Militarism

Greg

The worship of the military has led many professing Christians to betray the Kingdom of God.  Many professing Christians will decry the abortion of American babies, but they do not say a word when the military kills people in other countries (including women and children) for the US Empire. God’s will for the people of other nations to come to repentance is ignored by many professing Christians for the sake of “spreading democracy” and maintaining US hegemony.  In fact, Christians in other countries are killed due to the policies of American interventionism, or their homes are destroyed, and some professing Christians will ask God to bless the military as it wreaks havoc in their lives.  Many churchgoers are more influenced by American tribalism than they are the teachings of Christ.

Pointing to the missions that God gave to Israel in the Old Testament is not a justification for claiming the US has a mission from God to police the world and destroy people in other countries.  I believe that the principle of defending one’s family from violence is present in the scriptures, but this should not be equated with the militaristic nature of the State. For anyone who takes this matter seriously, there is no doubt that the US is at the top of this list, as evidenced by the military’s invasion of numerous countries over the past century and a half, its foreign bases in countries all over the world, its proxy wars, and the fact that the US Government has sold weaponry to some of the most repressive government regimes on earth.
 
US military personnel have made many orphans and widows, not because their own homes were being invaded or because their families were in danger, but because the State commanded them to invade, occupy, kill, and destroy.  It is certainly disturbing to hear some professing Christians attempt to defend the fact that the US military dropped two atomic bombs on the men, women, and children of Japan, or that it was justifiable to bomb and slaughter and starve the men, women, and children of Iraq, to name just two examples.  It is one thing to protect one’s family from harm, it is another to invade other territories and kill for the State because it is one’s “job.” The interventionism of the US military does not provide us with freedom, though this claim is made by propagandists who stand to benefit from US militarism.  Christ does not call his people to invade and kill people in other countries, or to spread certain forms of government, but to lay their lives down for him and the gospel. Christ is the King of kings, yet he forbade his followers from killing for him. Yet some would have us believe we should kill for a president, a congress, for “democracy” (majoritarian rule), or for “our country.” Engaging in war for the monopolistic, interventionist, imperialistic State is immoral and unjustifiable for the Christian.

There was a day when the disciples James and John, referring to their enemies, asked the Lord Jesus: "Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.  And they went to another village."

Christ’s kingdom is not of this world, therefore the kingdom to which true Christians belong is not of this world. Those who are following Christ will be living sacrifices, seeking the conversion of non-Christians, not their destruction. Making the claim that military personnel that kill are only obeying orders, when it has nothing to do with actual defense, is no justification before God.  Murder is evil whether it is done by an individual on the street, or an individual or group of individuals in uniform.