May Christians Participate In War?
A few years back I attended a session or two of the annual Lectureship at A. C. C. During one session Otis Gatewood spoke of sending missionaries into Asia in order that we might make Christians out of their boys. Unless we did this, he said, they would some day come over here and kill us. What a strange statement for anyone to make, I thought. Make Christians out of them in order to prevent them from killing us. And it seemed he spoke with much feeling and conviction. Some guarantee! For at the very moment he was speaking Americans were thousands of miles away from home killing Asian boys. And many of them were and are Christians; yet, being such was in no way preventing "our" sons killing their sons. Granted becoming a Christian should prevent Asians from killing us, but it won't unless miraculously truth is more effective in them than in us.
More recently I attended a session of the Fort Worth Christian College Lectureship. Allen Isbell and Hugo McCord discussed the war issue. Never had I heard the truth more forcefully presented than by brother McCord. Yet, during the question and answer session, he mined his whole speech by stating that since we are divided over this matter then each one is to be guided by his own conscience as to how far he can go during a war. That old conscience be your guide creed! At one point I asked Isbell if it was all right, as he contended, for a boy to kill then would it not be all right for a girl to commit adultery in order to further the war effort. He replied, "No it would not be right for her to commit adultery as God has forbidden such." His answer is typical of thousands and makes not one bit of sense, no more than that "guarantee" of Gatewood's. But it is as sensible as one can be while advocating that righteousness may be maintained while killing during war time.
This war question dramatically points up the difficulty of being a Christian. Turning the other cheek is only figurative language to most. The new ethic brought by Christ was that which the Prophets had declared would happen. (Isa. 2:1-5) Has it been fulfilled? We accept it's fulfillment with the exception of learning war no more. The early Christians knew it had been fulfilled and so they refused to serve in the armies for three centuries. They paid dearly for being Christians. Of this price we are scared to death. In spite of all I had taught, I one day walked onto a training ground at an Army Post, and, there with a gun and bayonet fixed I saw my son lunge toward a dummy screaming "Kill, Kill, Kill." And it flashed into my mind that when I had tried to prevent his going into such a situation that he had reminded me that other preachers disagreed with me and that, in fact, I was in a minority on this point. Now my son was either obeying a mandate from God, and I was a rebel trying to prevent it; or, he was a sinner and I was right in trying to prevent such sin. Which is it? I have never known but one preacher with the courage to say that it is a command from God that I serve in killing when told to do it. At least he was consistent while teaching error.
This new ethic was captured by those early Christians. Christians do not follow the "eye for an eye" code. With Christians it is not "search and destroy," but rather, "seek and save." We condemn situation ethics, so we say, in most things. But not warfare! In one situation a Christian must think of feeding his enemy, but in war he must think first of bayoneting him. The Christian now instead of talking with a man about Jesus must try to kill him. The golden rule is set aside for a carnal weapon of destruction, "Sons of Thunder" dropping napalm. Instead of helping widows and orphans he now is in the business of causing such to exist.
He is not to steal but that code of conduct must now be altered when the invading army needs supplies. He must now practice situation ethics in every thing he does. Lying is the opposite of the conduct of Christians. He now is to lie whenever the situation seems to demand it. Every moral ethic by which he is to live must be put into moth balls for the duration. Yet preachers across this land stand up and teach young men that going to war is an innocent pastime as far as God is concerned. That young man could not advocate sending to an orphan home without censure but he can advocate killing with the smiling approval of thousands.
Yes and how about young ladies during war time? Why should a boy give his life and a girl not give her chastity? Women spies use sex to gain war secrets. Yet preachers, with a straight face, stand up and say that the can't cohabit with the enemy but that she could slit his throat from ear to ear. No wonder this sin cursed world has rejected Christianity for few indeed will practice it when the going gets tough!
Brethren let us at least be consistent. When you teach young men that killing is right during war time, then also tell him that for the duration it will be all right to forsake the Lord's Supper; all right to lie; all right to steal; all right to commit adultery; all right to drink and use dope to ease the horrors of war; all right to drop napalm on innocent children — in other words to just forget his being a soldier in the army of Christ until his service to another god has ended. If this be Christianity, then we should quit our hypocritical pretense of seeking to change vile sinners. Yes when Asians are baptized into Christ, it should be a guarantee that we would not be killed by them; and when those in America are baptized into Christ, it should be a guarantee that we would not kill Asians. How is it ever right for Christians to slaughter Christians? You brethren place Cornelius in an awkward position. Would he have decapitated Paul's head if told to? Beloved the fault does not lie with truth — It's there for all to see — but rather with hearts that are stubborn and rebellious.
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