• Home
  • Blog: Ministry in Romania
  • Get Some Answers
    • Holy Week Answers
  • Get In Touch
  • Catechism
  • Videos
    • Sermons
  • Newsletters
  • Home
  • Blog: Ministry in Romania
  • Get Some Answers
    • Holy Week Answers
  • Get In Touch
  • Catechism
  • Videos
    • Sermons
  • Newsletters
   

Doesn't pacifism minimize patriotism and a respect for those who sacrificed their lives in war?

4/4/2014

0 Comments

 
Not at all. First, pacifists should want their city and country to thrive. All Christians should seek the welfare of the land in which we live. Pacifists are not anti-government or anti-nation, but their primary allegiance is to the Kingdom. In the Kingdom, we are one blood. All men and women are created in the image of God and we seek the well-being of all people, even enemies, which means that we don't want to harm any other human. We wish for our land to not only thrive economically, but we wish for our land to be moral and to be at peace. Therefore, Christian pacifists take up the role as priests - like you will find in several early church quotes - as we pray for our country though we cannot fight for her. 

As far as a respect for soldiers go, Christian pacifists have more respect for soldiers than non-pacifists. That may sound crazy, but the Christian pacifist (and the Eastern Orthodox view, though they are not a "peace church") not only views a soldier's sacrifice as their bodily well-being, but a moral marring too. To kill another human being is to bear a great weight upon your soul. Even someone who kills another person through accident or negligence can attest to the great moral and emotional weight they feel pressed upon them. How much more so should it be for someone who purposefully seeks out to kill their enemies in battle? While some Christians who hold to the notion of a just war may recognize the difficulties battle can produce within soldiers, most don't fully respect the emotional and moral sacrifice soldiers have chosen to take upon themselves. Just war theorists are usually too caught up in justifying what soldiers have done. Our notion of justification often implies that an individual is completely absolved of or distanced from negative consequence. Even if a war can be just, it doesn't absolve soldiers from the great burden their actions place upon them. Pacifists recognize this and respect the sacrifice that has been made for what one thought was the right cause. If you don't believe me on this one, listen to what one veteran has to say about it. 

 Imagine that an individual from an extremely impoverished family in the deep inner city of the worst city in the country is prostituting themselves in order to make money for their family. For a non-Christian who thinks a person should have the free choice to use their body as they desire, the prostitution isn't really a sad aspect of this scenario. The poverty and perhaps the seeming inability to choose otherwise is what is sad. As a Christian, the sadness of the situation is not only the poverty and confinement of choice, but the prostitution itself. Christians know that even though the individual may not have had any other way to make money and feed their family, by taking on this moral evil, they have been marred in yet another way.

Pacifists view killing - even "justified" killing - in the same way. We live in a terribly evil world where war and killing are sometimes necessary for states. But the fact that people feel so trapped as to have to resort to killing - rather than be solely tragic - makes the situation doubly tragic. That we live in an evil world is sad. But that some people kill other people to preserve life and keep evil at bay makes the situation even sadder. Christian pacifists don't glorify the soldier, but they love them, respect them, and weep for them. Pacifists don't elevate killing to glory, honor, pride, and the like - they elevate the human to an image bearer of God, both countryman and enemy alike. 

If you want to see a great example of this in action, watch the documentary "The Kill Team." It is a heartbreaking story that helps you hear from soldiers how the military, combat, and environment morally mar them. While what they did as atrocious and inexcusable, there is a terrible sadness to it as well, understanding that they are products of their environment to a certain extent. 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    *The views and ideas on this site are in no way affiliated with any organization, business, or individuals we are a part of or work with. They're also not theological certainties. They're simply thinking out loud, on issues and difficulties as I process things.

    Categories

    All
    Abortion
    Abortion Counterrebuttals
    Afterlife
    Apologetics
    Atheism
    Atonement
    Baptism
    Christian Life
    Church
    Cosmology
    COVID 19
    COVID-19
    Death
    Free Will
    Generosity And Wealth
    G.K. Chesterton
    Government
    Grace And Mercy
    Incarnation
    Inerrancy
    Joy
    Love
    Materialism
    Meaningpurpose
    Media
    Ministry-and-outreach
    Ministry-and-outreach
    Morality
    On-guard
    Pacifism
    Pacifism-counterrebuttals
    Podcast
    Poetry
    Politics
    Politics-of-jesus
    Pragmatism And Consequentialism
    Prayer
    Problem-of-evil
    Race-and-unity
    Rapid Fire
    Rebellion
    Reformed
    Relationships
    Salvation
    Social-issues
    Social-justice
    Sovereignty-of-god
    Spirit
    Spiritual-warfare
    Spontaneous-expansion-of-the-church
    Suffering
    Tradition
    Trinity
    When-helping-hurts


    Archives

    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    March 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2013
    March 2009
    July 2007
    June 2007
    May 2007
    April 2007
    March 2007
    February 2007
    January 2007

    RESOURCES

    Check out some of our favorite online resources for theology and apologetics by clicking on the images below. 

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly