On
God and War
In his book And There Was Light, Abraham Lincoln and the
American Struggle,[1]
Jon Meacham tells of the way, at the beginning of the Civil War, both the Union
and the Confederacy believed their cause was holy, that God was on their side,
and that God would bring them victory in the looming conflict. Both sides
dragged God into their purely secular struggle over secession and slavery. Was
either side right? Certainly not the Confederacy. That side of the conflict was
fighting to preserve the diabolical institution of slavery, something God would
condemn not support. But what about the Union? Was God going to help them
slaughter other human beings in the name of a purely political objective? Or
was God there calling everyone to something else?
The American Civil War was, by far, not the first time
warring parties had dragged God into their conflict. At least according to the
famous story, the establishment of Christianity as the official state religion
of the Roman Empire began when Emperor Constantine had a vision of the cross of
Christ and the words “In this sign, conquer.” Whereupon he continued his martial
effort to become Roman emperor, killing Lord knows how many people in the
process. The Spanish Conquistadors in Central and South America thought they
were doing God’s work as they committed genocide against native peoples and destroyed
their political institutions and cultures. So did North Americans as they did
the same to the native peoples of their part of the world. There’s also the
famous story from World War I of how, on Christmas Eve one year, the German and
Allied soldiers stopped killing each other, sang Silent Night together, then
went back to killing each other. Take a break for Christianity, then go back to
murder, seems to have been the theme of the day. Both sides in that horrific
conflict thought God was on their side as they killed millions of God’s people.
All of which raises a vital question: How does God relate to
human war? Does God take sides in human conflicts? Does God decide which party
to a war is righteous and then work to secure military victory for that side? For
the last two millennia Christians have thought that God does precisely that,
also thinking, of course, that their side was the righteous one in any
particular war. Somehow people, a great many of them claiming to be Christians,
have believed that God gets personally involved in the most horrendous thing we
humans do, namely, war.
And my answer to the question of whether God gets involved
in war to benefit one side or another is loud, resounding, “NO!” One of the
primary things we learn about God from Jesus Christ is that God is
foundationally nonviolent. And we learn that God calls all of God’s people to be
nonviolent too. Violence is immoral. Violence hurts God because it hurts God’s
people. God never wants anyone to kill anyone else. When we humans go to war,
God weeps. God calls all parties to a war to stop the killing and work
nonviolently for peace. In the American Civil War, surely the Union had a more
moral cause than the Confederacy at least to the extent that its objective was
to abolish slavery. But war is not God’s way of solving problems. War is not
God’s way of establishing justice. War is not God’s way of righting wrongs. It
isn’t God’s way because the very essence of war is murderous violence. We
humans try to cover up the horror of war by proclaiming the righteousness of
our cause. By honoring those who commit the violence of war. By saying those we’re
killing deserve what they get. God sees through all of that camouflage of
horrendous violence. We might be able to hide the horror of war from most
people. There is no way we can hide it from God. So no, God does not intervene
in war to help one side or another. Ever.
So does that mean that God has no relationship to war at
all? Of course not. One of God’s essential characteristics is God’s presence
with God’s people collectively and with each person individually in everything
we do, including war. But God isn’t there to facilitate one side’s victory over
the other. God is there to support and comfort those who fight. To be their
rock. To be their salvation. And God is there acting the way God always does.
God is there in the war softly, gently, yet insistently calling God’s people to
stop the violence. God never stops calling us to nonviolence, even, or perhaps
especially, in war.
Yes, sometimes one side to a conflict is fighting to
maintain something profoundly sinful. The Confederacy fought to defend and
preserve the enslavement of millions of God’s people. Nazi Germany fought to
take land from other people, then exterminate those people the way they tried
to exterminate Europe’s Jews. There is no doubt that both of these causes were
diabolical. were profoundly sinful. Surely they were something God wanted to
end—now. But God doesn’t intervene to end anything like them, at least not
directly. Rather, God is there screaming “No!” at us when we do such sinful
things. God is there with the victims of our sin, suffering with them, dying
with them, and holding them always in God’s everlasting arms of unconditional
grace.
Why God doesn’t intervene to stop us when we do horribly
sinful things like war, genocide, and the dehumanization of some of God’s people
so we can more easily oppress and kill them is, perhaps, a mystery. That God
does not is, however, undeniable. I mean, just look at all the horrors of human
history that went on for years. Look at all the horrors of human history that
are still going on. God didn’t stop them in the past. God isn’t stopping them
in the present. Rather, God is calling us to stop them. But God never
calls us to stop anything by violence. When we humans resort to violence
because we think it will solve a problem, God is there saying, “No. There is a
better way. There is the way of God’s nonviolence.” Jesus doesn’t call us to
meek passivity in the face of evil, though a great many Christians have thought
and do think that God does. No, God calls us to come up with creative,
assertive, nonviolent ways to confront and overcome evil. We are God’s
instruments in God’s nonviolent struggle against evil. We are the only
instruments God has. And if we are to be true to our God, we must always be nonviolent
instruments of God’s work in the world.
So how does God relate to war? Not by stopping it, as much
as we may wish that God did. Rather, God is present in war the way God is
present in everything else. God is present as a spiritual rock for those
ordered to do the killing. For those who are physically or mentally maimed. For those who
are killed. And God is there saying to each one of us, “No! Stop the killing!” Folk,
there is a better way. It is the way of creative, assertive, nonviolent work
for the establishment of peace and justice for all of God’s people (and all
people are God’s people). It’s way past time for us to stop the killing and
listen to what God wants us to do instead. May it be so.
[1]
Meacham, Jon, And There Was Light, Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle,
(Random House, New York, 2022).
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