Would Jesus Whack Iraq?

Would Jesus Whack Iraq (September 29, 2002)

A sermon on the current crisis:

It is hard to believe but it is little over a month ago that hardly anyone was talking seriously about war with Iraq. But sometime in August everything changed and now Iraq is the be all and end all of everything. What exactly that country has done to deserve this prominence in our psyche is unclear to me. They have not invaded another country, as they did eleven years ago. They have not attacked the Kurds in the north or the Shiites in the south. They have not even put on any big parades in downtown Baghdad. But here we are and a month later the whole world is nervous.

A few weeks ago, after the President's speech in the UN, the representatives of Iraq sent a letter to Kofi Annan saying they would accept unconditionally the return of weapons inspectors to their country. I thought that would be it. I heard the news and rolled out of bed and got on my knees to thank God. But I was wrong. We are still at a precipice.

In the depths of the Great Depression President Franklin Roosevelt said "the only thing we have to fear is - fear itself." He calmed the nation. These days, what with various code levels of alert and constant warnings of Armeggedon from the White House it seems all we hear are reasons to fear. It is the reverse of Roosevelt. There is a difference between prudence and paranoia. We seem to have lost this difference.

Saddam Hussein has committed unspeakable crimes against his own people and there is no doubt he is a threat to his neighbors. His track record, as they say, is not good. But none of this of itself is enough to start a war with him.

Last night I had a call from Kathryn Stevenson, who was in Australia. She said the whole thing to her is so unlike America, to start a war. We respond, she said, but we don't start things. It is so "out of character," she said. It is also frightening.

For many years now it has been popular for Christians to ask a simple question: what would Jesus do? Bracelets and tie pins with WWJD - what would Jesus do? -- initials are everywhere. Anyone who reads the New Testament finds a very clear answer on the question of war. Jesus says not only must you not kill your enemy, you must not even hate your enemy, you must love him. You must refrain from retaliation, you must pray for your enemy with active good will. Turn the other cheek, go the extra mile. The people who are blessed are the peacemakers.

While there is a respected Christian tradition of pacifism, which obviously has clear New Testament support, through history the overwhelming bulk of Christian thinkers have felt that sometimes war comes to you and you have to respond. This became known as the just-war tradition. John Calvin is among many thinkers who thought in just-war terms. The just-war idea is the closest thing Christians who are not pacifists have for guidance on the issue of war. Otherwise, on the issue of war you just throw away your Bible and go with whatever your leaders say.

The most important criteria for a just-war is to have a just cause. This means either self-defense, or to defend against an act of aggression, or as a last resort.

None of these criteria has been met by the present crisis. Simply getting rid of someone, or "regime change", has never been listed as a just cause.

The right of a pre-emptive strike in a just-war must meet a very high standard of justification. The attack must be imminent, not merely conjectured or vaguely feared in the long run. In no way have these conditions been met in the current crisis, regardless of what the White House says.

Eleven years ago when Iraq attacked Kuwait I felt that the just-war tradition gave support to Operation Desert Shield and then to Desert Storm. The conditions of a just-war - a clear attack on a member state of the UN and occupation of that state - warranted the coalition response. This time we do not see anything like those conditions. And we do not have a coalition. Instead, we have the whipping up of mass hysteria, reports of 45 minutes capability for unleashing terror from Iraq, and many other insinuations.

We are rushing into something blindly, taking little cognizance of what some of our best friends have to say, and strong arming allies. If they don't see the world the way we do, we ignore them. Four star generals of outstanding reputation and former national security advisors such as Henry Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft have openly criticized our headlong rush to war, but it seems to have made no difference. Article 51 of the United Nations Charter allows for international attacks only if there are no alternatives, and if there is immediate danger with no time for deliberation.

Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia said "The [political] polls are dropping, the domestic situation has problems.... So all of a sudden we have this war talk, war fervor, the bugles of war, drums of war, clouds of war. Don't tell me that things suddenly went wrong. Back in August, the president had no plans.... Then all of a sudden this country is going to war."

He added: "We must not be hell-bent on an invasion until we have exhausted every other possible option to assess and eliminate Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction program. We must not act alone. We must have the support of the world." And we clearly don't have it.

Scott Ritter, the expert on arms inspection in Iraq, has said, "If we go against Iraq, we're going to lose the war on terror. We will lose any support for our actions, because we will be seen as an arrogant, bullying superpower who is using September 11 to pursue our unilateral world domination."

On September 12 the leaders of numerous Christian denominations sent a letter to the President. Among the signers were the Moderator and Stated Clerk of our Church. The letter said in part: "Saddam Hussein poses a threat to his neighbors and to his own people, [but] we nevertheless believe it is wrong, as well as detrimental to U.S. interests, to launch an attack on Iraq. … We oppose on moral grounds the United States taking further military action against Iraq now." The letter also said that a pre-emptive strike would set "a dangerous precedent", and indeed it would.

As Kathryn said, that's just not us. And I believe she is reflecting the views of millions of ordinary people around the world.

Instead of a military strike, what we should be doing is ending the sanctions against Iraq. Many Protestant denominations as well as the Catholic Church and the Pope have called for an end to the sanctions. The sanctions have had a horrendous effect on the Iraqi population. UNICEF estimated that in the year 2000 more than 5,000 children were dying each month in that country because of the sanctions. Would Jesus whack Iraq? By no means. But he would surely want an end to this terrible blockade.

Jesus taught us to trust in God as our loving heavenly Father. This is still the ground for our Christian hope. We do not believe God is simply a spectator. God is working his purposes out, as an old hymn says, and God will bring us through this. James Russell Lowell wrote "behind the dim unknown, standeth God within the shadows, keeping watch above his own." I believe that. I believe we should be preaching hope and not fear, we should be giving every avenue of peace to work and only as a last resort, not as a first resort, should war be our method.

Remember the movie "Cool Hand Luke"? Paul Newman played a prisoner in a southern prison who turned the tables on the prison authorities by doing what they didn't expect. Instead of revolting against them, he urged his fellow prisoners to work harder on the chain gang, go the extra mile, turn the other cheek. The whole atmosphere changed. It was a revolutionary way of thinking - "cool".

This is what we need today. We are playing into the hands of the terrorists. We need new ways of thinking. We need to do things which the terrorists don't expect. What they expect is bombs and bullets - and that is what was justified in Afghanistan. But not here. Here, whacking Iraq will surely give the terrorists just what they are looking for. They'll get recruits by the truckload. But why not try a new way, a Jesus way, end the blockade and the sanctions, do something they don't expect and throw them off balance, just as Cool Hand Luke did. We might even get a regime change - from the inside - in the process.

It is times like these I come back to the wonderful question in the Heidelberg catechism: "What is your only comfort, in life and in death?" And the answer is "That I belong - body and soul - in life and in death - not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all my sins and protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation." That is our hope and our peace.