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.
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.
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