A while back I was conversing with a co-worker about terrorism and blowing up the terrorists as part of our American duty. I told him that I wasn't willing that anyone be killed in the pursuit of protecting my own interests. He said, "You obviously don't have kids yet." Presumably, when I have children, I will be consumed with a passion to protect them no matter if it means denying my faith in Jesus. (Big leap? I'll explain.)
This all came to the surface for me as I was talking with a different co-worker about a pro-life worldview and capital punishment. So I'll start there. I'm against abortion, but better said, I'm for giving people every chance at life, including helping the poor succeed, treating the elderly with dignity, protecting the environment so that it will continue to sustain life, giving criminals/terrorists a chance at redemption and giving babies a chance to live. "Yeah, but some criminals are really dangerous, and you never know when there will be another terrorist attack." That sounds like something Jesus would leave in the hands of the Father. And let me point out, that's a scary place to be! Did you notice what the Father did to Jesus? Left him in the hands of criminally unjust governments. Let them torture him. Let them mercilessly kill him. For what? Serving people. Loving them. Behaving redemptively in their lives. Showing them how to be truly human. Exactly the same things we're called to do. And don't give me the "I'm not Jesus" or "Jesus was a special case." Sure he was, but we're called to be Jesus right now! No wonder his kingdom doesn't appear to be making much progress in its coming. "Aw, that's up to Jesus." No! It's up to me! It's up to you! He specifically called his Body to bring his kingdom in the world today. And that means no matter how unsafe I feel, I get to love and serve those hated most by our society.
Here's the key move: Jesus was vindicated; we will be vindicated. Most people are reluctant to allow God the access to their lives to do what he did with Jesus. But look what God did: He raised Jesus from the dead! Jesus is the firstfruits of what will happen to all who seek his kingdom. We will all be resurrected, whether we die at a ripe old age, whether we die of the sinful ravages of cancer, whether we die at the sinful ravages of torture by terrorists. You'll notice we all die, and that's because sin still holds influence over God's good creation. But there will come a day when sin is expunged, when death is reversed. At the resurrection, we get our life back! God's good, then subsequently besmirched, creation will be good again! In the new creation, we will live as God intended from the beginning.
A note about faith: If we have faith that God is telling this story, we can have faith that he has our life in his hands. He will give our life back, no matter how it was taken from us. But if we stick with the Gnostic worldview that we go to heaven for all eternity to live in disembodied bliss, it's really hard to stomach the idea of trusting God with life. What if he takes it away so I can't enjoy great coffee or wine or steak or pizza or sex or hanging out with friends (not necessarily in that order). Life will look different in the age to come, but it will be substantively better, because it will be what God intended for it to be all along. If God calls me to die because I'm loving (by not killing) a terrorist (who still bears God's image, albeit in a horribly twisted way), I hope that makes a difference in the world. That difference could just be more brothers and sisters to celebrate with in the age to come. And that's exactly what Jesus would do.
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2 comments:
John--
Hopefully I'm not too late to comment on this. I sympathize with your point. I've had the, "You'd feel differently if you had kids" line directed at me as well.
That said, there is a point to it. When you're basically just responsible for yourself and your own actions, moral choices are often easier. My decision not to own a gun is in part predicated on the belief that shooting someone who broke into my house would not be the Christian thing to do.
When you have children, their entire well being is basically your responsibility. Would you kill the intruder to save your child? That's a murkier decision where the available options aren't particularly satisfactory. No choice seems "moral" in that case.
Since you go there, I guess I can go to the more extreme example of the terrorist. If the terrorist is only threating you personally, then by all means be loving toward him. Of course, we learn from example in the Bible that this course of action usually doesn't "work"--Jesus loved his enemies and they still killed him, so you'll still end up dead.
This is a bit of a contrived example as terrorists are looking to terrorize more than one person. Based on the reality that the terrorist will still set off the dirty bomb regardless of how much you love him, wouldn't you be concerned that your course of action would be unloving to your other neighbors who will die as a result? Along the same lines, some people criticize Dietrich Bonhoeffer for participating in a plot to kill Hitler; I criticize him for not being more skilled at political assassination.
That is part of living in a sinful world, that we can't make ourselves pure by the choices we make--many good choices aren't necessarily pure.
It's never too late to leave a comment; I get an e-mail when one is posted. And of course I'm always curious to hear helpful thoughts.
Interesting thought on loving neighbors by protecting them from a terrorist (take one life to save many). I can definitely see the good logic there, but I'm still stuck on the fact that we as humans don't seem to be given the gift of discerning when it's appropriate to take other human life. I know there are criteria set out in the Mosaic Law, but I think that Jesus's death supersedes all the deathiness in the Law. On the other hand, it doesn't seem like the community should be bound by someone else's obsession with killing them.
In Hitler's case, killing one innocent is out of line, but six million is beyond anything conceivable. Notice that he was trying to play God in setting death times, and that led to him to eventually play God in his own death. (Granted he wouldn't have enjoyed falling into the Russians hands as he was about to do.)
I guess I still wonder if we should engage in the self-idolatry of determining who should die when, even when someone else is doing the same thing with evil intent. Edmund Burke (attributed elsewhere on the web) said all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. I would contend that we can actively resist evil, not by killing, but by showing what true goodness is.
Now I'm starting to sound like a radical pacifist, but one still willing to change my mind.
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