Fourth Sunday After Epiphany
James 4:1-4
A Sermon
The Christian and War
"War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always evil. -Jimmy Carter
I very reluctantly find myself addressing a situation that like you, a few months ago I wouldn’t have dreamed at all possible. War. We find ourselves as a nation at war. Many of us huddle around our TV sets at night to learn the latest events that have occurred in the Persian Gulf War. Stephen Crane, the American novelist best known for his book, ”The Red Badge of Courage, once referred to war as "...the red animal...the blood swollen god." All of us agree that war is the most monstrous and hideous device of a nation’s foreign policy. It robs us of the lives and contributions of our youngest men and women, it incurs tremendous debt, it fuels inflation, it wrecks devastation and destruction upon the lives of people and the environment. Those are the most obvious results. But war does equally destructive work on the inner psyches of its participants. It fans the flames of hatred in the combatants and the survivors of the victims, it sparks arrogance and nationalism in others and it slowly destroys the moral consciences of the nations that participate in its blood lust. There are no victors in war, only combatants. It is the hidden, almost unnoticeable, effects of war on our moral conscience to which we must be especially alert. Someone once wrote that "Truth is the first casualty of war." I would submit that the first casualty of war is moral conscience. Let me offer you an example from one of our most vulnerable members of society: our children. The other day in the newspaper I came across this story entitled "Coonskin Warrior." "At Disney World in Orlando Florida, a 9 year old boy wearing a Davy Crockett coonskin cap pretended he was holding a rifle Sunday, as he entered the Middle East section of "It’s a Small World." The little boy began to ask everyone, "Where’s Saddam Hussein? I’m gonna take out that sucker." But impressionable children are not the only ones who can have their consciences marred by war. It is much too easy for we adults to approach this tragic war as if we were viewing the Super Bowl. Admittedly, as terrible and tragic as it is, war is exciting. Like looking at the scoreboard for the scores of two teams, we often look at the cold statistics on our TV screens to tell us whether we are winning this contest: How many planes we have shot down in comparison to their planes; how many people we have lost in comparison to their casualties. It is very easy to become anesthetized to the horrors of war. The reality of war raises some very serious questions for us as Christians. How should a Christian view war? Are all wars wrong? Can there be a just war? These are some of the questions I would like to use to guide us in our enquiry on the Christian and war. Historically, there have been two major views or traditions that have flowed down to us through the centuries on how a Christian should view war: 1)the Pacifist View and the 2) Just War View. These two quite different views of war have been in opposition for centuries and are today at the heat of controversy over our involvement in the Persian Gulf Conflict.
I. Let’s begin with the Pacifist View. This was the dominant view of the church in the first, second and third centuries. Today many pacifists are involved in the anti-war rallies that
have been breaking out across the nation. Christian pacifism can be found to be rooted in the words of Jesus who said, "Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any one would sue you and take your coat; let him have your cloak as well; and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles...Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who abuse you...As you wish that men would do to you, do so to them" (Matt. 5:39; Luke 6:27).Christian pacifism argues that war is always wrong. There can never be any grounds justifying a war and the Christian must never be involved in war or any similar violence. War is wrong because it violates the sixth commandment "You shall not kill." Because all human life is sacred, war profanes the sanctity of life. War is always evil. To use an evil means to combat evil does not produce a good. As Gandhi once said, “You cannot fight fire with fire. You must fight fire with water." We cannot fight evil with evil. We must combat evil with good. War then is never an option for the Christian, for it is contrary to the spirit and teachings of Jesus which can be summed up in the words, "You must love your neighbor as yourself." I have to tell you that I personally find Christian pacifism the most attractive option. I greatly admire people who are
pacifists and would like to number myself among them but I painfully find I cannot. I have anguished with this question for several years now and reluctantly admit that I do not consider myself a pacifist. While I admire people who are pacifists, I have some serious reservations about some of its assumptions. I find that pacifism tends to assume two things about human nature: 1) First that human nature is basically good and 2) That human nature is perfectible (can be made perfect). I have serious practical and theological problems with these assumptions. My practical problem concerns how anyone can actually believe in the goodness of human nature and its perfectibility after two world wars and Hitler’s concentration camps as well as the Gulag camps of Stalin. These seem, to me, to be naive assumptions about human nature. My theological problem concerns the reality of sin. If the doctrine of original sin has any meaning at all it is this: that our human nature is badly marred by self-interest and selfishness. One of the most basic teachings of the Christian faith is that we are all sinners (however you define sin) saved by God’s grace not our own efforts. This Christian teaching does serious damage to the pacifist’s assumptions. Another serious problem I have with Christian pacifism is the pacifist’s assumption that passive resistance will triumph over and against violent resistance. Passive resistance will triumph when your enemy has a moral conscience as we saw with Gandhi against the Britons in India, but what happens when your enemy has no moral conscience, like an Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin? For these reasons I find I reluctantly and painfully cannot advocate Christian pacifism.
II. The second Christian view of war comes from the 4th century theologian, Augustine and is called the Just War View. Because so many Christians were serving in the military, the leaders of the church began to question pacifism. Augustine responded by formulating the "just war theory." He held that wickedness must be restrained by force, if necessary, and that the sword of the state is divinely ordained to maintain order and stability (Romans 13:1©6). Not all wars are just. According to this view, to be just, a war must be started by the ruler, and the purpose of the war must be to punish injustice and restore peace. The war must be fought without hatred and without unnecessary violence. It must also be carried on with inward love. Only the ruler can command the use of force. None of his subjects may do so. This just war theory has carried down through the centuries and has been used to justify many conflicts and wars. While this just war view tries to make the church more flexible by allowing only certain wars that meet the criteria mentioned above, it too has some serious limitations. Is it possible today (if it was ever possible in the first place) to conduct a war without hatred and unnecessary violence? And how would we define unnecessary violence? How in the world does one conduct a war with "inward love?" Maybe I’m missing something here but I find very little about war that makes it conducive to love. Can I really be moved by inward love for my enemy as I drop bombs on his head from a Bª52? Can love be directing me to fire the cannon of my M1 tank into a group of Iraqi soldiers to blow them to bits? More seriously, can any war really be just, considering the tremendous suffering it inflicts not only on the soldiers and their families, but also on the innocent non-combatants? Isn’t the term "just war" an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms? How can any war be "just?"
3) Finally, I would like to present another possible option for a Christian view of war. For lack of a better label I would call this view the "Christian Realist View." I am heavily indebted for this view to the theologians Reinhold Niebuhr and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This view would be that all war is evil, tragic and monstrous. There can be no just wars. However, we live in a world that is pervaded with evil (Romans 3:9-20). Every Christian is a citizen of two worlds the kingdom of the world which is evil and the kingdom of God which is good (Matt. 22:15-22). These two worlds exist side by side in tension. Occasionally they intersect. We must live in the real world but at the same time we must strive for the perfection of the kingdom of God. Because we must live in a world that is filled with sin and evil sometimes we don’t have clear cut choices. Often our choices are filled with moral ambiguity. We don’t always have the luxury of choosing good from evil. Sometimes all we have are two evil things to choose from and in those situations we must choose the lesser evil. We can’t rationalize our choice and say
that it is "good" or "just" simply because it is a lesser evil. A lesser evil is still evil. All we can do is make the choice and pray and rely on God’s grace to forgive us for that choice. Let me give you a real life example. The Lutheran pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived in Germany during the Second World War. He knew the monstrous evil and insanity of Adolf Hitler and he knew Hitler had to be stopped to prevent his hideous evil. So Bonhoeffer chose to participate in the plot to bomb Adolf Hitler’s headquarters. You know what happened. At the last minute, Hitler walked to the window and the bomb exploded only slightly injuring Hitler. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was later arrested for his collaboration in the plot, though the Nazis could never prove it. He paid for his collaboration with his life. But before he died, Bonhoeffer had written that his participation to kill Hitler was a necessary evil to prevent a greater evil from occurring. He also prayed for God’s forgiveness for his evil, though necessary choice. Like Bonhoeffer’s act, war is sometimes a necessary evil to prevent a greater evil from occurring. The important thing is that war is always evil. Because we live in an evil and corrupt world, sometimes it is the only choice we have. But that evil choice is one for which we must seek forgiveness from God. I am convinced that very few wars are a necessary evil. Any time there are other options, war is not necessary. World War II was an exception. It was truly a necessary evil to prevent a greater evil (Hitler) from exterminating the Jewish people. Unlike World War II, I am not convinced this war with Iraq was necessary or the last option we could try. I remain open to being convinced but I have yet to hear any compelling arguments for its necessity. Whatever your view, and I know many of you disagree with me (and I respect your disagreement), the moral issue of war is an issue that you must decide individually in your Christian conscience through prayer, study and reflection. May God have mercy on all of us and grant us the peace that we so desperately seek in this tragic time.
