Remembrance Day is coming up - always an interesting time for a pacifist, and especially a pacifist pastor of some not-so-pacifist but very beautiful people!
I have a great deal of respect for those who took/take their duties to their country so seriously that they were willing to put their lives on the line for it. Their motives, in many cases, were noble. I'm also aware that pacifists (or whatever you want to call us) are lousy at honoring veterans.
That said, the rhetoric often used around Remembrance Day troubles me. "We need to honor those people who fought and died for our freedom." That is the line I often hear. Here are a few things I find troubling about it:
First, these people not only fought and sometimes died for the peace and freedom we enjoy; they also killed for it. Remembrance Day rhetoric tends to hide that fact.
Second, take a look at the peace and freedom we enjoy. Would you ask someone to kill on your behalf so you could have this? Is it that important? That peace and freedom which counts in the NT is that which was purchased for us by the Lord Jesus Christ when he chose to die at the hands of his enemies.
Third, as Christians our citizenship is first and foremost in the Kingdom of God - not Canada or any other country. If we take this at all seriously, we can never pray for just our veterans - we must also then pray for those whom our troops are fighting, and for the widows and orphans of the men whom our soldiers kill.
Fourth, as Christians we say we believe that we have peace with God and others through Jesus' sacrifice of his own life on the cross at the hands of his enemies. That kind of understanding of peace runs clean contrary to the rhetoric of the Pax Romana of the first century. According to the Empire, peace came to the people through the military might and administrative abilities of the Empire, symbolized in whoever the current Caesar was. For Paul to write to the Colossians (for example), "Grace and peace to you from God our Father" was to directly contradict the claims of the Empire. Is it too much to imagine that that Christian claim still runs contrary to what the world tells us about how peace is made and who makes it?
"What do I communicate to a man about the love of God by being willing to consider him an enemy? What do I say about personal responsibility by agreeing to consider him my enemy when it is only the hazard of birth that causes us to live under different flags? What do I say about forgiveness if I punish him for the sins of his rulers? How is it reconcilable with the gospel - good news - for the last word in my estimate of any man to be that, in a case of extreme conflict, it could be my duty to sacrifice his life for the sake of my nation, my security, or the political order which I prefer?" (J.H. Yoder, The Political Axioms of the Sermon on the Mount)
What do you think? What does it mean for followers of the crucified Lord to honor our veterans and take part in Remembrance Day?
Shalom (and I mean it),
David
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13 comments:
Absolutely fantastic synthesis of the issue, Dave! What possible explanations will Christians have to offer God at the final judgment when they stand next to those they have killed and find themselves on the same side (sheep or goats)? Again - thought-provoking and timely!
Reece
thanks for this one. the husband's church always does a service near the day and this year the husband is supposed to go in full police uniform. ew. i dont even want to go. is that un-wifely of me?
Thanks Reece! I also think the stakes are high on this one. Whatever one's stance on stuff like this, pacifist or just war theorist, or whatever, we know we're in trouble when we get comfortable in our position, and when Jesus' call to us to love our enemies no longer bothers us :-)
Hey sis, i don't know if its un-wifely of you to not want to go!! I'm curious about how your church does the service, and what place they see police and military service having within our call to follow Jesus. What do they say about it?
love
me
Dave, thanks for the comment on the blog! What's so weird is that JUST LAST NIGHT I was about to write a comment on yours! (cue Twilight Zone music) At some point I do want to interact with your thoughts in this post, but right now I am severely lacking the mental energy. So, for right now, I just wanted to say thanks for the comment...and tell you that Katie is also obsessed with looking through photo albums. I think she and Ethan would be friends! Oh, and I saw new pics on Dropshots...your girl is precious......
Hey Mary, good to hear from you! Yup, having a little girl is something else - and Katie looks like she is just thriving too.
I'd be especially curious to get your take on these thoughts on Remembrance/Veterans Day, seeing as you folks south of the border have a bit of a reputation for a close connection between service to God and service to country. Don't know whether you fit in that camp or not. Saw a video of a debate between Jim Wallace and a representative of the SBC on voter values, and on the topic of national security this SBC guy said that any freedom people have enjoyed anywhere in the world anytime during the 20th century is as a result of the armed might of the USA. To say that that caught my attention would be a massive understatement ;-)
Shalom, sister.
David
Dad painstakingly wrote a comment out to you yesterday after reading the blog, and somehow it didn't make it -- I really appreciate your thoughts on remembrance day -- after having studied "What about Hitler?" (Brimlow) I am newly impressed with the importance of this issue!
i'll ditto brenda's comment (hi dave's mom) about brimlow and his influence in my thinking. remembrance day is a tough one for me, dave. my mom and i argued (well, talked strongly) about it the other day when she noticed i didn't have my "poppy" on. We talked quite well, actually (proud pacifist that i am!), but can't reach any sort of conclusion as to what we SHOULD do. How do we honour veterans without saying "thanks for killing for me"? In the same way how do we "support the troops" while hating what's going on?
I love Yoder on this question because he always brings it back to an imago dei solution: are you or your enemy MORE God's image? No. of course not. we're all created in God's image. so why would we punish someone for the accident (if you want to call it that) of location or nationality?
Thanks for another thought-provoker, dave.
Mike
Personally, I see R Day not as a day to "remember those who fought for our freedom"... I see it as a day kind of mourning, I "remember every human being who died fighting for something they believed in".
And I celebrate the veterens because I praise the Lord they are still alive and now get to be with their families instead of being an an awful war.
Jesus came to give life and help others, including his enemies. He said to love our enemies. Going to war and killing others is not loving them.
Even in retrospect I never understood Christianity co-existing with war when I was little, because I always heard though shall not kill, which is a solid commandment, and then war happens and people die...
So again, I see RD as a time to mourn the lives we have lost, on BOTH sides, and for the families on both sides, as well as a time to give thanks to God for bringing the people who were part of the war home safe and sound.
Heya Mike. Why do you have to ask the hard questions? (How do we honour veterans without saying "thanks for killing for me"? In the same way how do we "support the troops" while hating what's going on?) I wish I had answers, but for the time being I'm stumped. Great questions, by the way.
Chris, I really like your take on RD. To see it as a day of mourning is something that makes a lot of sense to me. Thanks!
How do we support our troops while not supporting the war? Thats a very tough question.Also very complicated. I have no idea if we will ever find an answer to that. So for right now I tell myself this.I'm not sure what my thoughts are on the war just yet. If you looked at it from the side of they are trying to bring peace to the country and some "ground rules" then i support it, but if you look at the side of they are killing while doing this and innocent people die, and even the soliders from the other side, they loose everything, then no I do not support the war. So i guess i'm sitting on the fence with that, but supporting our troops i strongly belive in. I always think to myself, we may not like whats happening, but our men and women are standing up for what they believe is right, they have so much courage and strength, something i could never do, to go out there and say stop. How they are doing it we may not like, but they are out there, trying to make a difference.They don't know all of us, but yet they go out. I support our troops, i just don't support how they do it. Its like they are our children( don't have any) but you will always support them, just not always what they do. But somehow all what i just said brings peace to me about our troops.I have no idea if any of that made sence, it all sounded better in my head.
Charlene Mack
Terry Bailey: After reading what David wrote I must say we do have to think about everyone who is involved in war. However I beleive that we should especially thank our vets and active service men and women and police for what they have done on our behalf.
Chris Hedgie Verge: Personally, I see R Day not as a day to "remember those who fought for our freedom"... I see it as a day kind of mourning, I "remember every human being who died fighting for something they believed in".
Sue Casson-Beatty: I don't like violence. Remembrance Day is a reminder the millions of people killed - not just from our country but others too. So many innocent victims. I buy my poppy to remind me of this and support the vets living in poverty - some forced to serve.
Margaret Gawley: I am not a an advocate of war. I am also very grateful that I don't live under the rule of Hitler or any of his descendants. Always strive to find peaceful ways to protect yourself but don't discount the reason you are can say whatever you wish today!!
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