Christian Jihad Anyone?

The picture on my Facebook page startled me. No joke, I was shocked.

I immediately thought to myself: "Something has gone terribly wrong with our vision of what Christianity is supposed to mean." 

Two young soldiers each holding a M-16 rifle in one hand and the Bible in the other. The caption beneath the photo read:

“These soldiers are serving our country in Afghanistan right now!”

Okay I get it! I get all the patriotic posts on Facebook over the past couple of days. I get all the “Support our troops” hype. I get all the heartfelt memes honoring our war dead. I get it.

But I don’t get this picture.

It makes absolutely no sense. As hard as one might try there is no way to harmonize this photo with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. No way Hosea! Sorry, I find it to be in bad taste as well as in violation of the core teachings of Jesus on non-violence.

When I first saw this picture my mind immediately went to the Gospel of Matthew and the story of when Jesus was arrested. Trying hard to protect Jesus from the Roman soldiers who came to arrest him, Peter drew his sword and swiped off a soldier’s ear.

Immediately Jesus responded: 

“Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?”

Peter was simply responding like any of us would have, given the situation. I mean, we humans are taught from an early age that the only appropriate response to a threat of violence is with further violence.

I am willing to bet that Peter’s dad probably trained him in the art of school yard fighting: When hit you must hit back and twice as hard! My father taught me never to start a fight but if one came my way hit back.

So we can’t beat up on old Peter too badly, can we? He was only reacting according to his childhood training. We probably would have done the same thing if we were in Pete's sandals.

It is ironic that this Facebook post was a testimony to the ultimate consequence of human violence and war, especially violence that is authorized and sanctioned by the State.

Jesus was quite clear about what happens when the sword is unsheathed: 

Death will occur!

But not just physical death: War has a way of eroding the life out of the human soul. The effects of war live on long after the shooting stops. The lives that are ruined are too many to count. The damage done to destroy the joy of living is immeasurable. 

Plus I would like to suggest that war is the ultimate act of resistance to the grace and mercy of God.

Jesus knew this, he must have or he would have never instructed Peter to sheath his sword. In fact he told Peter that if he could call down legions of angles. A legion was a Roman military term. Jesus’ use of this term was no accident.

Yet I suppose the most offensive thing about this photo was the implication that Christianity supports and justifies war as a holy endeavor. A holy jihad of sorts. To take this a step further is to say that Jesus preached a Gospel of justified violence: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

It implies that we are authorized by God to hate our enemies enough so to kill them all: “Nuke’em for Jesus!”

Fundamentalists seem to believe this.

But Jesus had other ideas about how we are to respond to threats of violence:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven . . .”

The normal response to this teaching is:

“Well this is just too hard!”

Well of course it is. Faithfully following Jesus is mot difficult. This is why the world for the most part has ignored his teachings on the non-violent approach to human conflict. The world sees no value in such an approach. It’s really a matter of a lack of trust in Jesus’ prescription for peace.

So honor your warriors if you must, but please keep Jesus out of the picture. He had far greater ideas about how to deal with human conflict and it wasn’t a Christian Jihad.