Commentary
Violence verses Love
Every Christian’s Struggle with War
By Marco Gilliam
Last Sunday, I had a serious internal, intellectual disagreement with something that my pastor, whom I love, had written in the church bulletin.
He always makes me think, and he always makes me laugh. When he smiles, I see Jesus in that smile. Now, I am sure that you know how reasonable men can disagree and still love one another, as we should.
I interpreted the message in the bulletin as a pacifist message in time of war. Without belaboring the issue, he simply said, after having brought World War II into the message, that violence always must be met with love. There were no exceptions cited.
It was a sweeping abstraction statement. I felt anger when I read it. I was not just upset. I was angry in this time of war. This is an issue that Christians everywhere in every age have wrestled with by themselves and with others for centuries.
When I sat down at my computer a day or so after that Mass, I must confess that I did not know what I was going to write. What came out follows.
My wife, Anna, pointed out that there is not an angry word in it. There isn't. I can explain it only by saying that I am convinced that He had His hand on my shoulder as I researched and wrote it. If it moves people, it is not from me. I cannot really move people. So if it moves you, it is through me. I am just the conduit, and I am happy and blessed to be just the conduit. I pray that this moves people who encounter the same problem that I encountered. Please bear with me, and read on:
For centuries Christians have struggled with the subject of war. It is a recurring problem, challenging Christians to think and re-think their positions.
Most certainly we should pray every day for peace. St. Paul exhorts us in I Timothy to pray for our leaders. Indeed, in Romans 13, Paul says: "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. … For he (the authority) is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil."
Paul seems to be saying that government is one of God’s instruments for exacting justice. This truth is illustrated in the Book of Habakkuk, where God uses Babylonia to punish evildoers in Judah. Paul says something else that is pertinent here. In Romans 12, he says, "If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men." Notice that he said if it is possible.
Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, we should not oppose violence with violence. Usually, violence only begets more violence sooner or later. We should try loving our enemies. Love works. Most of the time. We should try it until it hurts.
Most constitutional scholars agree that the first responsibility of government is to protect its citizens. Our government protected us in World War II, after prolonged loving patience with Adolf Hitler ended in world tragedy.
The violence in that war did not beget more violence, as any study of post-war West Germany and Japan will demonstrate. Those whom we defeated thrived afterward with new found freedoms and productivity. Therein we have an example in which it was not possible "to live peaceably with all men," as Paul tells us to do.
Here is another example: How can you embrace, love and pray for an Islamist suicide bomber who does not give you a chance to do so? He blows you and himself up immediately, so that he can "go to paradise and be rewarded with 72 virgins," according to his religious teachings.
Islamist terrorists repeat publicly every day that their goal is to kill every Christian and Jew who does not embrace Islam. They vow total destruction because of who and what we are.
Hypothetically, put yourself in the shoes of a federal counter-terrorist agent. You are on the roof of a building with a high powered rifle equipped with sniper scope and laser beam. You have absolute confirmation that the young man across the way, wearing a backpack and going into a church crowded with innocent men, women and children, is a terrorist with an extremely powerful bomb. If a priest or anybody else even approaches the terrorist in peace and love, he will press a button in his hand and set off the bomb. He is about to disappear inside the church.
The only way you can stop him is to kill him instantly. What do you do? Kill him? Or let him go inside and kill a thousand innocent people? Or, if you could have stopped Timothy McVeigh from bombing that federal building in Oklahoma City only by killing him, would you have done so? The decision, of course, would have been yours alone to live and die with.
One of the greatest theologian philosophers in the history of the Roman Catholic Church was St. Augustine (354-430.) He developed seven criteria that he said justify war-that is, employing violence to stop evil. Centuries later, St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) agreed with Augustine.
Aquinas was another of the great Catholic theologians. While Augustine was a Platonist, Aquinas was an Aristotelian. When one such philosopher agrees with the positing of the other, you usually can take that to the bank.
Augustine’s criteria quite simply are that the war be declared by a legitimate government; that it have just cause and intention such as self defense; that the war be a lesser of two evils; that the war be of limited engagement so as not to massacre innocent people; that the war have a probability of success of achieving its aims; that the war be fought as a last resort; and finally that the war be redemptive so as to leave room for reconciliation afterward.
Possibly the greatest living expert on Catholic chaplains in combat is retired Archbishop Phillip Hannan of New Orleans, who parachuted into combat with the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II. He did his duty with a conviction that it was right and just. It is most likely that he was familiar with one particular writing of St. Thomas Aquinas:
"It would seem lawful for clerics and bishops to fight. For, as stated (earlier), wars are lawful and just in so far as they protect the poor and the entire common weal from suffering at the hands of the foe. Now this seems to be above all the duty of prelates, for Gregory says (Hom. in Ev. xiv): ‘The wolf comes upon the sheep, when any unjust and rapacious man oppresses those who are faithful and humble. But he who was thought to be the shepherd, and was not, leaveth the sheep, and flieth, for he fears lest the wolf hurt him, and dares not stand up against his injustice.’ Therefore it is lawful for prelates and clerics to fight."
While it was unlikely that Fr. Hannon took up arms and shot Germans, he nevertheless was in the thick of the fighting, praying for Americans and Germans alike. What an example!
We should pray for our country, its leaders, and our brave and unselfish troops in harm’s way, as well as for those recovering in hospitals. In addition, we should pray that the terrorists, including Osama bin Laden, be brought into the Light of Christ. Can’t happen? A terrorist who once murdered Christians came into that Light. He wrote much of the New Testament.
Concerning the war that we are in now, the Vatican magazine Civilita Cattolica two years ago wrote in a lead editorial: "…In reality, Islamic terrorism has not changed the goals that it has pursued since its origin until the work of Osama bin Laden: to fight the Jews and the ‘crusaders’ (the Christians, seen as inveterate enemies of Islam); to fight against the Western world and the United States." The Vatican’s Secretary of State and thus the Pope approved all the magazine’s editorials.
Monsignor Caesar Mazzolari, who spent many years as a priest in Islamist-war-torn Sudan, once was asked whether the God of Christians is the same as Allah. "No way!" he said. (He had been ordained as a priest in San Diego, California.) "Where would the concept of the Trinity fit in? And Christ is certainly not the greatest of their prophets."
Mazzolari, who had been ordained as a monsignor by Pope John Paul II, warned grimly: "It will be the Muslims who convert us, not the other way around. Wherever they settle down, sooner or later they end up becoming a leading political force." The monsignor said that many Vatican officials are afraid to admit that the "clash of civilizations" is here.
We have much cause to pray. May we be gentle as doves but wise as serpents. And may we have the courage and the will to unselfishly use the necessary force, when clearly required, to defend those who cannot defend themselves. Our loved ones who sacrificed in World War II and other wars, and who sacrifice today in Afghanistan and Iraq, did not do, and are not doing, wrong. We are and should be proud of them and thankful for them.
(Note: Catholic writer Joseph D’Hippolito and Protestant pastor Alan Smith assembled many of the facts herein two years ago and presented them on the Internet.)
In Christ,
Marco Gilliam
Disclaimer: The views, opinions and ideas are those of the Southern Agrarian and do not represent those of any other organization. I usually think about this stuff when I am working out,praying (yes infidel - God speaks to me like he will to you, if only you will let him in your heart), or suffering from a lack of sleep. ...torture me, kill me but just don’t bore me with your left-wing tripe. Semper Fidelis.
