Category: Peace

War and the Limits of Morality

”When the statesmen and lawyers
And preachers of duty disappear
There are no more robberies either
And the world is at peace” – Chuang Tzu (or Zhuangzi, 4th century BC)1

Chuang Tzu, in the above quote, views moral principles as supports for all kinds of wickedness and a barrier to peace.

President Biden is a moral man and speaks the language of morality and principles, a morality that provides lofty rhetoric for the support (in money and weapons) of the genocidal war in Gaza. But, of course, war of all kinds has been given principled and moral support. We do all manner of evil in the name of the good or of God.

President Harry Truman, after the dropping of atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, rationalized the use of nuclear weapons for gaining and maintaining peace: He promised “recommendations to the Congress as to how atomic power can become a powerful and forceful influence towards the maintenance of world peace.” And he gave thanks to God that the Germans failed in their attempt to produce the atom bomb. He said “We may be grateful to Providence that the Germans…did not get the atomic bomb at all.” (There are nine nations today that have nuclear warheads and, of course, we are no closer to peace.)

With our moral justifications, we are able to reason that war makes and maintains peace, blind to the reality we continue to live.

Like Chuang Tzu, St. Paul saw the limits of principles to live by. For him, the most that moral law could do is to be a disciplinarian until we come to be in Christ. It puts some constraints on us but does not keep us from evil.

For Paul, our morals and principles to live by lead to self-righteousness and the judging and condemnation of others. Moral reasoning brought about the death of Jesus. Paul’s morality, before he came to be in Christ, brought about the persecution of the followers of the Way.

As the alternative to moral principles, Chuang Tzu calls us to be open to the Tao (the Way), Paul calls us to be open to the Logos (the Word). Paul writes, ““The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (Romans 10:8).” As with Jesus’ “reign of God,” the needed word and direction is not far away; it is near. But to receive it, we must become open by the self-emptying of our lives. Jesus tells us we must relinquish ourselves in order to find our true selves and receive true discernment and direction.

Paul tells us that the children of God are led not by a set of principles or laws but by the Spirit. The Spirit opens us to the living and active word and to the way we are to walk in. With the Spirit there is discernment and the next steps that Love gives us to take.

Nations will continue to go to war and support war and justify their actions in moral terms and with principled rationales. In the midst of this, God calls forth witnesses who will live and speak from the word that is near.

In this present evil age, their witness points to a future with hope, a future not of our own making, a future that does not arise from our ideologies, moralities, and principles, but rather comes as a gift of God. This witness springs from those who empty themselves and are open to the Word and Way that is near.

The prophet Isaiah speaks such a word of hope from a place of relinquishment and openness. Placing God’s future before us, he then calls us to walk in the light of that future:

God shall judge between the nations
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation;
neither shall they learn war any more.
O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of the Lord!

Isaiah 2:1-5
  1. Thomas Merton, The Way of Chuang Tzu, p.68 ↩︎
Filed under: Peace, Spirit, War, WitnessTagged with: ,

Preparing For War In A World That Goes Hungry

“On March 9, 2023, the Biden-Harris Administration submitted to Congress a proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Budget request of $842 billion for the Department of Defense (DoD), an increase of $26 billion over FY 2023 levels and $100 billion more than FY 2022.”

U.S Department of Defense

“We need $40 billion dollars per year to feed all of the world’s hungry people and end global hunger by 2030.”

U.N. World Food Programme

Consider it: $842 billion for war preparation versus $40 billion for ending global hunger.

At this point in human history, we have so excelled at preparation for war that we are capable of ending life on this planet in a great conflagration. War preparation, itself, daily contributes to the loss of life. In our fixation on ever more effective ways of killing, we ignore men, women, and children who are dying of hunger. We do so by spending obscene amounts of money on implements of death and on preparing men and women to end life, money that could be spent to save life. This commitment to war as a solution is one of the few major issues that receives bipartisan support.

There is an alternative:

Tertullian (155-c.-240 AD), reflected on Jesus’ words to Peter: “Put your sword back into its sheath.” He wrote, “The Lord in disarming Peter henceforth disarms every soldier.” When will we believe this? When will we choose life? And not be selective about it? All life is precious, life in the womb and outside the womb, young and old, saint and sinner, broken and whole.

But we would have to believe that Jesus, in disarming Peter, disarms every soldier. We would have to believe that Christ opened the way for fullness of life. (“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”) In a world that believes in the power of death, we would have to believe in the power of resurrection. We would have to believe in life: trust in life to overcome death, peace to overcome war, love to overcome hate, faith to overcome fear, hope to overcome despair.

What if we replaced the Department of Defense with a Department of Peace? What if we specialized in peacemaking rather than war-making? What if we studied war no more? What if we loved our enemies and prayed for them? What if we did justice and showed mercy?

Yes, such a change would take a complete reorienting of our lives, a recentering at the core. It would mean our spirit would be moved by the Holy Spirit. And yes, it is hard to imagine this on a societal and global scale. We know that, in this age, there will be “wars and rumors of wars,” and that “nation will rise against nation (Matthew 24:6-7).” The human condition, without a spiritual revolution, demands it.

No other response to military aggression can be conceived—except by the kind of spiritual vision we encounter in someone like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who at an ecumenical conference in 1934, raised the question of what might happen if peace were dared, “What if one nation should meet the aggressor, not with weapons in hand, but praying, defenseless, and for that very reason protected by ‘a bulwark never failing’?”

Of course, Jesus spoke, not of nations, but of his followers as a “little flock” and indicated that few would respond to God’s call. Few could imagine something so outlandish as trusting in God in the face of military might and crucifixion. That being true, start with that truth:

Little flock, take up your cross and follow. Jesus, in disarming Peter, disarms you. Having been disarmed, do not sign up to be armed again. Instead, choose to do justice and love mercy and do the work of peacemaking. Witness to the new life, the life that comes from being reconciled to God and to one another.

Nations will continue to operate in the way they always have. Egotism, arrogance, and hegemony will reign—and be supported by false religion. In the world as it is, witnesses are needed. Jesus calls forth those who will be light in the world. He calls them to be witnesses “to the ends of the earth,” so that all might know where unconditional love and wholeness is to be found, and where true peace and justice reside.

In being witnesses to what God is doing through Christ, we prepare for the “age to come” when “the wolf shall live with the lamb; the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the lion will feed together, and a little child shall lead them (Isaiah 11:6).”

Filed under: Discipleship, Peace, War, WitnessTagged with: , ,

Learning War No More

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Isaiah 2:4)

The United States brought its 20-year war in Afghanistan to a close and proved again the futility of war for nation-building and constructive outcomes. After trillions of dollars were spent and thousands of civilians and soldiers maimed or killed, the United States left Afghanistan to the Taliban it had pushed out 20 years earlier. The speed at which the Taliban took over the nation revealed how little impact the United States had on governance in Afghanistan. More to the point, it demonstrated the futility of war for positive outcomes. (When we assume positive outcomes, it is only because we have no experience with the alternative: God’s governance.)

Nevertheless, nations will lift up swords against nations and the United States will continue its warring ways. We spend massive amounts of money on learning war—on building sophisticated weaponry and training warriors. And we have shown our propensity to use what we have learned.

What if we stopped studying war and started studying peacemaking? What if we spent the money we now spend for war preparation on humanitarian aid, building up communities, and on the ways that make for peace? What if, instead of making our security the paramount issue, we made doing justice our focus?

Of course, the radical nature of these thoughts means they are immediately dismissed by any in positions of government leadership. What is painful, is that many Christians are dismissive of such thinking. That has not always been true. In the first centuries of the church, Christian leaders spoke with one voice against war. It was assumed that followers of Jesus could not take up arms. They could not be soldiers. Former soldiers were to learn war no more: “The Lord in disarming Peter henceforth disarms every soldier.” (Tertullian, 155 AD – c. 220 AD)

Despite the state of Christianity today, there remain Christians who continue the tradition of the first centuries of the church. They take up the work of peacemaking and therefore do justice. They stand against war as a means of securing our lives and the life of our nation.

In witnessing for peace and against war, I have no illusions that any nation will give up warring. Capitalism and greed do not give up war as a means of securing possessions and gaining power. Enmity and fighting remain as ways of this world. Nevertheless, the followers of Jesus are to witness to God’s governance and God’s ways. They are to demonstrate, by their lives, a radically different way of living and of doing relationships. Love must abound among us. How else can others hear us, when we proclaim the good news Jesus proclaimed, “Turn to God, for the governance of God is near.”

We must keep before ourselves and others the radical message of Jesus:

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for justice’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Filed under: Discipleship, Justice, PeaceTagged with: , ,

Followers of Jesus and War

With the assassination of a leader in another nation, the United States has expanded its warring ways in the Middle East and increased the possibilities of all-out war with Iran. In the face of this reality, the follower of Jesus does not look to see where his or her political party affiliation is on this issue. The follower does not look to a particular ideology or philosophy or the “realistic” response within the framework of global politics. Nor does the follower check with his or her feelings about kin and country, people and nation.

The follower of Jesus listens to the one he or she follows:

“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; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:43-45)

Jesus, who proclaims that the “reign of God” is near, lets us know that God’s love is near. God’s love is not limited to the love of neighbor and kin. After all, God loves a humanity that has run from God. Paul, in his letter to the congregation in Rome, reminds us that “while we were enemies” (to God), God reconciled us. This love of God, the love that loves enemies, is near and we can open ourselves to it, surrender our lives to it, so that we pray for those who persecute us. So that we do what Proverbs 25 encourages us to do: “If your enemies are hungry, give them bread to eat; and if they are thirsty, give them water to drink.”

This love is counter-cultural and counters the operation of worldly politics. It is to this love that the followers of Jesus must witness. God has a radically different way for us to operate than that of the power-politics of the nations of the world. Within the framework of national sovereignty, security, and national interests, coercive power plays a dominant role. And this love of God that loves enemies, makes no sense and has no place. But that must not keep the follower of Jesus from witnessing to that love. We witness to God’s reign and ways of governing. We call a world back to the source of all creation. It is a call from death to life—to Life Itself.

The seeming futility of such a witness must not keep us from witnessing. It is a matter of faithful obedience to the one we follow—to the living Christ. We must witness in word and action. In the early centuries of the church of Christ, there was a common recognition that following Jesus excluded soldiering. (Second century, Tertullian: “The Lord in disarming Peter henceforth disarms every soldier.”) The “just war theory” came later as Christianity became entangled with the state.

Follower of Jesus, witness to God’s love that reveals itself most powerfully in the love of enemies and acts by making peace where there is discord. Encourage the community of faith of which you are a member to operate in solidarity as a witness. Join with others to call this nation away from war and warring ways. Call it to the ways of peace. The security of this nation will never be in its power over others globally or in its expanding and maintaining its “interests.” It will be in doing justice and its care for the needs of others. Its oppressive and unjust actions in the world pave the way for its destruction. We must witness to those oppressive ways, for our nation and its leaders are in denial and operate blind to this nation’s own forms of terror unleashed upon others.

As witnesses, we are called to prayer and action. In a world that gravitates to war, we are to do those things that make for peace: Do justice, love mercy and live faithfully. Jesus says to us, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

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“Deliver Us From Evil”

In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Evil only produces death. God, who comes to us in Christ, gives life.

When I hear people urge us to war, when I hear leaders talk easily—again!—about preparing for war, I see evil at work; the thief is at work to maim, destroy and steal lives away from mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, wives and husbands and children. When a leader provides us with his “brilliant” rationale for regime change by military action, I do not hear brilliance or reasonableness or wisdom or knowledge; I hear evil stealing away heart and mind, compassion and love. The thief is present to do the only thing evil does: steal, kill and destroy.

Evil takes possession of our minds. It has us think that we have a reasonable approach to a problem, when, in reality, we have a plan that produces maimed bodies, traumatized minds, and death. Evil has us in a cycle of sin and death. Because of war, we have seen (and are presently seeing) hundreds of thousands killed. We have seen children left without parents, hundreds of thousands flee in terror, become refugees, displaced and hungry. We have seen the growth, rather than the diminishment, of terrorist organizations. And our bombs and weaponry terrorize, leaving death and destruction.

Possessed by evil, we think war makes sense; evil even has us think that we have understood the problem for which we have decided war is the solution. Some may question my use of the word, “possessed,” here. But, the word is descriptive of our experience, as we keep doing the same massively destructive activity, thinking that we will get different results. It is apparent that we cannot free ourselves. St. Paul writes of our being “captive to the law of sin.” We suffer from a form of possession. Christians have learned to confess this captivity in the words of a prayer of confession: “Most merciful God, we confess that we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves.”

With confession, we no longer deny our condition. We are at the starting point of change. We acknowledge our bondage (as the prayer continues) “in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.” Our thoughts and words have entangled us in destructive, harmful ways which we have rationalized. With confession, we acknowledge that we have been unable to stop going to war and justifying our actions.

The prayer of confession continues, “We have not loved you (God) with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.” Now we get to the root of our warring ways: not loving, being alienated from the God who is love. This prayer of confession ends with these words, “Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name. Amen.”

This prayer moves us to return to the source of our lives where we experience mercy, renewal, guidance, and delight in God’s will for humanity. As we discover life lived from Love, we become witnesses to love and peacemakers. We become, in St. Paul’s words, “ambassadors of reconciliation,” issuing the call to others to be reconciled to God and become at peace with one another. In response to the call, others join the movement to make peace and stand against war. They unite in a movement that works for change in heart, mind, and action. By our words and deeds, we affect the nation in which we reside, so that it may not so easily go to war, but rather become a more just society that acts justly in the global community. Acting justly is conducive to peace.

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Walking by Faith Through the Storm

A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But [Jesus] was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” (Mark 4:37-40)

Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. I count this as the first miracle in the story. The second is the calming of the storm.

We relate to this story because we all experience storms. They take many forms: natural catastrophes, breakdowns of one kind or another, the inhumanity of human beings toward each other (our sin that dehumanizes us and the sins of others that hurt us). Whether our storms come from within or without, they create disturbance and fear and test our faith in God. They occasion the question, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

Fear tempts us to trust in ourselves rather than God. Anxiety creates an urgency to take things into our own hands as if there is no time to wait on God and discern next steps. Faith, on the other hand, will have us at peace in the midst of the storm—even in the midst of a societal breakdown. It will, therefore, free us to act in life-giving ways.

Faith in God enabled Jesus to sleep as the storm raged, and also enabled him to calm the storm. It is by faith that we realize God’s presence and power. I have the impression that when Jesus, after calming the storm, said to his disciples, “Have you still no faith?” he was implying that if they had believed, they would have calmed the storm themselves rather than wake him up. After all, he said, elsewhere, that if they had faith the size of a mustard seed, they could move mountains.

Jesus calls us to desire after God and to draw near to God that we might increasingly live from God. We are encouraged that a very little faith—a mustard seed size—will take us a long way in facing and engaging the disorder of our time. By faith, we find that we can walk through storms, and receive, learn and grow. The storms will come, and some will be long-lasting, but, by resting in God, we will rest in the storm. And, at times, be given the power to calm the storm.

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