In the United States, where the vast majority of the population (82 percent according to a recent Newsweek poll) identify themselves as Christians, one of the most important steps we can all take to ending not only the war in Iraq, but all war, is to remind people of faith at every turn how radical and nonviolent their God truly is.
One of the many stories that could be mentioned in this regard comes at the end of the Gospel of Matthew. Just before Jesus was capitally punished by the Roman Empire, he gave his followers an unequivocal lesson about violence that we can ill afford to ignore today.
When the authorities came to arrest Jesus, the apostle Peter did what most of us would do under similar circumstances. He drew his sword in defense of the life of his friend and teacher -- who he also believed was the Son of God -- and struck the high priest's servant, cutting off his ear.
For Christians still wedded to the just war theory, a more "just cause" for the use of violence in all of history is hard to imagine.
Jesus responded, however, not with approval, but by emphasizing once again the centrality of love, even for the enemy, to his teachings. He rebuked Peter, saying: "Put your sword back in its sheath, for all who take the sword shall perish by the sword."
The key word there is "all." Jesus was not only condemning Peter's violence in that moment some two thousand years ago, but explicitly issuing a warning to anyone, anywhere who chooses violence.
This story should make Christians in this country uncomfortable, because no other nation is currently taking up the sword with more zeal or recklessly wielding it around the world than our own.
The Democrat-led House of Representatives, for example, recently passed a $460 billion defense bill for 2008, which did not include the $142 billion that the administration is seeking to continue the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for the coming year.
Adjusted for inflation, this level of military spending has not been seen since World War II. Looked at another way, the astronomically large figure of $460 billion by itself, when broken down equates to us spending as a nation more than $14,000 a second, every second of the year, on "defense."
And if that weren't enough, in May Congress authorized another $100 billion to fund the war in Iraq just through the end of this fiscal year this month, after of course stripping any mention of that pesky timetable for the withdrawal of troops out of the bill.
So much for the "will of the people," who clearly voted last November to end the war, or the notion of an actual opposition party.
To fully understand the enormity of our defense budget, however, it must be put in context. Despite making up only five percent of the world's population, the United States spends almost as much on weapons and preparing for war as the rest of the world combined.
This has bought us the first truly global empire, physically manifested in a vast network of military outposts. According to the Defense Department's official tally, the U.S. maintains 737 foreign military bases with troops stationed in more than 130 countries, and enough nuclear weapons in its arsenal to destroy the world many times over.
Not only are we living by the sword, but we are selling more swords than any other country in the world. The United States has in fact long dominated the international arms trade, but outdid even itself last fiscal year when it signed a record-setting $21 billion worth of weapons deals. And you don't become the number one dealer by being too discriminating about your buyers. As an analysis by the World Policy Institute in 2005 revealed, a full 80 percent of the United States' top 25 arms clients in the developing world were, according to the State Department's own reports, "either undemocratic regimes or governments with records of major human rights abuses."
We may not be able to produce a competitive automobile any more, but nobody knows how to kill like America.
This reliance on the sword has not come without a cost. By any indicator it has created a more dangerous and violent world. The "war on terror" and the invasion of Iraq have turned a world that was overwhelmingly sympathetic to the U.S. immediately following the horror of September 11, decisively against us, and led to a sharp increase in the number of terrorist attacks worldwide.
Terrorism will not be defeated by the terrorism of war. Only love can overcome hatred and guide us down the path towards real security.
If Christians are to follow the calling that they all have to be peacemakers, demanding an immediate end to the war in Iraq and a new non-militaristic approach to combating terrorism that addresses its root causes is an urgent necessity. But, it is simply not enough.
As long as we maintain such a large military establishment, we are dooming ourselves to perpetual war. Therefore, central to any serious movement for peace in this country must also be an urgent call to begin significantly cutting our bloated defense budget. We must as a nation, like Peter, heed Jesus' warning to disarm and put down our sword. Only then, when the U.S. takes this bold step off the road to destruction will we be able to truly divert our immense wealth and resources to taking care of our brothers and sisters in need.
As Dorothy Day, the co-founder of the Catholic Worker, astutely taught: there is enough for everyone's needs, but not enough for everyone's needs and war.
Eric Stoner is a writer based in New York, whose writings have appeared in The Nation and a variety of newspapers. He can be reached through his website, at: ericstoner.net
If you count the USA corporate military and the USA Govt. military; the USA military footprint in Iraq is several hundred thousand trained fighters. Now add the so called Iraq military and security forces and ask yourself why are we bogged down?
Bush says we will be in Iraq for generations just like in Korea. I don't remember the last time a US military person was killed or maimed in Korea. If we stay untill all of Iraq's oil is consumed and our treasury is depleted. then the killing might stop.
But you can count on one thing, Jesus will not have had anything to do with it.
Secondly, progressives need to press American Christians to live what they profess. I know it feels good to insult Christians, as I've been on the other end of those insults (BTW, what does it mean to show your evolution? Sounds funny, but before I tell my brother that, I wanna be sure it's an insult.), but it's not going to earn you anything but that good feeling. Make Christians live what they profess. Make them vote for universal healthcare, equal access to education, living wages and pension plans. Jesus condemned hoarding money, "eating, drinking, and being merry."
The point I'm going to make is the Islam does NOT allow for spread of faith by the sword. The only time it's okay to use the sword, according to Mohammed, is in defense. He said all faiths were equal, and Islam should not be forced on anyone. OBL is to the Quran as GWB is to the Bible.
Moreover, if another nation treated us the way we treat the Muslim world, which presidential candidate wouldn't receive authorization from Congress? We go crazy over the mere thought the another nation is starting to increase its army! We have our military stationed in 130 other countries? Yeah, um, no. That's why they hate us.
I agree, one cannot carry the Cross and the sword. Ya gotta pick one?
Our (humanity's) world is in need of some real healing, we, (all of us) are not putting any effort forth in this regard.
A truly eloquent and profound essay/post. Agape.
PS. I'm even starting to loose my bearings over all this escalating madness.
Now it won't just be my tribe doing the dying.
BASH ME and YOUR DEAD.
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Are we talking about the fellow who physically assaulted some businessmen?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_and_the_Money_Changers
Or the one who claimed to be one with his "father" - the same father who told the Moses and the Israelites to slaughter not just the men, but the women, children and ANIMALS on their campaign to occupy Palestine?
Or the fellow who will one day judge "the quick and the dead" - sending them to burn forever in the lake of fire?
All in all, I'd say that trying to cast the Jesus of the Bible as "the Prince of Peace" is like trying to get Britney nominated as Mother of the Year.
Clearly, the religious sensibilities of that character (the Jesus of the Bible) are not at all different from those of other pre-enlightenment Semitic people who worship the Levantine God of Abraham.
We're talking about a violent diety figure - this Jehovah - one that troubles us as a planet right up until this moment.
He was warning us of an enemy =within= the gates... warning us that it was without precedent in the American experience, and that it would consume us all. Which is what it did.
An unlimited, if vacuous "threat" produces an unlimited and endless "state of war," which generates unlimited spending, which generates unlimited profits ... until the only thing that anyone in the government cares about is "more of that." Nothing... not jobs, not health care, not Katrina... comes close. But as "Ike" also warned us, every dollar spent on defense is a dollar not spent on an American citizen who might well need that dollar desperately.
"Ike" was a President who attained the ultimate military rank ("commander in chief") by first ascending to the highest military rank below it: General of the Army. Only (to my knowledge) Ulysses S. Grant and George Washington ever did that. Thus, "Ike" knew what he was talking about.
And we'd better start listening.
Conversion by the sword in Islam is usually preceded by the opportunity to convert to Islam. Bin Laden "forgot" to give this warning prior to 9-11. He now is giving us the opportunity to convert to Islam on his last video, plus the opportunity to pay less taxes!
The Law of Karma is more of a divine retribution or nemistic justice in a cosmic sense. This makes more sense to me.
It is interesting to me that the Christians have allowed themselves to be used to support the party of war. The Christians used to support the Democrats such as William Jennings Bryant, in 1890 through 1913 or so, leader of the Democratic party, former Vice President, and two time Presidential candidate. The Democrats did not want evolution to be taught in public schools. Science was not popular with the Democrats in the Scopes Monkey case, which he prosecuted.
How politics changes things, including Christ's essential teachings. This is not the first time Christianity has been twisted into hatred. Gays and abortion issues were used by Karl Rove and they all turned into militant crusaders in the Bush camp. "Judge not least ye be judged!"
Religion is beginning to fall out of favor since many see it as causing more problems than it solves.
Christopher Hudgens
Intresting that you mention that. The Christian prophet was a non violent type, but by contrast the Muslim prophet encouraged his followers to spread the religion by the sword. Perhaps that is the central issue we should be exploring.
There are other aspects to Christianity besides peacemaking. At times Jesus was not such a peaceful being, as when he said, "I came not to bring peace, but the sword."
All religions are full of contradictions. That is why I'm in the other 18% of the population here. I really do like peace, no bones about it.
Perhaps too many so-called christians want to think with thier brains(which can manipulated by govt.)INSTEAD of thier HEARTS.
Please remind me what war led Al-Qaeda to fly planes into the world trade center, bomb the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the USS Cole, etc. etc.
As for dying by the sword, you are correct when it comes to Saddam. He had it coming.