Saturday, August 26, 2006

Should Iran Be Next?

The newspaper’s front page headline obviously makes many assumptions about how it’s readers will understand the question. Should Iran be the next target of the U.S. of A’s current version of an American democratic capitalistic crusade against the Arab’s? Is there another way to read it? How else can “next” be interpreted other than yet another in a potentially never ending string of nations that need to be converted to some alternate belief system?

Should Christians encourage or support this crusade to convert foreigners to their western belief system? Dare we be naïve enough to believe that the intended target is only the leader of the foreign nation and not his successor and fellow citizens who hold the exact same beliefs? ( or worse? ) Is it naïve to obey the instructions of Christ in favour of a seemingly more effective wordly option? Is it naivite or is it simply having the faith as a child.

Dare we be naïve enough to believe that somehow this crusade will have a more positive effect then those of 500 years ago in the same region with the same intentions?

Dare we believe that this faith in western democracy, based on capitalistic principles is not simply an idolatrous faith replacing a true Christian faith that leaves God’s will to be done on earth, or do we need to discard faith and take action into our own hands and make the earth and it’s governments in our images.

Dare we believe that we should not wait to inherit the earth by meekness, ( Matt 5:5 ) but by boldness claim it for ourselves? Thinking we know better than God the plans he has for this earth?

Dare we believe that we should abandon peacemaking ( Matt 5:9 ) in favour of war making? Even if it is described as an end to a means? Dare we believe that such a decision can come from an earnest search for peace as opposed to simply being a way of life?

Dare we believe that anger towards our brothers in Iran is not equivalent to murder? ( Matt 5:21-22 )

Dare we believe that actively resisting evil by acts of generousity is an action that should be discarded in favour of the prior law of “an eye for an eye”? (Matt 5:38-39 )

Dare we believe that loving our enemies ( Matt 5:44 ) can include disrespect for their way of life, their safety and their county’s values?

The parable of the good Samaritan ( Luke 10:25-37 ) is an example given to us of how to treat our foreign enemies. When one is treated unjustly, had his rights violated, and is injured in the process, it is our foreign enemy’s basic human needs that we need to attend to, not seeking justice, punishment for the perpetrator and a coerced restitution.

Dare we to believe that the commandment to “go and do likewise” ( Luke 10:37 ) does not apply to us or to the money and energy we spend in foreign countries of the world? Could billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of people not done more to improve the world in 4 years in northern Africa instead escorting the Bin Laden family from the US to the Middle East and then spending 5 years chasing some of them around the back hills of Afganistan just a few hundred kilometers to the north?

Should we Christians think that Jesus’ precise instructions of how his disciples are to behave in order to bring about His kingdom are naïve when it comes to current world situations? Dare we believe that we know better than Jesus Christ how exactly to make our Lord’s Kingdom?

Jesus is clear. What we need is a little more mercy and a little less revenge ( Matt 5:7 ) A little more poverty of spirit and a little less American Pride ( Matt 5:3), a little more mourning (Matt 5:4) and a little less preventative measures, a little more meekness and a little less entitlement. ( Matt 5:5 )

What we need is more peacemaking (Matt 5:9 ) and less war making, more rejoicing ( Matt 5:12 ) and less rejecting. What we need is a personal hunger and thirst for righteousness ( Matt 5:6 ) and less attempts to impose our “rightness” on others.

What the Christian of North America and the world need is a little more God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son and Holy Spirit and a lot less George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld.

The current faith in western democracy and capitalism along with a couple of the ten commandments thrown in is a complete heresy of Christianity, but what makes things worse is that it is presented to the world as true Christianity and used to justify actions that are not permissible under recognized international law or religion such as attacking sovereign nations with the aim of wiping out people and groups in power in order to replace them with people who are more agreeable to doing business the American way.

It is this repackaged totalitarian value system that is being labeled as “Western Christianity” and is being presented and imposed around the world that is what is most upsetting to those who hold to the teaching of Jesus. They say that the number one cause of atheism in the world today is Christianity. Is it any wonder why?