ. I could not disagree with either more. What I would like to do is discuss my views on the subject. I recognize the limited size of both my intellect and my audience but nonetheless feel the need to speak out. I will be honest in saying that I hesitate to say this because to espouse a political philosophy or take on a doctrinal topic is to take on an Ivory Tower issue. These are issues that are largely regulated and spoken of by people who have nothing better to do than sit in their office and think up witty comebacks, do research, or listen to others tell them how great they are. I have a day job and therefore will speak my piece and fade back into oblivion.
Now no doubt, there are those who would read this and give the tired argument that the scriptures I have listed are in the Old Testament and that we are now under the New Covenant and so none of this applies to us. At the risk of sounding technical, this is such a lame argument. Nothing is more risky than cherry picking the parts of the Old Testament that you like and claiming that the rest is outdated. Obviously this kind of trash doctrine is more than a little subjective. Thanks to Christ, the way in which we approach God has dramatically changed, God HAS NOT! But lets go along with the argument for a while
Even a brief Recon of the New Testament reveals many scenarios that are hard to move past for the pacifist.
To believe in pacifism and not preach it is disingenuous
Perhaps the most startling aspect that I have witnessed in ministers that espouse this view, is that it is not talked about from the pulpit, but rather in hushed circles of close friends. This is patently disingenuous. If you believe that war is murder, that would make people that engage in it murderers. If this is your deeply held conviction, you should be screaming it from the rooftops and making sure that everyone knows this. I would think that as a leader of a congregation or students at a Christian college, keeping the flock away from murderers would be a top priority. Yet what I see is people celebrating Memorial Day, Veteran's Day and Fourth of July. You simply cannot have your cake and eat it too. It is like those people that feel that abortion is wrong but it is not a big issue for them. IT IS EITHER BABY MURDER OR IT IS NOT! PICK A SIDE!!! If you believe in pacifism and are a minister or a college professor, I encourage you to preach it to the fullest!!! Make every July fourth, Memorial Day and Veteran's Day a day of mourning. Don't you dare eat apple pie! Weep for the useless violence committed to end the Holocaust, Slavery, and Tyranny. Preach it from the mountaintops, see how many people come to join you. Anything less would be cowardly.
Another astonishing thought among those that I have talked to, is that they hold up as wise and honorable, Christians who when drafted served only in non combatant roles. This is ridiculous on its face. I ask you, "what difference does it make if you are the one shooting the enemy or the one passing ammo to the one shooting the enemy?" If you serve as a non combatant medic because of your pacifist belief, how do you justify patching men up so that they can go back out onto the battlefield and get back in the fight? Even as a non combatant chaplain, how do you live with praying for good weather so that the Army can fight better (As Patton instructed the 3rd Army Chaplain to do in WWII)? A man of his convictions could have nothing to do with the military. A pacifist should flee from it and speak of its supposed evils to whomever will listen. I suggest trying San Francisco, lots of listeners there.
Sadly, we also have to understand how preaching this viewpoint looks to the average Joe Visitor off the street. Many of them will undoubtedly look at the men preaching this belief and see them as men who probably cut their own underwear in the back to keep the wedgie from hurting too bad. Regardless of whether or not this is true, men do not come to church to be domesticated. We know that most women do not want to be married or date someone that would sit back and watch them get beat up or worse. Men want to be called to action. Men want to get into a fight for something that they are willing to die for. Don't believe me? Why do you think that Islam is male heavy in its population and it is the fastest growing religion on the planet. Men who pay attention to the world do not feel comfortable taking cover behind Swiss cheese philosophies. They want to rise and fight. They are not looking to have emotional experiences, they are looking to make a difference. We know that the battle belongs to the Lord, but so do we and we want to fight that battle with Him.
I know that there are those who will read this text and think that I sound like some war monger. Nothing could be further from the truth. I know the nature of the subject and how terrible it is. I have been motivated to write this because I know too many good Christian men and women who put their life on the lines for us day in and day out and I will not have them disparaged by ignorant men and women ensconced in the sniper's nest. I also care too much for the body of Christ to let another (yes, there are more) scripturally unfounded tradition cause some to turn away and still others to never come in. I will not peaceably stand by, I choose to fight.
So what do you think? Mission accomplished? For me it has been. I have spoken my piece into the ether and feel better for it. I know that there are some out there that when they read this will lose sleep over it, but do not worry. To paraphrase Orwell, you should sleep peaceably in your beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on your behalf. They stand ready. They stand able. The blanket of cover that they provide you gives you peace and solace so that you can quietly sip your Starbucks and judge if what they are doing is right.
Below are a few quotes that I will use to soften the ground for my upcoming blog post on a topic that I have run into more than I care to: