As I write this reflection our country is, once again, considering military intervention in the affairs of a country on the verge of social implosion. Once again, we are tempted to believe that we can improve a desperate situation by applying our technological genius for destruction. It seems to me like trying to extinguish a fire with gasoline.
This is not the first time we have been in this place. It has become a regular feature of our foreign policy to blow things up, and since we can do so from hermetically sterile distances via drones, cruise missiles or stealth bombers with minimal threat to our own people, we seem more inclined to do so.
This is not a Democrat or a Republican thing. Protracted and seemingly fruitless wars are waged by presidents and Congresses of both parties (Vietnam and Afghanistan spring to mind) regardless of campaign promises or party platforms.
As citizens of a democracy, we sign off on such ventures in the hope of continued peace and safety for our way of life. Lately, we seem willing to ignore any invasion of privacy or support any act of militarism without challenge as long as we are promised safety for our personal life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
I believe this obsession is what convinces us that it is actually an act of compassion to stop the suffering of one group by increasing it for another. It would be understandable if it worked, but it seems to me that our experience in Iraq disproves it. Being afraid there were weapons of mass destruction hidden in Iraq, we worked ourselves into a lather over the corruption and misanthropy of Saddam and Sons. This emotional energy seemed to be the added emotional endorsement we needed to unleash the dogs of war.
We sold ourselves on the idea that Operation Iraqi Freedom was for the people of Iraq…that it coincided with our own obsession to be safe was an added bonus.
I believe that if there are solutions to the crises that spring up like hawkweed all over our planet, we will be better suited to find them if we stop justifying our actions with our compulsive concern for personal and national safety. From a Christian perspective, safety is a non-starter.
Nowhere does Jesus say, “Blessed are the safe, for they shall live under a rock” or “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another…unless of course you don’t feel safe about it.”
If faithful people disallowed themselves the use of the safety card so often, we might see more clearly and act more responsibly as citizens of a democracy. At the heart of Christianity is risk.
What Jesus did say was, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.”
I want to be safe. I don’t think safety is a bad thing. But it isn’t the only thing and sometimes it’s not the best thing. If we are less consumed with being safe, perhaps we can ride out the frustration of not seeing an easy solution to the ever-present crises of our world long enough to find a better response than deploying the fleet.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. For August, our contributor is Pastor Dave Harvey, who has served as pastor of Grand Marais Evangelical Free Church since February of 2008.
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