You Lose the Cross.....

When you put your trust in the sword, you lose the cross.” Greg Boyd

I've talked about, read about and written about violence and non violence quite a bit. On cyber lists (where I spend a great deal of my time) On this blog. With my family. I just don't have a handle on what I think/feel/believe yet. I feel in my heart that non violence is the way of the kingdom...the way of Jesus...yet the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. I've talked about that before too. How irate I've gotten at Confusion Corner and at the grocery store. Yet, these kinds of issues are small potatoes when pondering the bigger questions.Questions like.... Would I/could I kill someone to save my own life? The life of one of my kids? Probably. That's just the honest truth.

Yet, war grieves me. Killing grieves me. Violence grieves me. I loathe guns but acknowledge that perhaps at this stage in the progression of weapons being beaten into plowshares, guns are a necessary evil. And from where I sit right now..I think I could and would use a gun to protect myself, and would almost certainly use a gun to protect my family. I realize that is not consistent, however I am very much a work in progress!!

The only completely consistent people are the dead. Aldous Huxley

But.....let's not be a culture that glorifes war and violence!! I think it is the attitude of many who support war...who justify it....brag it up...badmouth the enemy that is so hard to take. Jesus died for those enemies just as surely as he died for us. Perhaps if it was approached with a bit more sorrow..more solemn reverance for the lives lost and not just a “Wa-hoo-let's go kick some Iraqi ass!!!!" A bit more....thy kingdom come....thy will be done....rather than being so sure that Jesus hates the same people we do!!

I noticed a truck in front of me the other day with a bumper sticker that read, “God bless our truoops, especially our snipers” What the heck does that mean anyway? In particular bless those soldiers who sneak around and shoot people who cannot see it coming? Snipers who hide in the bushes and behind buildings and metiiculously and methodically pick off unsuspecting targets?

Should we glorify something like that under the umbrella of patriotism?

As I expressed in my last post, if we embrace the God of the OT and his immoral "posess the land" directives, then it is a short journey to justifying the bombing of Hiroshima...Nagasaki....and the other blights on the history of the US....what we did to the Indians...the Trail of Tears, the slaves, the Japanese war camps. When a nation considers themselves God's chosen land...the "doers" of his will, the keepers of his rules..atrocities are easier to excuse. Something about filling the pages of a Bible with patriotic images, most of which include pictures of war, just does not seem right.

I am very glad I was born an American. I just don't think we are beyond reproach, nor do I think that all of our actions are justified, let alone righteous.

More tomorrow...