Whom would Jesus Bomb?
“Whom would Jesus bomb?” My neighbor’s bumper sticker poses this loaded question or, more precisely, issues this provocative challenge. It is, of course, meant as an admonishment, an indictment aimed at those of us who supported the war in Iraq, those of us who, after decades of not responding to the escalating Islamist terrorist attacks against us, finally, after the horrors of 9/11, said, enough is enough and decided to fight back. Its obvious purpose is to shame us, to demonstrate how, once again, we are on the wrong side of the moral equation. Not only are we immoral, they tell us, but we are also sacreligious.
There are, however, a few problems with this equation. The vision that this simplistic slogan conjures up is of squadrons of American B-52s carpet-bombing the poor people of Iraq into submission. The truth of the matter is that the vast majority of bombs being used in this conflict are those ubiquitous, cheap but effective IEDs, the jihadists’ favored weapon of choice. And these deadly homemade (and increasingly Iranian-made) bombs are being used daily against us and our allies and innocent Iraqi civilians.
Of course, they say, if we had not gone into Iraq in the first place, none of this would be happening. Let’s consider this argument for a moment. If we had not invaded Iraq, if we had succeeded in confining the war to Afghanistan, could anyone seriously doubt that the mujahadeen would be coming in droves to Afghanistan to wage jihad against us there, just as they came there to fight the U.S.S.R. in the 1980s? We would be the same infidels fighting the same jihadists, for the same reasons, only we’d be fighting them on different soil. And, incidently, Saddam Hussein would still be adding to his arsenal of chemical and biological weapons, ruthlessly murdering his own people and threatening his neighbors.
However, this still leaves us with that disturbing bumper-sticker question. And although of course it’s highly speculative, the answer must surely be that Jesus wouldn’t bomb anybody. Indeed, if he followed precedent, he would allow himself to be captured by the enemy, imprisoned, tortured and finally executed. He would do this because that is his role; his divinely ordained role was, after all, to become a martyr, history’s preeminent martyr. But should this be our role? Are we all preordained to be martyrs? I don’t think so. There are many lessons to be learned from the example of the life of Christ, however, lessons on how to conduct a successful war may not be among them.
Perhaps the question should be reframed. How about, “Whom would Muhammad bomb?” Muhammad was, after all, a consummate warrior who was in the business of creating martyrs, not becoming one himself. Here, the answer seems pretty obvious, all you have to do is read the Koran. Muhammad would bomb the infidel which, of course, is you and me. He would do this because that is his divinely ordained role.
Whether we like the idea or not, we must face up to the fact that we are presently at war and we cannot allow ourselves to be made to feel guilty for defending ourselves against a murderous enemy obsessed with our destruction.
Roger W. Gardner is an independent scholar and essayist who lives in a small coastal town in New England.
Image credit: gokubi.com
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I am by no means a biblical scholar, nor am I that up on this or that about it, I do however have something to offer or question: I understand that somewhere along the line "thou shall not kill" was and/or is "thou shall not murder." If this is in fact the case we're talking about two different things aren't we? Whom would Jesus bomb? If "thou shall not murder" then I'm thinking Jesus is free and clear to let have. Regardless, none of us are Jesus, so it a neat bumper sticker; like any soundbyte though…
"Whether we like the idea or not, we must face up to the fact that we are presently at war and we cannot allow ourselves to be made to feel guilty for defending ourselves against a murderous enemy obsessed with our destruction." Interesting blog - thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. Just a thought of my own regarding the above quote.. if the establishment chooses to turn its back on Jesus' teachings on violence and war, then perhaps that establishment should be a little wary about waging war supposedly with God's support. The strangest thing when looking in on the murky powerplay games between religious lobby groups and the various political parties I find is that if Jesus' teaching were followed to a tee by a party, there is no way on earth they would ever be voted into power. There's simply too much of a thread of humility, modesty and concern for the downtrodden, poor, and outcast for us to feel like our self-interest is being served enough to vote them in. Its one of those little ironies to chuckle about, and one that serves as a reminder of how far many of the religious groups have strayed from the teachings so concisely summarised in the Beatitudes.
The present debacle in Iraq will teach American Christians to be as "wise as Serpents and as gentle as Doves". I doubt most of us actually understand who we are fighting in Iraq. We are fighting relatively few Al Qaeda terrorists, but we are smack bang in the middle of an Iraqi Civil War. Saddam Hussein was an evil dictator, but he had nothing to do with 9/11. We went to war for the wrong reason, but that is history. What does Iraq teach us? It teaches us to be careful about what Politicians tell us. It teaches us not to trust in our strength (tanks, aircraft and ships), but to trust in Lord. It also teaches us to be wary of war. So when politicians ask us to bomb Iran - let's ask questions. What are your thoughts on this? Sweden has taken 8,000 Iraqi refugees, yet America has barely taken 500 (including Iraqis that worked with us) yet we call Sweden "socialist" and "anti-Christian"