In the October 30 issue of Christian Century there is an article about the use of children as combat soldiers by a number of countries, eight of which receive money from the United States.  If you pay taxes, you are supporting this crime.   The eight countries listed in the article are Burundi, Chad, Colombia, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Uganda.

An estimated 300,000 children currently are soldiers, some no older than eight years of age.  The figures include both boys and girls, many of whom suffer sexual abuse on top of everything else.  The article indicates that often the children are drugged as they are sent to kill, and that sometimes they are used as human mine detectors or sex slaves.  The children also engage in killing other children.  The physical, psychological and spiritual effects are obscenely devastating.

When I was reminded of all of this by the article, I couldn’t decide what to say about it.  Several thoughts flashed through my mind:  the idiocy of war and of those who promote it; the common reality of sending the most “expendable” members of our society to “take out the trash,” as William Sloane Coffin once described it; and, the origins of Mother’s Day as a protest against war and its destructive impact on children and youth.

Most of all, I think, war is an offense against God.  The creation God deemed as “good” comes under assault in times of war, with no regard for the environment or wildlife.  And those created in the image of God are demonized and destroyed in horrific fashion, with more “advanced” and torturous means being developed all the time.

What would it be like if we took seriously God’s sovereignty over matters of life and death?  How would life in this world be different if the resources currently devoted to war, war “education,” war preparation, war equipment, and everything else on which we waste our brainpower, time, and money so we can destroy others and their land, were instead channeled toward sharing food and natural resources, promoting health, sustainability and economic/racial/environmental/gender justice?

Maybe when we run out of expendable people, and those who decide to send them off to fight their wars are the only ones left, things will change.