An article in the Killeen Daily Herald reports that a bunch of hippies from Austin and Waco descended upon Fort Hood and Killeen Texas this weekend. Of course, they began their silent march at the IVAW “Under the Hood” cafe. I don’t believe that a more naive bunch of people exist. It sounds to me like they think we’re the only people fighting this war;
“Our goal is to establish peace and end this war,” [Ray Johnson, retired chaplain] said. “The Creator has better things in store for this nation.”
The article doesn’t mention what this Ray Johnson was chaplain of, but they sure make it sound like he was in the military don’t they?
“Our silent march and vigil is not about ‘We,’ the good people, against ‘Them,’ the bad people. On the contrary, those of us here today must have a deep awareness that the soldiers at Fort Hood are people caught in the same trap of war making that we are. They want to earn money to care for their families. They work for their own dignity and self-respect. They work because they love their fellow human beings, their country, their God. The unspeakable tragedy is that their hard work is used to kill the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Throwing in the class warfare card is almost un-Christian, ain’t it?
Of course, it was a star studded event;
Victor Agosto, currently facing charges for refusal to go to Afghanistan, joined the group to march for peace. Agosto’s summary court-martial is scheduled for next week. After serving his sentence, he said he would probably be chaptered out of service. He has been in the Army for four years.
So we’ll be looking for accounts of Victor’s court martial this week.
But these “Christians for Peace” are new to me, so I had to look them up on the internet. There’s not much about them, really. No information on who supports them (although in the KDH article it mentioned some of them were also members of Code Pink) and their “About” page is pretty sparse. But here’s one little naive nugget to take with you;
Despite our exorbitant defense budget, we still feel insecure and threatened by a poor and improvised al-Qaida, so we build more systems, even a missile defense system which repeatedly fails.
I’m pretty sure the missile defense system isn’t intended to defend against al Qaeda, but there are a few countries that we do need to defend against. And calling al Qaeda “poor and impoverished” doesn’t make them any less dangerous or any more endearing.
Jesus teaches us to love our enemies (Matt 5:43-44), to forgive those who sin against us (Matt 18:21-22), and to deny ourselves, carry our cross, and follow him.
We believe that war is immoral. The idea that we can kill, we can choose who will live and who will die, to protect our way of life is not in accordance with Jesus’ teachings and life example. The powers of this world use war today, but as Christians our battle is not against flesh and blood, (not against other people) but against these powers (Eph 6:12). As Christians, we do not wage war as the world does (2 Cor 10:3-4).
I’m pretty sure than Jesus didn’t want us to march like lambs to the slaughter, though. But, like I said, some of these folks are in with Code Pink, and we know their agenda is just to make more money and be obnoxious. These Christians for Peace are cut from the same cloth. Clearly, their message if you look at their website, is based in the class warfare message – we’re all victims of greed and materialism. The US spends money on defense when it could be spent on unicorn farms, rainbow development and Skittles gardens.
If I were a church-going Christian, I’d be angry, for the same reason I’m angry at Veterans for Peace. Their group’s name insinuates that unless you belong to the group you are “for War”. We all want peace – it’s just that some of us have our feet on the ground. I wonder how much worshiping of Christ and spreading his teachings will get done if the Islamists get their way with us.
