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Connections A monthly letter calling the church to faithful new life NUMBER 187 - MAY 2008 BARBARA WENDLAND 505 CHEROKEE DRIVE TEMPLE TX 76504-3629 254-773-2625 [email protected] Thinking about war The main question—what to do now? Hearing about war is almost impos- No one in my family is in the military forces. I don’t even personally know anyone who is. My infor- sible to avoid right now. It raises many mation about the current war comes only from read- questions for thinking Christians. Yet the ing daily papers, weekly newsmagazines, and books, war seems to be largely a taboo subject in churches. and hearing war news and opinions from daily TV news programs. From what I get from Congregations are likely to include U.S. troops these sources and what I know about and their families in corporate prayers, of course. the teaching of Jesus, however, I’ve They may also include the citizens of Iraq and Af- come to some tentative conclusions. ghanistan. Pastors and congregation members may A bad mistake send e-mails or gifts on behalf of the congregation to members who are serving in U.S. military forces. It seems to me that attacking Iraq was a bad mis- take. The decision and plans were based on inad- But open discussion of the pros and cons of war and equate information—not just about what was happen- of how participating in it relates to following Jesus ing in and around Iraq, but also about the history, seems to be happening very little. religion, and culture of that area. Also, ulterior mo- tives influenced the original decision and continue to Books that deserve churches’ attention influence U.S. leaders’ decisions. And huge amounts of money have been ineffi- I’ve recently read thought-provoking books about ciently spent, resulting in shoddy con- war, which I wish were being widely discussed in struction, waste of materials, and pay- our churches. I wish we were actively looking for ments to unscrupulous people. If these ways to bring nonchurchgoers into such discussions, funds had been used for humanitarian aid instead of war, they could have gone far toward com- too. I suspect that some who are now turned off by batting poverty and disease and providing basic edu- what they see of churches would become interested cation, not only in the countries where we’re fighting if they saw churches openly examining all sides of but also within the U.S. Those uses of our funds could such vital issues. Some churches undoubtedly are also have promoted the good will that our current ac- sponsoring such discussions, but the ones I see aren’t. tions, policies, and official statements are destroy- ing. Because Christianity—at least, nominal Chris- One book I’ve appreciated is War tianity—is so widespread in the U.S. and some of our Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (An- leaders talk so much about being Christian, our un- christian official actions have given a bad impression chor/Random House, 2002), by Chris not only of the U.S. but also of Christianity. Hedges. He is a seminary graduate and a journalist who has covered several We need open discussion in the church recent wars. His war experiences have To me, the teaching of Jesus says that following convinced him, he tells us, that war him requires being nonviolent, thus avoiding war. forms its own culture. “The rush of battle,” he writes, Other Christians disagree, but the same question “is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a confronts us whatever our opinion about war is. How can we help move our nation from where it is now to drug.” He sees it having the addictive qualities of a better place, with regard to this war? To help find “excitement, exoticism, power, chances to rise above answers, we need more frequent and more open con- our small stations in life, and a bizarre and fantastic versation in the church about such questions. We universe that has a grotesque and dark beauty.” can’t just keep acting as if the questions don’t exist. CONNECTIONS, MAY 2008 - PAGE 2 Seeing the news hurts “The old comradeship, however false,” Hedges reports, “that allowed them to love men and women For me, watching the nightly they hardly knew, indeed, whom they may not have TV news keeps getting more and liked before the war, had vanished.” Even worse, more disturbing, especially when many came to feel that all their sacrifice had been it shows one picture after another for nothing. They saw that their cause lay forgotten, of U.S. troops who have been killed in Iraq and Af- that corrupt leaders were still in power, and that so- ghanistan. And the permanently disabling wounds cial ills like unemployment and poverty hadn’t been of so many seem almost more tragic than the deaths. eliminated. The visits of actors, politicians, and art- The accounts of Iraqi civilians’ deaths and wounds ists during the fighting had been seen as acts of gross are equally sickening. I live near Fort Hood, so the self-promotion, but life was dull when they stopped. local news, too, reminds me not only of what is hap- pening to our troops but also of what their families War empowers murderers are suffering at home. Yet these reports rarely ana- Chris Hedges warns that “even lyze the effects of war that Hedges writes about. as war gives meaning to sterile lives, it also War lets us be noble promotes killers and racists.” It empowers those with a predilection for murder. “Petty gangsters,” he ob- War “dominates culture, distorts served, “reviled in pre-war Sarajevo, were trans- memory, corrupts language, and infects formed overnight at the start of the conflict into war everything around it,” Hedges finds. In heroes.” What they did didn’t change, Hedges saw, addition, “fundamental questions about the but now they did it with an ideological veneer that meaning, or meaninglessness, of our place made it permissible. “Once we sign on for war’s on the planet are laid bare ... War exposes crusade,” he finds, “once we see ourselves on the the capacity for evil that lurks not far below the sur- side of the angels, once we embrace a theological face within all of us.” or ideological belief system that defines itself as the In Hedges’ view, “The enduring attraction of war embodiment of goodness and light, it is only a mat- is this: Even with its destruction and carnage it can ter of how we will carry out murder.” give us what we long for in life. It can give us pur- War suspends self-critical thought pose, meaning, a reason for living. Only when we are in the midst of conflict does the shallowness In Chris Hedges’ view, the patriotism that war and vapidness of much of our lives become appar- heightens discourages critical thinking—especially ent.” Consequently, “war is an enticing elixir. It gives self-critical thinking—when it is needed most. We’re us resolve, a cause. It allows us to be noble.” seeing that happen in the current political campaigns. An emptiness afterward Voters are being distracted from important questions by the trivial question of whether a presidential can- A disconcerting emptiness appears didate does or doesn’t wear a flag pin. “Patriotism, when war ends, Hedges observes. In often a thinly veiled form of collective self-wor- Bosnia, he reports, even people who had lived in ship,” Hedges warns us, “celebrates our fear and hunger, emaciated and constantly targeted goodness, our ideals, our mercy, and be- by gunners, said those days may have been the full- moans the perfidiousness of those who est of their lives. When the fighting ended they faced hate us. Never mind the murder and repression done “the disillusionment with a sterile, futile, empty in our name by bloody surrogates ... ” present. Peace had again exposed the void that the rush of war, of battle, had filled.” “Once again,” “Most of us,” says Hedges, “willingly accept war Hedges saw, “they were, as perhaps we all are, alone, as long as we can fold it into a belief system that no longer bound by that common sense of struggle, paints the ensuing suffering as necessary for a higher no longer given the opportunity to be noble, heroic, good, for human beings seek not only happiness but no longer sure what life was about or what it meant.” also meaning. And tragically war is sometimes the CONNECTIONS, MAY 2008- PAGE 3 most powerful way in human society to achieve We see defeats as signposts on the road to ultimate meaning.” victory. We demonize the enemy so that our oppo- nent is no longer human. We view ourselves, our War can serve as a religion, in fact. “Armed people, as the embodiment of absolute goodness. movements,” Hedges finds, “seek divine sanction Our enemies invert our view to jus- and the messianic certitude of absolute truth.” Pa- tify their own cruelty. ... Each side triotism can furnish these. And its unquestioning reduces the other to objects ... ” adherents, like some unquestioning adherents of Christianity, don’t want to hear from dissenters. “The chief institutions that dis- “Dissenters who challenge the goodness of our seminate the myth,” Hedges finds, cause,” observes Hedges, “who “are the press and the state.” And “the media and question the gods of war, who pull most of the politicians often lack the perspective back the curtains to expose the lie, and analysis to debunk the myths served up by the are usually silenced or ignored.” opposing sides.” The press may finally start seeing and reporting events as they really are, but only af- A call for repentance ter the public has changed its perception of the war.

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