Last night CNN and YouTube hosted an interesting debate between the democratic candidates for president. It was an interesting format. Rather than having the moderator, or audience members ask pre-screened and predictable questions CNN pre-screened 38 YouTube questions that were just slightly less predictable than usual. At least it was creative.
I blog today not to swoon over some candidate or talk about how “well” one candidate did in the debate but rather to examine a very powerful American myth we saw last night and what happened when one man challenged that myth. The myth is this, American soldiers never die in vain. To suggest that soldiers die (or have died) for no good reason cuts across many other strongly held American myths and calls into question the legitimacy of violence as a means of solving conflict. To suggest that American soldiers die in vain is to suggest that war is a mistake, or worse, sinful. And yet war, more than most things, is the glue that holds these American myths together.
And last night Mike Gravel said that soldiers (both Vietnamese and American) had died in vain during Vietnam. He continued to say that soldiers dying in Iraq today are dying for no good reason. (click for the Video here) Mike Gravel challenged the pervasive American myth that it is impossible for an American soldier to die in vain. It took only seconds for many of the other candidates to rush to the defense of this myth, Barak Obama said “I never think that troops like those coming out of the Citadel who do their mission for country are dying in vain.” John Edwards said, “I don’t think any of our troops die in vain when they go and do the duty that has been given to them by the Commander in Chief.” After the debates Chris Dodd attacked the premise again, saying he was offended by such a statement.
As a Christian I don’t hold the same assumptions that American soldiers can never die in vain. Some are saying that today we are living in the Pax Americana, or “American Peace,” a notion that America’s military and economic dominance is creating world peace, an idea borrowed from ancient Rome and the Pax Romana. But ancient Christians rejected the Pax Romana as a sad and twisted parody of the peace of Jesus Christ. In the same way, “American Peace” is based upon military violence, war and economic manipulation of the poor. This is a far cry from the peace of Jesus Christ, and so when American soldiers die for the Pax Americana… what in the end are they dying for? When America sends men and women to kill and die for a false “peace” that will be exposed by God and replaced by the real and lasting nonviolent peace of Jesus Christ how can we understand anything other than cooperating with God in the peace of his Kingdom today as anything other than working in vain?
We as Christians must not get caught up in these American myths, we must be people of the truth. We must tell the truth. And the truth is, God invaded this world through the quiet and humble birth of a Jewish boy named Jesus. From that day forth a Kingdom of peace has been breaking into this world. That Kingdom of God is the way of the future, but it is also happening today. We Christians are called to live today the way God would have us all live in his Kingdom. We are witnesses to the world that peace is possible now, and we are people who can say such bold things and act on them because we believe in resurrection.
There is no lasting peace other than the Kingdom of God. So when people die or kill for a false peace what can it be other than to kill or die in vain?
Amen, Charlie. Right on. A good example of that “Empty Shrine” the empire holds before us.
So true CP. A first i reasoned that the whole ‘dulce et decorum est’ thing was created by greiving families and subsequently taken up and championed by the Powers That Be, but then i realized it was probably trumpeted FIRST by the PTB and is what enticed these people to the military in the first place. So frustrating.
Charlie!, Great post! You said it brother.
though i agree with you, and many other christians nowadays do to, that the kingdom Jesus preached was a non-violent, peace-making kingdom. Jesus called his disciples to love God and their neighbors with all their heart, soul, and mind. now as far as i’m concerned, this love is a self-sacrificial love (agape in greek i believe). this kind of love is not centered around one’s self, but focused on the interest of others. the greatest example of this love being Jesus’ volitional sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of sins; a clearly selfless act. and i think we can all agree that God has called us to follow in his footsteps, loving, the agape way, our neighbors, enemies, parents, everybody. john 15:12-14; 1 john 3:16. both passages call all jesus’ disciples to be ready to lay their life down for their brother at any given time.
no why do i say this? well, though i agree with non-violent resistance and i undertstand that violence only begets violence, we as christians are called to go and lay down our lives for our brothers. it’s easy to sit back in the comfort of america and argue away violence with historical precedence and biblical principles, but when it comes down to it, we have a hard time getting out of our chair and sacrificing our lives to stop evil, to love somebody. for example WWII…america plus a few other countries joined in to stop the nazi regime from killing more people. i am still anti-violent even in the context of WWII, and would like to see a more creative response to stop the nazis from killing more jews. but what other solutions can i come up with? well, from a christian perspective, we can learn to pray together as the Church Catholic, millions of believers coming together, asking the creator of the universe to stop the violence. this is a great start, but as stated above, the Bible, Jesus, teaches us to lay down our lives for our brothers too, because this is ultimate act of agape love. what would Jesus of done in WWII if he was an american. i dunno, but i can presume that he would fly to germany and live among the jews, offering Christ to them in the face of imminent persecution and death. he would of been dragged out into the streets with the other jews, resisting the temptation to flee for his life, and to non-violently take a stand right their in front of the germans, and then probably would of died with the jews.
my thoughts are a little blurry, but my point is, as christians, we’re not only called to the non-retaliation response to violence is prescribed in the sermon on the mount, but to be pro-active in laying down our life, suffering, with our neighbors, brothers, and enemies. i hear a lot of talk about the war on iraq, but i don’t see too many christians willing to fly to baghdad to suffer with, offer hope to, and die with/for our neighbors, in the hopes that this violence might come to an end.
i’m not advocating a christian solution to war, more i’m trying to connect the dots between being non-violent and laying down our life for our neighbor as Jesus has called us to.
at least the soldiers in the american military have to balls to fly to iraq and risk their lives for something they believe in. and i say this in all seriousness. i understand the american military is killing people, and killing is evil, but at least they’re not still sitting in their american chairs; they’re being pro-active in what they believe is justice and truth. which is more than what most american christians can say.
am i making sense? this is the firs time i’ve wrote this down on paper, so bare with me.
please give me your thoughts and critiques. i want to figure out this agape, self-sacrifical love just as much as the next.
i’m james by the way. i used to attend church of the nazarene mid-city when i lived in san diego. nice to meet you.
jamesrosenberg.blogspot.com
When ever pacifism is discussed, WWII is always played as a trump card but the reason Nazi machine and power was able to exist is because German people were given, pride, patriotism, their economy grew from destruction of WWI, wealth and prestige were returning. The Reason WWII happened and Nazi Germany for that matter happened is because the German Church failed to be a church, who stood up and said no…even though it may seemed unpatriotic, even though it was against their own comfort of wealth and prestige…lets not forget before the skewed idea of Nazism, Germany was a ‘Christian’ nation,(sound familiar?) great man like Boenhoffer wrote and lived in that time in Germany…call for violence is never the answer, what happens when church begins to teach its people even against the unpopular unpatriotic idea that our security is not in military but in Christ!!!! WWII happened because the church failed!!!