We as Americans are gearing up for a war with the evil that is Saddam Hussein. Soon America will be free from the fear that Saddam will use his weapons of mass destruction against us. We, as a majority of Americans, have given our support to President George W. Bush to launch the attack if (and we mean when) Saddam breaks his agreement with the U.N. We realize that this will result in the death of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of Iraqi and American soldiers. We are willing to wage war, and consent to the civilian deaths (acceptable collateral damage) that will inevitably be a result, to make sure America is secure.
But the question that arises, the question that comes in the form of sin crucified, the question that comes, as a spirit descending is "What about Jesus?" The issue we are presenting here is that people aren’t approaching this crisis thinking about Jesus, but about their own security. It is very understandable that we, as Americans, should desire security after the events of 9/11. However, does committing violence against Iraq (and it will be all of Iraq, not just Saddam) bring us this security? Is there something more in line with Christ’s life that we as Christians should encourage and even take an active role in convincing our government to do? We think there is. We think that war is not the answer to the violence that Saddam has committed against his own people, and may even commit against us. We think it is a poor witness to kill the victims of the very tyrant against whom we are taking a stand.
Most of the questions that are raised against this kind of thinking involve, “What about Saddam’s atrocities and the evils that he has committed? Are we to ignore that and wait for a nuclear weapon to go off in New York City?” But we are not ignoring the “facts;” we are simply maintaining that we must subordinate them to the commands of Christ. There are facts to support both positions in the question of war, and these facts are indeed important. But we would like to suggest that as Christians we must first ask if we are living the life that Christ has called us to. One is reminded of a phrase often heard among our churches: “It’s not about being successful, it’s about being faithful.” Do we have the faith that Abraham did? The faith to do what God has commanded of us even if it goes against all common sense and the wisdom of the world (which God has made foolish)?
The American reaction to Iraq has nothing to do with faith. If we are to react in a Christian manner to events in the Middle East, it would require actually believing in Jesus, but nobody wants to do that. We’d rather have Jesus act as a parachute: it’s good to have it there just in case, but you hope you don’t really have to use it. We are much like the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16-22. We approach Jesus and ask, “What is the least I can do to follow you and still get the things I want?” Jesus replies, “Give everything in which you find your identity and follow me to the cross.” In other words, there is no “least” we can do: we either are followers of Christ or we are not.
So what happens when the question of Jesus is asked? The simple answer is: people ignore it. For all the talk about abstract and practical—which we find to be nothing less than exactly the same fixation—we refuse to let real human life, human suffering and human joy, into our debate. If we think about Jesus we have to think about giving up our own lives, we have to think about the other person, we have to think about forgiveness, we have to think about repentance, we have to think about actually doing those things, we have to think about living that way: THE CROSS. We can't divorce death from ourselves and think about just Iraqis or Americans dying, we have to think about ourselves dying for another person. If we take Christ's life seriously then we must demand the impossible. I guess we, as a corporate body, don't take that life seriously.
The initial challenge that we propose to our campus is to imagine what it would be like if the American response to 9/11 and the way in which we approached Iraq looked something more like the life of Christ. Instead of reacting in rage, would we react in repentance? Instead of spouting ideals of our own personal security, would we concern ourselves with the plank in our own eye (i.e., what did we do that drove these people to resort to such an extreme measure)? Instead of assuming that we have private access to all truth and moral excellence, would we wonder if maybe there’s a reason much of the rest of the world rejoiced when we had violence committed against us?
[We have no desire to cause infighting on the campus or to enrage our fellow students, but our conviction is that we must not remain silent to the actions our country is taking in the light of Christ and his life--We wish to take specific Christian actions towards encouraging our government to act differently and showing love to the oppressed people in Iraq. Not that this is the final answer, but it is a move towards repentance.]
