Imagine the Quaker
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archives | newquaker.comThursday, April 10, 2003
While our Christian leaders happily proclaim the acceptability of the "just" war, they fail to notice their alliance with Satan in making the bogus distinction between a Christian morality that is binding on individuals but is somehow not binding on nations. There are not two doctrines—there is only one. When Paul demands that we obey our government, as he does in Romans 13:1-7, he does not mean that we should suddenly behave like brain-dead machines incapable of discerning the difference between wrong and right, between bad and good, between a sin and a deed which God approves. If combat between two people is morally wrong, then combat between three people is morally wrong; if combat between three people is morally wrong, then combat between three hundred people is morally wrong, etc., etc.
Only when American Christians can overcome their weakness for the seductive arms of worldly comforts, only when their faith in Jesus is stronger than their faith in country, only when love is a stronger force than the pride of military supremacy—only then will American Christians know and appreciate that our neighbors are the world.
Dear Heavenly Father, please forgive us for our empty pride in human accomplishments and for failing to credit you, Lord, for all that is blessed in our lives. Open our eyes to the rich rewards of peace and the joy of living in your presence; give us tender hearts and tough skins, so that we are more easily led to share the Gospel of hope than to chase after evil with vengeful purpose. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 11:03 PM
Tuesday, April 08, 2003
When was ever decided that Jesus is an American? It's a weird notion, I agree, but I suspect that it lurks behind much of what passes for American Christian patriotism. Wouldn't it be exciting if American Christians exhibited the same patriotic fervor for their faith as they do for their country?
Jesus said, "[G]o and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" [Matt 28:19-20]. So when an unbeliever is convinced by the Holy Spirit of the living presence of Christ, when he repents and receives his savior, when he enters into the community of believers and there is nurtured, when a new Christian is born and is called to live the Christian life—when all of these things have taken place, what must change in the new Christian's lifestyle?
Nothing at all. We are to continue with our lives, although with an entirely new perspective. And that perspective is no longer worldly. When Paul says "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" [Rom 12:2], he is speaking of our need to partner with the Holy Spirit in the ongoing process of our sanctification and also to avoid partnering with the world.
Beyond turning away from sin, walking in Christ's light, striving to live a life in service to the one true God, there is absolutely nothing in that person's lifestyle that has to change. He doesn't need to give anything away, he doesn't need to acquire anything new. Paul says that each person "should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him" [1 Cor 7:20]. If nothing else, we belong to Jesus alone; having been purchased by his blood, we are really "Christ's slaves" [1 Cor 7:22-23].
So why, then, is there a presumption that the new Christian in Nepal, in Bali, in an African nation state, in Oceania, in any Middle Eastern nation—or anywhere in the world, really—why is there the belief that the new Christian has to adopt any Western habits? Combining the Christian faith with any specific culture is a conspicuous adultery. The end result can only be such bastard progeny as the Crusades in the Middle Ages, the shameless brutality of the Conquistadors, and the more current pre-emptive assault on Iraq by coalition forces that kill with one hand and with the other clasp a Christian world of violence, not love, a Christian world of greed, not charity, a Christian world of division, not friendship.
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 11:24 PM
Sunday, April 06, 2003
A dog returns to its own vomit. For a long time I've admired Charles F. Stanley, his son Andy Stanley, and their gentle interpretations of Scripture, but now, in a recent piece from his InTouch Ministries, the father shows that he is really less Christian and more worldly American. There he also sets himself up as an it's-okay-to-kill just-war proponent and a legalistic Bible idolator. I am disappointed—no, I'm aghast. Another Christian has been lost in the tight tentacles of contemporary cultural Americanism and it's twin towers of extreme materialism and violent militarism.
In "A Nation at War" he trots out Paul's remarks in Romans 13:1-7 to say that it's okay for a Christian to kill another man during a combat situation. He isn't committing murder, says Stanley, if he "shoots his enemy under the command of the government, without personal hatred." In point of fact, it's quite permissible for a soldier to do any sort of killing (and I would suppose also torture, bombing of innocents, etc.) as long as our government orders it—after all, he is "simply being obedient to the purpose for which he is fighting." Because we are called to submission to "the laws of the land," our only justification for civil disobedience is if "it requires us to behave in a way that clearly violates some specific verse or command of God." Hence: if there is no specific Scriptural passage forbidding it, and our government sanctions it, then not only is it all right to do it—we are obligated to do it.
As if this is not enough, he then tries to make a sharp distinction between the behavior of an individual and the behavior of a nation and, well, we get to watch him as the "just-war" credo is spit up again.posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 1:44 AM
© Merle Harton, Jr. All rights reserved. Biblical references are NIV® unless otherwise noted.
