Considering War

With the possibility of military action against Syria (an act of war though we are not declaring war), it seems like a good time to talk about war, and just war theory in particular. To do this, I’ll be drawing from John Frame in The Doctrine of the Christian Life. He covers war under the 6th commandment. (Other books you may want to consider are: War, Peace and Christianity- Questions and Answers from a Just-War Perspective, and Between Pacifism and Jihad: Just War and Christian Tradition.)

First of all, we must recognize that war is a manifestation of the Fall brought about by Adam’s sin. People fight and war because they don’t have what they want (James 4). The roots of war are found in covetousness and bitterness. War itself is not just, but is brought about by sin directly or indirectly (seeking to redress the sin of another nation). For example, it was sin for Iraq to invade Kuwait. Their covetousness, our Saddam’s, drove them to do it. The coalition forces sought simply to end the unjust occupation of Kuwait.

As Christians, we need to remember that the kingdom of God is not advanced by the sword. This is one difference between Christianity and Islam. We seek conversions to spread the kingdom of God which is not of this world. It isn’t concerned with geo-political states. It transcends national boundaries. It is not advanced by “killing the heathens.” We recognize that holy war did take place in the time of the Old Testament. There it was an intrusion of God’s final judgment upon particular nations for their many grievous sins flowing out of their idolatry. Abraham couldn’t receive the Promised Land yet because their “sins were not yet full.” This anticipates the final “holy war” at the end of time which is initiated by Satan as he deceives and gathers the nations thru the 2 beasts he has invested with power as counterfeits to Christ and the Spirit.

This doesn’t mean there won’t be religious wars. The gospel can provoke a violent reaction from governments against their people (persecution) or other nations (war).

Scripture, as Frame notes, “respects the military vocation.” Citing John the Baptizer, repentant soldiers are not told to leave the military, but to serve well. Paul and the other Apostles never call for soldiers to leave their soldiering.

It is important for us to remember that no nation on earth is in a covenant relationship with God like Israel was in the Old Testament. No nation will therefore engage in a real holy war like they did. As a result, the rules for holy war in Deuteronomy 20 are not for us, being bound up in Israel’s unique covenant status with God.

Many believe the New Testament calls for pacifism. This is particularly true of the Anabaptist tradition. In their view, the state is necessarily evil, opposes God and as God’s people we are not to be allied to it, particularly in war.

“In the pacifist view, God permitted war during that time as a concession to Israel’s hardness of heart, as he then permitted divorce”

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Considering The Hurt Locker

I’m a little behind on movies.  The Hurt Locker was one I’ve wanted to see for some time.  CavWife didn’t realize it made it to the top of the Net Flix queue.  In many ways it was Platoon in the desert without the Oliver Stone agenda.  I say this because it is about the struggle between 2 Sgt.s for the soul of a young soldier.  I’ll try not to give up too many spoilers.

Pearce from the opening sequence

The movie opens with the bomb squad  doing its job in the midst of Baghdad circa 2004.  The robot breaks down in mid-mission.  The team leader, played by Guy Pearce (dude, where have you been?), puts on the suit to set the charges to set off the IED.  The team seems to have some good cohesion.  They joke with each other to ward off the fear they all feel.  They like to play it safe.  The suit is a last resort.  These guys just want to get home in one piece.  But something goes terribly wrong, resulting in the team leader’s death.  Sgt. Sanborn seems able to move on, but Specialist Eldridge is left to pick up the metaphorical pieces, feeling guilt for an inability to prevent the deadly explosion.

Sgt. Thompson’s  replacement is quite different.  He’s not approachable, a bit caustic.  Over time we learn he’s a Ranger whose disabled well over 800 bombs.  We also learn that he loves this.  The movie opens with a quote about the addiction of war.  It refers to Staff Sgt. James.  The rest of the team soon realizes that he loves the suit.  We don’t see the robotics again.

Jeremy Renner as Staff Sgt. James

The team has only 38 days left in their deployment.  The film focuses primarily on the missions during that time frame.  But the scenes in between are telling.  James is a confused man who only finds clarity in the suit.  But he often puts his team at risk, which has Sanborn less than upset.  But not everyone is.  David Morse plays a Col. who loves the craziness of James.  He too is addicted to the rush of adrenaline.  They are like kindred spirits, and Sanborn just doesn’t get it.

Sanborn is not a coward, by any means.  He’s just not into unnecessary risk.  At one point he and Eldridge are watching while James heads back to a detonation site to get his gloves.  They are in the middle of the desert to destroy some ordinance.  Sanborn entertains the idea of setting off the bomb to kill him before he gets them killed.  Accidents do happen, after all.  It is a chilling moment- he hates what this man represents and the fact that he places them all in jeopardy.

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Considering WMD

I must have been sleeping, because I missed this headline.

For some time now we’ve been hearing about how the CIA (and other intelligence gathering agencies among our allies) was wrong.  Sadaam did not have weapons of mass destruction.

Yet ….

They discovered over 500 tons of low-grade uranium (yellow cake)  that is used to manufacture nuclear weapons.  It has since been shipped to Canada where it will be used in nuclear reactors.  Hey, shouldn’t it have been sold to our nuclear power facilities????  Just a thought since we dumped so much money and blood into this thing.

Anyway … where are the “mea culpas” from those who continue to claim we entered under false pretenses.  I think the ability to accumulate 500 tons of the stuff for future use is shocking.  The Atomic Commission did nothing, which does not bode well for the developments in North Korea.

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Considering Charlie Wilson’s War

This movie won’t be everybody’s cup of tea.  Charlie Wilson was not a very upright guy.  He was conservative in his politics, and liberal in his personal ethics.  Okay, he was a womanizer, and some of those scenes display breasts and Tom Hanks aging buttocks (I don’t think they used a body double on that one).  He has a long term affair with a rich “Christian” lady, and was accused of using drugs during an investigation by Rudy Guliani.  There are enough F-bombs dropped to make a young Eddie Murphy uncomfortable.

Yet … it has a quirky sense of humor that I found hilarious (CavWife, not so much).  I really appreciated the interplay between Hanks and Hoffman.  Philip Seymour Hoffman was just plain over the top in his role as Gus, an old school CIA guy who is on the outs with the new (Carter era) regime).

Useless Rabbit Trails: At one point I wondered aloud about one character- She really reminds me of Amy Adams.  Good reason, it was Amy Adams.  CavWife was astounded at Julia Roberts’ daring bikini scene- daring because she was like 4 months pregnant at the time.  But she didn’t look 4 months pregnant, or even pregnant.

Back to the Real Deal: And it had a message need to heed, regardless of whether or not you think we should have gone into Iraq in the first place.  Charlie Wilson was able to sell the Afghan War as a great opportunity to “kill Russians” and further the cause of the Cold War.  He was the right guy in the right place at the right time to increase the funding necessary to help Afghanistan defend themselves from the USSR.  You also see that some of interest was generated from the humanitarian angle.  Wilson was won over after a trip to a refugee camp.  And so were other key people.

After the war, and subsequent fall of the USSR, Charlie Wilson tried to do the right thing: rebuild Afghanistan.  But he could get no money for schools, much less roads.  So, we helped destroy Afghanistan but left them to rebuild.  As he noted, there would be no NY Times to remind them that we had helped them defeat the USSR (actually, would the NY Times tell us that?).  With a population in which 50% of the people were under 14, they sorely needed education and attention from us.  But they didn’t, and the Taliban turned their hearts against us.  As the movie ends, there is an earthy quote from Charlie Wilson to the effect that we screwed up the end game.

And this is what some want us to do in Iraq- screw up the end game.  I’m not excited about dumping lots of money into Iraq.  But history teaches us that if we don’t try to help them, the next generation will be turned against us- not for removing Sadaam, but for not finishing the job.

I thought this an odd message from Hollywood.  I agree with the message, I was just surprised to hear it coming from  that source.

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