War: Why I Care

            Author Daniel Clendenin (Ph.D.) writes thought provoking essays on the weekly readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. Read this week’s essay at: http://www.journeywithjesus.net/. I have always found Clendenin’s essays insightful and sometimes I harvest great sermon ideas from reading them. This week’s essay is perhaps one of the best I’ve read, simply because it is so timely. The title caught my eye: “I’m Already Against the Next War: War and Violence, Sacred and Secular.” Clendenin’s opening words leapt off the page at me: “The fourth of July will see many jet fly-overs at parades and baseball games. I find these displays of military might technologically awesome but morally repulsive.” I agree!

Today a well-intentioned email showed up in my inbox pointing out that nine U. S. Marines were killed in a four-day span in Afghanistan. These casualties were members of the 2^nd battalion, fifth Marines.  The person who sent the email asked us to pass it on as a way to honor these fallen Marines, since the tragedy is not being reported in the mainstream media. Then she said, “Because no one seems to care.” Well I do care even though I rarely forward these kinds of emails out of respect for other people’s overly full inboxes.  

            I care about these young Marines whose ages range from twenty-three to twenty-nine years old (according to the email), all of which were way too young to die. I care because such deaths are the harsh consequences of real war and not the sanitized versions we often see on television or at the movie theatres. Ironically those who have never experienced firsthand the chaos and brutality of war are often the biggest supporters of our nation’s conflicts. Yet I know those who have experienced combat up close and personal and have become strident opponents of war and are some of our most energetic spokespersons for peace.

            Yet I care for another reason. I care because of what war does to our youngest and most cherished treasures. As the late William Sloan Coffin, chaplain of Yale University, once said: “War turns some boys into men; and it turns others into animals.” We should not be surprised when we hear news reports of American soldiers urinating on Afghan corpses, or American soldiers burning the Muslim holy book in a garbage dump, or reports of an American staff sergeant who massacred seventeen civilians in two Afghan villages, including the children, or the brutal practice of torturing Muslim prisoners of war. Such practices remind me of what the late New Testament scholar Walter Wink said: We become our enemy.

            But I suppose the biggest reason I care is that war, especially over a prolonged period of time, deadens our sensitivities to its very horrors. Unfortunately nine Marines dying in Afghanistan is no longer newsworthy, but just another day at the office. I care because I witness a nation that has romanticized war under the mantra of fighting to protect American Democracy or American freedoms. I care because less than 1% of the American population serve in the military and those who don’t have come to assume that war is just a part of everyday life for America. I care because America seems to have lost her moral compass and believes that the kid with the biggest gun on the playground has the right to impose his will on weaker boys.

            But in the words of author Andrew Bacevich, our idolatrous love of the military “pervades our national consciousness and perverts our national policies.” In other words, being the world’s only super power has inflated our national ego and has given us a false sense of superiority relative to the rest of the world. Clendenin is right; some wars have to be fought as a last resort (e.g., WW II). But I have higher hopes for humanity. I have deep respect for those who serve in the military and willingly fight our nations wars. I have less respect for the politicians who wage war yet never personally fight in the very wars they start; nor are they or be honest enough to admit to the real reasons why we went to war in the first place. Claiming American interests are at stake is getting old and less convincing.

            I close with a question Clendenin asks at the end of his essay, a question that should haunt all peace loving followers of the Prince of Peace: “How do we honor the sacrifices made by our soldiers while dissenting from military ideology?” This should be the burden of us all. God bless America—God transform America—God save America!