Necessary Evil

Bring up the war in Iraq in this part of the country (NW Iowa) and you're likely to get one of two responses. Either people don't want to talk about it...or they get all patriotic on you. "Support the troops"..."sacrifice"..."freedom"..."remember 9-11" - George W. Bush as the mythical American hero...and this is just in the Christian community. Now I'm not questioning any one's salvation...many people who give me the aforementioned lines are good Christian people. But I have this strange feeling that when it comes to war...the Christian community no longer views it as a "necessary evil"...just necessary.

Read any Christian throughout history who has defended the necessity of war...and you will always find someone who thinks war is hell. War is evil...it may be necessary at times, it may even be just...but it is still evil. Last Friday I was challenged by an Anabaptist student in my Theology 101 class on the issue of pacifism. I told him the truth...In my heart of hearts I long to be a pacifist...but I just can't. Reinhold Niebuhr convinced me I can't. When I taught Christian Ethics at Pella Christian I would have the students read his piece entitled "Why the Christian Church is not Pacifist". Which is nobler...to tolerate tyranny for a long period of time...or anarchy for a short period of time? Both are evil...tyranny and anarchy. But sometimes, according to Niebuhr, we are forced to choose the lesser of two evils for the sake of justice and peace.

But with regard to the war in Iraq...the Christian community seems content to call war "necessary". To question the war, to question the policies of the Bush administration, to question Bush himself...is understood to be both unpatriotic and heretical. As if the Christian church is dependent upon the American version of "freedom" for it's survival...As if the promise that Christ gave to Peter..."the gates of hades will not prevail against it (the Church)..." is somehow inadequate. As if it is a noble and glorious thing to send our young men and women into the meat grinder..shattering them emotionally, physically, spiritually...

Lately I've been watching Ken Burns documentary The War. He does a good job of showing both the insanity and treachery of the war, but also I believe it's necessity. The men and women he interviews are not proud of the violence, the gore, the inhumanity...they did what they thought they needed to do. Many of them, I firmly believe, recognize the horror of war...the evil. Listening to them talk, I did not get a sense of intense patriotism or self righteousness...I came away with a sense of survival. I talked with my grandfather once about his experience in WWII...I even got it down on tape. I came away with a similar feeling...war is hell, even when it may be the right thing to do.

I know I am fortunate to never have been forced onto the battle field. My grandfather and my father, who was in Vietnam, didn't have such a luxury. Maybe that means I should shut my mouth...but as someone who works with the young people being sent to Iraq I can't. As a Christian who believes in the hope of Christ's resurrection and presence of the Kingdom of God, right now...right here...I can't. As someone who knows someone walking the streets of Baghdad with an M16 strapped over his shoulder...I can't. That doesn't make me a pacifist...it makes me a Christian who thinks we need to call war what it is...hell, evil, "not the way it's supposed to be."

By the way...a former student of mine is in Baghdad right now. He emails me from time to time...and I don't email him as much as I should. But if you don't have any personal connections to this war...get connected. Send Brandon Talsma an email. Let him know you are thinking about him, praying for him...let him know you hope he can come home soon, get married, and live a good life.

brandontalsma@hotmail.com