War, what is it good for?

¹Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. ²Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. ³For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; ⁴for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority^£ does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. ⁵Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience. ⁶For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing. ⁷Pay to all what is due them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

³⁹But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; ⁴⁰and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; ⁴¹and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. ⁴²Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

These are the words of Bruce Springsteen, the popular musician, written in a time of relative peace in 1986. They are rewritten and the song is a revision of the original song "War" by Edwin Star, first released during the Vietnam War.

Contrasting these words are the words of the apostle Paul which we read just a moment earlier,

"..if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer…"

So which is it? The way of the Apostle Paul? To support and acknowledge the right of the government to wage war, to use the sword and to act out in violence to quell injustice?

Or the way of the Hollywood artist, the draft dodger, the pacifist, the anti-war activist and many would even say Jesus Christ? No fighting, no war, no military and no violence at any cost?

Which is more moral? Which is more biblical? Which is more advisable now in times like ours?

Today, we wait with deep anticipation to see if the United Nations’ Security Council will approve a new resolution drafted by our government and the government of Great Britain, which seemingly would align the United Nations with those two governments and present at least a strong, united core of powers against Saddam Hussein and increase the likelihood of war with Iraq even more significantly.

Today is also Vartanantz Sunday. The one day all year, each year, when many in Armenian churches worldwide celebrate with joy and pride the loss of a battle but the winning of a war, fought over 1500 years ago.

St. Vartan is called by many "Vartan the Brave." I, like so many children was taught the phrase, 9Fa\ hm ;s1 Fa\ hm ;s1 Gac Wardanin Dorn ;m :s!0 ("Hay em yes, Hay em yes, Katch Vartanin Tornem Yes.") – which translates, "I am Armenian! I am Armenian! I am a grandson of the Brave Vartan."

Those who commemorate the Battle of Avarayr, and the death of Brave Vartan in defense of his Armenian nation and his faith, remember that if they had not fought that day, the Armenian nation would likely have fallen by the historical wayside, gone the way of the Assyrians and the Hittites. They also remember that if they had not fought that day, the festivities of a few years ago, celebrating Christianity's acceptance in Armenia 1700 years ago would have been impossible. That battle lost that day and the war won by the Brave general Vartan's equally brave nephew Vahan, was to preserve the Christian faith in Armenia as well as to allow the Armenian people to survive. The Persians against whom they fought had one demand, that Armenians and all the nations that fell under their influence accept its religion, accept its holy magi as their own and become Zoroastrian by faith like the Persians themselves. The Armenians refused and went to war!

If it wasn't for that battle, those martyrs and that war, the Armenian people would long ago been destroyed and our faith of 1700 years along with us…

Yet how can any Christian argue the clarity of the instructions of Jesus who says, "³⁹But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also?"

Today, on Vartanantz Sunday, when we commemorate the loss of a battle, the creation of a great many martyrs and the winning of a religious war…Today on a day when it is still uncertain whether the United States and Britain will lead the United Nations to war in Iraq, we ask the question, "War, what is it good for?" or more correctly, "Can we as Christians support war in general and in particular, this war which seems so imminent?"

The Vatican has notified the United Nations that they will not support this potential war, because it does not yet fulfill the requirements for being a Just War.

The Catholic Church today is the greatest proponent of a theory that originated centuries ago among the great classical Catholic Theologians. St. Augustine first, then St. Thomas Aquinas and later in the 16^th and 17^th centuries others worked to develop a theory that said war is just and could be permissible, if:

2) If it is waged by a legitimate authority…a nation or some group of recognized nations… no autonomous, unauthorized groups

3) If it is fought to redress a wrong suffered or that is it is a defensive war rather than an offensive war. For example, self-defense against an armed attack is always considered to be a just cause

4) A war can only be just if it is fought with a reasonable chance of success. Deaths and injury incurred in a hopeless cause are not morally justifiable.

7) If the weapons used in war discriminate between combatants and non-combatants. The deaths of civilians are justified only if they are unavoidable victims of a deliberate attack on a military target. [1]

For many, this idea of just war goes a long way to help decide the righteousness and the morality of war.

Clearly, if we apply this method of justifying war to the current situation, we will not find enough reasons to enter Iraq. First because if disarming Iraq is the objective, war is not a last resort. Inspectors are still working and other nations seem to have some ideas they are willing to try before war is inevitable. And second, there is no "wrong suffered," like when Iraq invaded Kuwait ten years ago.

But the Christian idea of Just War is only one alternative, and neither the pacifist nor the supporters of President Bush are clamoring to apply these principles. Many people, both pacifists and those who support war have argued that in general, this just war principle is not helpful. Some say that since WWII, this set of principles have proven obsolete.[2] "The type of weapons that are in use today cannot be applied in moderation and in proportion," pacifists would say, "How can a nuclear weapon, or the carpet bombing of Dresden, Germany and London during WWII be seen as proportional and able to distinguish between military and civilian targets? This principle is obsolete and untenable." The other extreme would argue against the principle as well, saying "If it wasn't for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we might still be fighting World War II. The Just War principles are NOT PRACTICAL!"

Unfortunately, so much of the discussion around these issues are just this confusing. Just when we think we've got a handle on how to proceed, we are left even more deeply muddled than before.

Perhaps we need to turn once again to Jesus and the bible the Christian's ultimate arbiter of faith and life. But here too, we have more of this confusion.

Jesus did instruct his followers to turn the other cheek when evil strikes in the face, as he himself did by assuming the cross. Yet he "drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves"[3]

However, we never see him act with violence against any person. The power of Jesus' personality and his simple show of anger and emotion could have been enough to "drive" people from the temple. He didn't necessarily need a whip or a sword to do this.

But he did instruct his disciples, whom he sent out into the world to evangelize, "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…³⁸They said, “Lord, look, here are two swords.” He replied, “It is enough."[4]

On the other hand ^"When Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear. …¹¹Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?”[5]

And finally Jesus says, "³⁴“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵For I have come to set a man against his father,

For every word of Jesus' bidding pacifism, there is a counter-instruction that incorporates passion bordering on violence. For each action that emphasizes righteousness and God's wrath upon the wicked, there is also a move to demonstrate compassion.

Ultimately, it is no surprise that the issue of War, through history has been one that is notoriously difficult for Christians. The crusader is just as much a part of the history and tradition of Christianity as the conscientious objector.

Ultimately, we find that there are no easy answers. We end this journey not far from the difficult, chaotic and confused point where we first began. I don't have any easy, final and "last word" kinds of answers, to the question of whether or not war is permissable for Christians.

But for each of us remains the word of Scripture, in which we hear the words of Paul, " But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. ⁵Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience." In the end, each of us must do what our conscience informs us to do, not what is spooned from above, governed by fear or compulsion. And it is not easy.

The Apostle Paul also said, " work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure."

Ultimately we do not know the final answer to all the questions of life but we must learn to struggle with them, and we are left with some important ideas: compassion, righteousness and justice, peace, non-violence, passion, forgiveness, moderation, love, protection and mercy all must somehow inform our conscience so that we can work things out with struggle, fear and trembling.

Personally, I too believe that war with Iraq seems pre-mature and ill conceived. Yet these feelings are intensely personal and cannot be based on absolutes of Christian truths or biblical morality.

Perhaps on issues as deeply difficult and profoundly dangerous as this, absolutes are too impersonal, too irresponsible, too out of touch with humanity and too inflexible.

But we must allow these absolutes, these principles and ideas stemming from deep thought and struggle with God's word and the ideas of other women and men, to inform us and to fill out our own souls gives pause and depth our moves.

Ultimately, as Christians, we can be confused, we can disagree with one another, we can find ourselves on opposite sides of the lines of war, we can struggle and be laden by the weight of war, and perhaps all the awfulness of such a confusing, confounding reality and this brings us to one place. Here, back to the fellowship of believers, where even though in our midst we might find supporters of war in Iraq and pacifists, supporters of the Just War principle and those who do not, veterans of foreign wars and the military alongside veterans of the tumultuous anti-war and peace movements.

Here in God's house, in the fellowship of all believers, we can plant the seeds of hope that lead beyond difference.

As we bear witness to all the world how we might live together despite differences, we may begin to show how to learn love, despite hatred and regardless of how we might feel about this potentially imminent war and about armed conflict in general, we might begin to show the grace, mercy and love of our Christ to all the world, as an alternative and a way which would render war obsolete if we were only able to allow it to do so.

[1] http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pol116/justwar.htm see also, http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/j/justwar.htm and http://www.monksofadoration.org/justwar.html

[2] see again http://www.monksofadoration.org/justwar.html

[3] Matthew 21:12

[4] Luke 22:37-38

[5] John 18:10-11

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