Violence Visited On Innocents

Child: “God, why do you allow violence in schools?

God: “I’m not allowed in schools.”

This is an meme you see all the time, hopefully from Christians being dumb, not serious. It is so prevalent I thought I’d take a closer look at it ‘cause something about it just set’s my teeth on edge.

Would  God withdraw protection from children in public schools, many of whom are probably from Christian families, based on adults restricting the use of corporate Christian prayer in those schools? Can God’s very presence be kept from schools by human law? If our God is just, wouldn’t requiring the fair and equitable application of that justice be something He would demand of Himself? Would He really allow person “A”, in this a case little child, to be rendered into hamburger by a madman armed with a rapid fire weapon as punishment for the actions of person “B”?

God is all powerful we’re told, He can do whatever He wants.  Well sociopaths do that. Is that how you view your Creator? Does the fact that God has the power to do whatever He wants mean He would? Doesn’t God possess a moral and ethical framework within which He exercises that infinite power?

Now God’s purposes and designs are mysterious, not always understood in our lives. That I’ll grant you. But to ascribe petty vindictiveness to the same God who in love sent His Son to die for us, the God who’s fruits are “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control”(Galations 5) is not a credible theology.

How Can This Be? A Brown Miss America?

Spoiler alert, this is satire.

In a stunning turn of events it was revealed that Nina Davuluri, recently crowned Miss America, is brown. There must be a disturbance in the force.

Worse, it turns out she’s a Hindu of Indian decent. Yes, that’s Hindu, spelled M-U-S-L-I-M.  

So now we’ve got a brown skinned Hindu that everybody knows is secret for Mohammed loving terrorist, beating out a blonde, blue-eyed, tattooed, all American Midwesterner that hunts with a by God bow and arrow, a full blooded Kansan losing out to some jihadi who must’ve snuck in to the country via a terrorist operated deli in the Bronx? How can this be?

This would never have happened if “W” was still president. Things have just gone to hell in a handbasket since the DemSocialists imported the black dude from Kenya and ran him for president against the whitest ex-pow in the history of warfare, then ran him again against the closest thing to a Christian we could find that could even spell “lower taxes”.

She is hot though.

The Enemy Of Witness

Pastors are exhorted to “contend for the faith” (which usually amounts to contending with other pastors, and damning all who disagree with them), and “the faith” is taken to be a set of timeless “doctrines” rather than any distinctive Christian way of living.~Vinoth Ramachandra

All too often doctrine becomes the enemy of witness. It’s not doctrines fault, it’s just the wrong place for it.  Doctrine is a function of the mind, not the language of the heart. It’s how we live out our doctrine that changes hearts, not the doctrine itself.

So if you must contend for the faith, contend with your Christian way of living. Does my life reflect the love of Jesus or the doctrine? Am I caring for the disadvantaged or just preaching at them? Does my life mirror the gentleness and humility of Jesus found in Mathew 11:29 or am I arrogant in my Christian superiority?  

Unbelievers prone to tuning out the cacophony of 30,000 denominational doctrines, can “hear” the heart of a simple follower of Christ.

A Harvest Of Righteousness.

 James 3:18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

 

Once again evil is abroad in the world, innocents are murdered with unspeakable weapons, and we are being called to address this injustice with instruments of war. These are words that could have been spoken at any time in history.

If we stand by and do nothing we become complicit in the slaughter of innocents, starry eyed dreamers of peace only allow murderous tyrants to work their will we are told. Advocates for peace are unrealistic. Force must be met with force or evil triumphs. We must have “Just War”.

Maybe we should consider waging a “Just Peace”.   

When Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Mathew 5:9,  He was calling us to action, to make peace, not just passive non-violence. There are movements growing up around us waging peace and we can add our voices to them. Start or join prayer groups, Take action. Reap a harvest of righteousness.

Evil Afoot

Yesterday I got caught up in a discussion with some Christians agitating for military intervention in Syria, and when I pointed out that Jesus said “Love your enemies” Mathew 5: 43,44 something occurred that happens so often in these disagreements. They began quoting (mostly) Old Testament scripture to support their positions. And when I called them on that asking “Do you believe Jesus is Lord, and if so are you a believer or just a fan?” they got quite irate.

You see, as Tim Tully puts it, if Jesus is Lord, when the Bible describes the example Jesus sets, and when the Bible narrates the commandments from the mouth of Jesus, I understand these as the highest revelation of the Father.  There is no quoting Old Testament prophets out of context to explain away the words of Jesus.

Those Christians were basically espousing “Just War” theology which basically states:

A just war can only be waged as a last resort. All non-violent options must be exhausted before the use of force can be justified.

A war is just only if it is waged by a legitimate authority. Even just causes cannot be served by actions taken by individuals or groups who do not constitute an authority sanctioned by whatever the society and outsiders to the society deem legitimate.

A just war can only be fought to redress a wrong suffered. For example, self-defense against an armed attack is always considered to be a just cause (although the justice of the cause is not sufficient--see point #4). Further, a just war can only be fought with "right" intentions: the only permissible objective of a just war is to redress the injury.

A war can only be just if it is fought with a reasonable chance of success. Deaths and injury incurred in a hopeless cause are not morally justifiable.

The ultimate goal of a just war is to re-establish peace. More specifically, the peace established after the war must be preferable to the peace that would have prevailed if the war had not been fought.

The violence used in the war must be proportional to the injury suffered. States are prohibited from using force not necessary to attain the limited objective of addressing the injury suffered.

The weapons used in war must discriminate between combatants and non-combatants. Civilians are never permissible targets of war, and every effort must be taken to avoid killing civilians. The deaths of civilians are justified only if they are unavoidable victims of a deliberate attack on a military target.

And there is an allure to "Just War" theology that appeals to many compassionate Christians.  There is, after all, real evil afoot and defenseless innocents must be protected. There are no easy answers to the dilemma between a call to protect the innocent and the words of Jesus.

I do know this, just war never stays that way. In World War Two the battle against the evils of Hitler ended with the mass slaughter of civilians in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan and the fire bombing of Dresden in Germany.

So for right now I’m sticking with Jesus is Lord, and I believe He meant what He said.