How we support the war
Editorial
by Everett J. ThomasPrint Article Email to a Friend
Why don’t Mennonites do more to protest the war in Iraq? There are at least three reasons. First, most of us are comfortable in an economy that is boosted by the war. Second, we are ensnared in political party loyalties. Third, we can’t decide if our denomination believes in pacifism or nonresistance.
1. Helping the economy: During the Vietnam War, the phrase “military-industrial complex” explained why warmaking is attractive to many companies. They make lots of money on it. For example, a plant that makes Hummers helps the economy in northern Indiana, where I live. It employs lots of workers, who receive a good wage. But this is just one of many industries that will fold when the war stops. When that happens, the news stories will be about people out of work and rising unemployment rates.
The poster-child for war profiteering is the Haliburton company. Associate editor Gordon Houser reports this conversation with a relative who recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq:
“The way he talked didn’t betray any sense of being there for promoting democracy,” Gordon says. “It was just duty. I mentioned some things I’d learned from the Iraq War films I’d seen about the ubiquity and greed of Haliburton. He confirmed everything I said. The soldiers there all hate Haliburton, which is getting rich at the expense of U.S. taxpayers. Example: Haliburton gets $28 per plate for each meal they serve (that’s per plate, not food); the soldiers typically use two plates, one to cover the other one so sand doesn’t get in the food. So that’s $56 per soldier per meal, three times per day.”
2. Political party loyalties: Because Vice President Dick Cheney is identified with Haliburton, any mention of the company can bring swift reaction from Mennonites loyal to the Republican Party. That is where many of us get tripped up. Church Member Profile 2006 revealed that 50 percent of Mennonite Church USA members identify themselves as Republicans while only 20 percent identify themselves as Democrats (“A Look in the Mirror,” Feb. 6). Consequently, our historic resistance to war is weakened by political party loyalties.
3. Nonresistance or pacifism: But more debilitating is our lack of unity about what it means to be a peace church.
Many of us understand our tradition to be that of “nonresistance” in a world that is outside the perfection of Christ. Sometimes it is caricatured as living quietly in the land while (secretly) being glad for a strong U.S. military that keeps the fight against terrorism located on another continent. While we would not personally fight, we appreciate and pray for a government that does that for us. Our duty, in return, is to be good citizens and contribute to society. But there is some integrity in relating to the world in this “two-kingdom” way.
Others see our tradition as pacifists, with a responsibility to divert the direction our country is going. It has been caricatured as activism without the gospel. An article we published several months ago describes what the writer saw as the problem during the 1960s: Some Mennonites moved to a “unitary pacifism” and made cause with a “blame America first” political pacifism (“The Two-Kingdom Politics of Jesus,” Jan. 2). But there is also some integrity in the role of activist for those trying to address the world’s problems.
Meanwhile, the war in Iraq continues, and there seems to be nothing we can do but write letters and pray that it will stop. However, our prayers may not rise very high when we secretly enjoy the wealth generated by the short-term gains of a war economy. Neither can we pray as a unified church if political party loyalties trump our commitment to peacemaking and the Prince of Peace.
Hopefully, the war will stop some day. In the meantime, we must take stock and ask whether we are helping it continue. We can also pray that God will give the Mennonite church a new vision for responding to a war that makes our lives better in ways we may not want to acknowledge.
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I agree with the observations that Everett makes here in the article. But I would like to add a 4th reason why we Mennonites or at least why I do not protest the war in Iraq. I believe that the Lord raises up nations and He tears them down. God, as uncomfortable as this sounds to us Mennonites, has used war for His purposes. We can't deny that reality. This does not mean that I appreciate what the US government is doing to keep the war somewhere else or that I am praying for victory for the US. No, I pray that God's will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. And because I believe that God's ways are beyond our understanding, I submit myself to the will and wisdon of God. My point is that I do not know what God is doing through this war in Iraq. Is God using the war to fight off radical, Islamic fundamentalism? Is God using the war to bring down the US? I do not know. In my view if we protest or if we support the war it presumes we do know. Is our quest to "feel" like we are doing something or is our desire to feel patriotic drawing us close to eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? I think so. Though I do not know or presume to know what God is doing through the war, I do know that Jesus never encouraged his followers to support or protest the Roman quest for Empire. Paul never encouraged Christ-followers to pick up the sword or poster board. Their concern was elsewhere. Maybe the vision of our church should be to learn to love one another more because it is through our love for one another that the world will see Jesus. And from where I sit, I think it is only when people come to Christ that they find peace. Or do we not believe anymore that humanity outside Christ is under the wrath of God? What good is it if we save the world from or through war but it perishes in the fires of hell for eternity because it does not know Christ? Just a thought. Shalom, Chris Jones, Pastor East Atlanta Christian Fellowship
I have to agree with mennojones. Makes me think if we could find a perfect world somewhere and take rockets to get there, but how long before we would spoil it in some way. Maybe we are out of balance to the point that no matter how perfect we feel we can make the world, we ourselves will ruin it. But we can go so far the other way that everything we do,say,etc is a salvation message(born-again)and have little if anything to offer the other way. Finding balance is the hardest thing,maybe thats why it is so easy to fall off the tightrope either way.