Musings

Faith and War

Christianity has concerned itself with matters of war and peace for almost its entire history.  The one unifying assumption of the faith has been that war is terrible and is to be avoided assiduously.  There has always been a part of Christianity that has rejected war absolutely, considering participation in it to be completely contrary to the teachings of Jesus.  But alongside it has been a strand of the faith that recognizes that war is morally acceptable in certain circumstances.  "Just war theory" dates back to St. Augustine in the early days of the church.  I think it still is a useful way of prayerfully considering whether or not a war, and/or one's participation in it, is justified. 

Now is a critical time for all of us as American citizens to consider whether or not there is moral justification for our country to continue to fight in Iraq. We owe it to our troops, to our country, and to the Iraqi people.  It's time to let our government's leaders know what we think. This month has brought a long-promised review of the progress, or lack of it, in the US occupation.   It's a good time to dust off St. Augustine's principles and meditate on  them, while considering the facts before us.  I suggest that we  remember to apply "just war theory" to the situation in Iraq today, rather than focusing on whether or not the war was "just" when the US first invaded Iraq..

  A "just war" is one that meets all of these criteria:

 

Just cause:  The reason for going to war needs to be just and can therefore be recapturing things taken or punishing people who have done wrong.
Comparative justice:  While there may be rights and wrongs on all sides of a conflict, to override the presumption against the use of force, the injustice suffered by one party must significantly outweigh that suffered by the other.  Legitimate authority:  Only duly constituted public authorities may use deadly force or wage war Right intention:  Force may be used only in a truly just cause and solely for that purpose—correcting a suffered wrong is considered a right intention, while material gain or maintaining economies is not. Probability of success: Arms may not be used in a futile cause or in a case where disproportionate measures are required to achieve success; Last resort:  Force may be used only after all peaceful and viable alternatives have been seriously tried and exhausted.

    Here I will share my "moral reasoning" about the war in Iraq, based on these criteria:

  Just cause: Today, the question is whether or not the US has "just cause" to remain there.  I believe the US has a moral obligation to help protect the lives of Iraqi citizens who have been cast into a maelstrom of a civil war which we are partly responsible for starting.  Also, the US presence in Iraq has helped terrorists groups gain recruits to threaten the US directly, and part of that threat is manifest in Iraq  itself.  Today there is "just cause" for a US military presence in  Iraq.

  Comparative justice: It is an injustice for the Iraqi people to have a huge US military occupation of their country.  Our presence is deeply resented by most Iraqi citizens.  Yet it would be an injustice to the Iraqi people for the US to leave without restoring order to the country and preventing even worse civil conflict.  "Just war theory" wisely asks which injustice is greater. The first injustice stimulates a certain proportion of the civil violence that has engulfed the country.  The US presence in Iraq helps to spawn a significant portion of the animosity that feeds the conflict:  we create enemies of the US just by being there.  The military presence of the US also contributes to a certain portion of the civil conflict among ethnic and other groups.  The second injustice would end the US occupation that helps feed the violence, but that would not eliminate the violence altogether, and could result in even worse civilian casualties.  It is hard to measure which injustice is greater, so I withhold an opinion on this question. Yet the question remains a very important one to ask!

  Legitimate authority:    Iraq is now technically sovereign again, and it has explicitly allowed the "coalition" to continue to occupy the country.  However, put in a global context, this legitimacy is compromised because there is only nominal participation by countries other than the US in the "coalition".  The majority of Iraqis appear to believe that the US has no legitimate authority to occupy their country, and they don't seem to believe that their own government has much legitimacy, either. 

  Right intention:   There is reason for us to stay vigilant about keeping "clean" the  intentions of the US in Iraq.  I believe the US government wants  Iraq to be a sovereign country with control of its oil and other  resources.  But around the world, and within Iraq, there are widespread perceptions to the contrary.  Therefore it is vital that we, as citizens, hold our government accountable to prevent it from taking advantage of Iraq in its vulnerable condition.

 

Probability of success:   It is here that the continuing US occupation of Iraq most clearly  flunks the "just war" test.  The success of the US mission in Iraq depends on the viability of the Iraqi government in creating conditions for a peaceful political settlement to the conflicts in the country. Unfortunately, the Iraqi government is ineffectual and only marginally legitimate in the eyes of its citizens.  And the trend does not look good for significant improvement, despite the space that the US military "surge" operation is trying to provide to make political progress possible.  This severely undercuts the effectiveness of the US occupation in bringing about anything more than short-term truces between the multiple militias and tribal groups that effectively control the country.  There is now a powerful home-grown resistance to Al Qaeda.  A US pullout would deny Al  Qaeda's propaganda advantage of playing to resentment toward the US  occupation.   If the US left, Al Qaeda might well be defeated  by Iraqi militias. The improbability of the success of the US in  bringing order to Iraq through the military occupation is grounds enough for us to begin an immediate pullout of our forces.  We would still have an obligation to help rebuild the country and provide humanitarian and other kinds of aid, insofar as such action would be practically possible.

 

Last resort: At this point, a withdrawal of US forces, done as swiftly and as orderly as possible, is the last resort.  We have proven that the US military occupation cannot end the civil war raging in the country, given that the Iraqi government isn't even close to being viable enough to maintain whatever peace we might create.  A withdrawal would be fraught with serious risks to our troops, to our national security, and to the Iraqi people, but I don't believe there is a viable alternative that would be less risky for all concerned.  We can only hope that a US pullout, and the law-and-order vacuum that might result, will frighten Iraq's leaders into rapidly finding a political settlement to the conflict.

How would you apply "just war theory" to the Iraq war?  I hope you'll join me in sending your thoughts to your members of Congress, Senators, and President!

Soul Year

My church, Sausalito Presbyterian, has just embarked on a new process which I'd like to share with you.  SOUL YEAR is 12 months of sharing some simple spiritual practices, as individuals and in families, in subgroups and programs of the church, and in worship. Soul Year is intended to draw us closer together with God and with each other.  I invite you to be part of it, as well!

Soul Year 2007-2008 includes a chant, a prayer and meditation practice, a passage from the Bible for contemplation, a set of books for us to read and discuss together, and an artistic project.

The concept: to repeat and practice these things for a year, at home, in events and groups and programs of our church, and in worship. Repetition can reinforce the meaning and the effect of these practices, and give us a common ground for sharing our experiences. In a year from now, the church will pick different elements for the following year.

The chant:  "I am sending you light, to heal you, to hold you, I am sending you light, to hold you in love�"  (Listen to Betsy Rose singing it.)

Let it get into our minds and then our hearts and let it guide us so that we become better channels for the healing power of the love that is God.

The prayer and meditation practice:  It can be done in silence or aloud. It can be done in a few minutes, or for an extended period of meditation of 30-45 minutes, which many people find helpful in being fully aware of the presence of God. The prayer is a structure in which you, or a group of people together, fill in the blanks.

"Dear God,

I feel... (Take your time to say/think what you are feeling in your body and in your heart. There is no more intimate thing we can do with each other, or with God, than to open up and express our truest and deepest feelings, no matter what they are, knowing they will be accepted and respected.)
I want... (Again, take some time to reflect on what you really desire, whether it seems worthy or not. What do you want for you, and what do you want for others, and what do you want for the world? It can be a want for anything - including wanting to want things that are truly worthy of wanting!)
I release... (Consider what and whom you forgive, what you want to let go, what you want to stop grasping, what you want to stop controlling or manipulating your life or the lives of others. Part of releasing in prayer is to let go of any expectations of prayer itself  - really letting go of expectations of what is supposed to happen in prayer, and letting God naturally manifest in our hearts.)
I accept... (Consider what you are willing to receive, to let in, to gratefully accept, in this moment. This can take the form of an affirmation - imagining that you have already received the good things you want for yourself, others, or society as a whole, and thus activating your energy and ability to work toward getting what you want.)
I thank... (God or others, and for what... What better religion is there than gratitude? Gratitude opens the heart and stimulates the flow of giving and receiving the good.)

So be it, Amen!"

The Bible passage: It is a set of verses from the fourth chapter of the first letter of John in the New Testament:

1 John 4:

[7] Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. [8] He who does not love does not know God; for God is love.

[11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. [13] By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his own Spirit.

[18] There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.

May these verses, read and repeated over and over again, sink into us and inspire us to be aware of the presence of God, who is love. May we deepen in the kind of divine, unconditional love that casts out all fear. May we find new meaning in these verses, may they take on a life of their own, as we repeat them and contemplate them not just with our minds, but with our hearts.

The books:  Over the next twelve months, the church will be reading books together. We've already started this process - which we call One Book, One Church. We read one book at a time, over a period of three or four months. Our first one was assigned this summer.   It's Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks.

Year of Wonders is a very beautifully written novel about a village in England in the seventeenth century, which was stricken by the plague. It raises important theological and moral questions. Particularly it raises the age-old question of the problem of evil. Why do bad things happen to good people? How could a God of love have created a world so full of pain and suffering? The book makes us ask: just what does it mean for God to be love, as 1 John chapter 4 says God is?

To find out which book is currently being read by our church, see our SOUL YEAR page.

The art project: We will be making collages that illustrate our many responses to the elements of the Soul Year prayer: I feel, I want, I release, I accept, I thank. Have fun chopping up magazines and pasting pieces together as a visual prayer!   Our church will display these collages in our social hall in the month of March and also at our Homecoming Sunday in September 2008.  If you'd like to participate from afar, email me a scan of your collage.  There will be no judging of your artistic ability - whatever you do will be honored as a prayerful expression.

I look forward to joining you in this spiritual experiment from now till this time next year, and hearing from you about your experiences with it!

 

My German friends, Wolfgang and Rachel, just visited Roberta and me in Marin a few days ago.  They had just arrived after a couple of weeks in Hawaii.  It was their first time to that chain of paradisiacal islands, and they loved it.  Rachel had once been a serious student of philosophy, and is now a very thoughtful Catholic Christian.  Wolfgang works on the staff of a large Catholic parish in Bavaria. Rachel told us that their trip made her question the universality of what she presumed to be the truth.  "Hawaii is the other side of the world from us in Germany," she said. "Almost twelve hours difference!"  She went on to talk about how much they had learned about Hawaiian culture and tradition.  She was fascinated at how its spirituality developed in isolation from the rest of the world, for so long.  It was so different in so many ways from what she had been taught in university and by the church.  "Can Immanuel Kant's philosophy mean anything in Hawaii?" she asked.

I laughed, because I remember being in Hawaii about fifteen years ago, and asking a similar question.  One day, wandering on a pristine beach on the Big Island, I mused about whether Soren Kierkegaard could have written "Fear and Trembling" on a tropical island.  I chuckled to myself as I imagined him writing a line like this:  "For faith is this paradox, that the particular is higher than the universal..." - and so on - and then lifting his gaze to watch the shimmering fronds of a coconut palm doing a hula dance in the wind. And then scratching out what he had just written, thinking to himself: "Forget universals!  I think I'll just lie on this particular beach indefinitely..."  In Hawaii , divinity is blatantly present wherever you turn.  And what could be truer than the blue of a tidepool on the Kona Coast?  If he had been listening to ukelele music, could Kierkegaard have worked up enough angst to write about the inner torment of Abraham ?

Do people need cold and gloomy weather in order to write theology? (Hmm... I do write a lot more in the winter than in the summer.)  How much philosophy is a manifestation of seasonal affective disorder?  How much traditional Christian orthodoxy have I abandoned simply because I live in a sunny climate?  How does my location shape the way I experience and express spirituality?

Perhaps it is a universal truth that the influences of particular places and people have a profound effect on the way we see the world.  And that can be a good thing.  In this age of accelerating globalization, there is the intriguing possibility of experiencing God in two or more different ways, maybe even at the same time.  A few years ago, Roberta and I went to a remarkable concert at Memorial Church at Stanford.  It was an Indian sitar master playing at the same time that a Gregorian chant choir was singing.  At first, my ears kept switching between listening to Hindu spiritual music or to Christian spiritual music.  But about halfway through the performance, the sitar music and the Gregorian chant blended together.  Neither had lost its particularity, but somehow they cooperated, in a hauntingly beautiful way, to deliver the audience into the presence of God.

It's September, and we're back from the beach where Kant didn't write "The Critique of Pure Reason", and Kierkegaard didn't write "The Sickness Unto Death".  Thanks be to the God we meet in the sand!  And in other people, and in other places, that show us different faces of the divine...