8.15.2005 | Who would Jesus bomb?

Isn't this a cute little picture? Notice the happy, child-like Jesus, with a peace sign. The sign is part of a self-righteous vignette, spun by so-called Christian pacifists who encountered our Immigration and Customs Enforcement on a trip from Canada back to the United States.

The spinner is associated with the Thomas Merton Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Thomas Merton was a serious if flawed Christian pacifist. These folks, if this is typical of their thought, are simply self-righteous prigs who simply can't comprehend how a Christian (or anyone else, for that matter) could possibly think that Jesus was also about doing justice in this world.

Jesus was not a pacifist. He was a non-resister when it came to fulfilling His Father's will that Jesus die on the cross for our sins. He also told us to love our enemies, which is not the same thing as giving evil men free reign to kill the innocent. When He needed to, Jesus was all about anger and, yes, violence - for instance when it came to cleansing His Father's house.

Now, just because some at the Merton Center are self-righteous and self-centered children does not mean that we should assume that the Lord backs our wars. The question that must be answered is, "are we doing justice when we go to war?" Never a simple question.

As in most things in this life, answers to that question that fit on bumper stickers are not really answers. And, make no mistake, "who would Jesus bomb?" isn't really a question -- it's a rhetorical device whose answer is "Jesus would bomb no one, and you're not much of a Christian if you don't believe this."

The Merton Center's so-called pacifists appear to be of the opinion that Jesus would never endorse any war, regardless of the justice of the cause. This is tantamount to saying that our Lord, who has also promised a heinous death and hellfire to those who do not accept His cross, is some sort of namby-pamby metrosexual, sensitive-guy savior.

This may be a pacifist's understanding, but it smacks of some rather selective reading of Scripture -- as in tossing out almost the entirety of the Hebrew Scriptures, most of Paul's writings, and, most certainly of all, Revelation. Christians don't have that luxury. We might prefer a pacifistic, vegetarian, metrosexual Jesus. But that's not the man who died on the cross for us.

| technorati tag | Christianity|