Stay in Afghanistan? Let Jesus Call the Shots
We have capitulated to the nation that the qualifier 'American' is much more significant and determinative than the designation 'Christian.'
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Will Willimon, bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church, Chris Seiple, the president of the Institute for Global Engagement, andJean Bethke Elshtain, ethics professor at the University of Chicago, discuss whether the U.S. should stay militarily involved in Afghanistan.
After an acrimonious debate about the Iraq war at the United Methodist Church's annual conference a couple of years ago, I declared a series of "Bishop's Conversations about War" all over Alabama.
I'll never do that again. I opened each discussion by saying, "We are going to talk about this war as Christians." I soon learned that it is virtually impossible for us to talk about war using any specifically biblical or Christian referent.
Most people were in favor of the war. We are a democracy; we are powerful; we have a responsibility to spread freedom and democracy around the world; when our government calls, we have a patriotic duty to offer our children. Missing was any reference to Scripture, church teaching, or any other specifically Christian criterion.
After hearing President Obama's inaugural address, I was not surprised that he would order a massive troop buildup in Afghanistan.ɗe are forced to do that as a powerful, aggrieved democracy. But how should American Christians think about this war?
Some years ago, I recall hearing Jerry Falwell being interviewed about President Bush's first (or was it second?) "war to end all wars" in Iraq. Falwell said that it was important to teach them a lesson, to liberate Iraqis, to stand up to oppression. Yada, yada, yada.
A humiliating moment came when the "godless" television newscaster asked, "But what would Jesus say about this war?"
With that, Falwell began perspiring heavily and said something about being "realistic," about evil people only respecting a show of force, about his great respect for President Bush, and so on. We are all realists now; 20th-century liberal theologian Reinhold Niebuhr has triumphed even among allegedly biblical evangelicals like Falwell.ɉn discussions of war and military might, Jesus Christ is irrelevant. Calculating justice trumps Jesus-love.
There was a day when my church had the theological and evangelistic chutzpah to send missionaries to Afghanistan. The Bible told us that they were our brothers and sisters, recipients of Christ's converting love. Now we are in a war with over 1,000 American military deaths and so many more Afghani casualties, mostly women and children, defending a corrupt regime that is anything but democratic and decidedly anti-Christian. We have capitulated to the notion that the qualifierAmerican is much more significant and determinative than the designationChristian.
As a Christian, I'm forced to believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and that all presumptive lordlets are not. So when our President declares that we have a responsibility to fight, to destroy, to force democracy and our brand of freedom anywhere, I wish I had the guts to ask, "Who is this 'we' of whom you speak? We are Christians; Jesus gives us some odd definitions of 'we.'"
I'm not sure that Christians in America could do much to stop these Bush-Obama Near Eastern wars without end. But could we have at least contributed to the national debate by offering an occasional, "But Jesus says that …"?
In our attempts to be good, responsible members of a democracy, we have given away the store. While we say Jesus Christ is Lord, we let Caesar call the shots.
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