The Word in Focus with Dr Larry Taylor

Caskets draped in flags; guns fire in salute; the bugler plays “Taps;” a carefully folded flag is presented to the bereaved “on behalf of a grateful nation,” and the deceased is declared a hero who “died for his country.” But, as General Paton is reported to have said, “No dumb bastard ever won a war by going out and dying for his country. He won it by making some other dumb bastard die for his country.” 

Several senior military officers and the former chief scientist for NORAD told me that everyone at their level knows that no one dies for a flag or an ideal or even a country, despite what is intoned at their funerals. People die for their friends, their comrades. Basic training is carefully designed to break down a person’s sense of individual self and mold recruits into small, cohesive groups. The wellbeing of the group becomes more important than the individual. The recruit is effectively brainwashed. 

Once the individual has been suppressed and the band of brothers concept instilled, across the board propaganda is used to demonize the enemy. Germans are people. Nazis and Krauts are not. Vietnamese are human beings. Gooks are subhuman. Every war has had its derogatory terms for the enemy. You can’t kill, enslave, rape, or plunder a sibling, much less a fellow human being loved and created in God’s image, but if the so-called enemy is subhuman, it’s not a problem. 

Technology helps us dehumanize and kill. A junior officer can sit at a computer in Nevada and kill other human beings via drone on the other side of the globe. Dropping your payload or firing your missiles is easy – just push a button. No need to see the burnt bodies and the wailing children.

Later in his life, the commanding general of the U.S. Army, William Tecumseh Sherman, was addressing a class of adoring boys: “Some of you boys think that war is all glory; but boys, it is all hell.” War is always hell.

Leo Tolstoy said, “In a forthcoming war the existence of whole nationalities will be at stake, and so it will be sanguinary, desperate, cruel.” War is always sanguinary, desperate, and cruel. Never glorious, never honorable.

My peers fought and died in Vietnam. They never knew why or for what.

My dad left graduate school a year before Pearl Harbor, trained at the Naval Academy, was commissioned, and spent five years at sea in all three marine theaters of World War II. Like many in his generation, he was willing to sacrifice all to stop Hitler. Now, a major American political party is embracing Nazis, Holocaust deniers, antisemites, racists, and Hitler admirers. 

My great uncles fought on the western front in World War I, convinced it was the war to end all wars. But wars continue.

My third great-grandfather left his farm in western Maryland and enlisted in the Union Army to fight against slavery. Amazingly, he survived Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and other major battles. Today, Confederate battle flags are flying proudly, monuments to slave holders are defended, and systemic racism holds the descendants of slaves in bondage.

My fifth great-grandfather likewise left his farm and joined the Continental Army under George Washington. He sincerely fought for the establishment of a diverse pluralistic nation where all would be welcomed. Now, walls are built, immigrants are demonized, books are banned, and history is whitewashed. 

There is no such thing as a just war. Every “just war” is just another war, filled with unimaginable brutality, slaughter, and dehumanization. No war has ever permanently made anything better. Conversely, wars are really fought over territory, fossil fuels, and to enrich the old men who start them. 

As a Christian who takes Jesus’ teaching seriously, I can’t justify participation in war. Jesus never rides the red horse. Never. As a follower of Jesus, I can’t justify killing another human being. Jesus’ teaching is clear – turn the other cheek, love your enemies, forgive unconditionally, do not resist evil intentions, put away your sword, blessed are the peacemakers. I’m reminded of Jesus’ example before Pilate and on the cross. 

Radical nonviolence and nonresistance were clear to believers for the first three centuries years after the resurrection. Almost none of the early disciples would consider serving in the military or carrying a weapon. Yet, today, outside of small sects of Quakers, Amish, and Anabaptists, few Christians practice what Jesus taught and modeled. 

A massive departure from the clear teachings of Christ occurred after Rome first declared tolerance for, then made Christianity its state religion. Theologians set to work to expertly prove that Jesus did not really mean what he said. Augustine famously said that a man could love his enemy and kill him at the same time. He also developed rules for a “just war.”  Ever since, the Sermon on the Mount has been explained away as an unreachable ideal or a description of kingdom come. One can be biblical by quoting King David over Jesus, but not Christlike. 

It’s all quite impractical, this Jesus teaching. Surely, God does not expect a modern person to sell her possessions, give to the poor, never go to court, give her cloak to the man who stole her coat, forgive 70×7, and love and pray for enemies.  Is it not evident that nations need missiles and individuals need guns? Didn’t Jesus say to buy a sword if you don’t have one? 

(What Jesus said in Luke 22 was:^:35 “When I sent you out without a purse, bag, or sandals, did you lack anything?” They said, “No, not a thing.” ³⁶ He said to them, “But now, the one who has a purse must take it, and likewise a bag. And the one who has no sword must sell his cloak and buy one. ³⁷ For I tell you, this scripture must be fulfilled in me, ‘And he was counted among the lawless,’ and indeed what is written about me is being fulfilled.” [ quoting Isaiah 53:12) ³⁸ They said, “Lord, look, here are two swords.” He replied, “It is enough.” The purpose of the two small swords was to fulfill prophesy – to be numbered with law breakers. When Peter used a sword to harm a guard, Jesus rebuked him, saying, “None of that!”)

Jesus clearly taught nonviolence and noncoercion. Impractical as it may seem, Jesus said exactly what he meant, and for three centuries Christians did exactly what he said. They lived communally, sharing everything. They took care of the sick, poor, and abandoned. They welcomed strangers, foreigners, sex workers, those on the margins. They refused government jobs, refused to serve in the military, did not own weapons, and never retaliated. 

And, yes, they were persecuted. Many suffered; many died. Many lost everything. All of them gained eternal glory. They lived like they really believed in everlasting life. Their love was self-sacrificial, other-oriented, nonviolent, noncoercive, and cruciform – just like Jesus. The gospel spread like wildfire. Astonished, people exclaimed, “Behold, how these people love one another!” They are the ones about whose service God is truly proud. 

How many times must the cannon balls fly before they are forever banned? When will we who profess the name of Jesus live as citizens of God’s Kingdom? When will we beat our swords into ploughshares, our spears into pruning hooks? Better to die than kill.