Pick Your Battles
What are we to think of War?
Welcome to The Embassy!
We hope to be an Island of Faith, Humanity and Grace For Understanding Our Strange World.
The format of these regular ‘Dispatches from The Embassy’ will usually include a curated link (or two), a short take (perhaps), and an essay called a view.
Here we go -
A Link (or three) -
Here is an article on the response of Ukrainian pastors after the Russian invasion.
Here is a look at Vietnam veterans returning to a divided America in the 1960’s and 1970’s. (This may be behind a paywall, though the NYT offers a few free articles per month - or did when I was posting this.)
Here is a list of Just War principles, with a number of other links with additional reading.
A View -
What About War?
As I write this, war rages in Ukraine. The reports and images from the war zone illuminate the tragedy of armed conflict. The dead include both soldiers and civilians - many as they try to escape from the war zone. Homes are destroyed, communities flattened, families torn apart, and the lives of many Ukrainians will never be the same. We see the horror of war. We see that war is bad, even evil. But is that too simple?
The reports and images from the war zone illuminate the heroism and nobility that rises to the surface in armed conflict. Ukrainians are fighting to protect their homes, their communities, and those that cannot fight for themselves. They are fighting for their freedom, they are protecting the defenseless, they are battling to preserve justice, and their culture, and to restore a peace that isn’t subjection. We see that war is sometimes necessary, noble, just. But is that too romantic - to easy a conclusion to reach?
It is difficult to think clearly about war during wartime. It is, from a different perspective, difficult to think clearly about war during peacetime. During peace, every effort is put toward avoiding war - and war itself seems the enemy. But when an aggressor unjustly invades and a people are fighting for their homes, families, and country - the enemy is the enemy, defeating the invaders is the only victory. But during both war and peace, there is a tendency to romanticize battle - perhaps especially for men. It is easy enough to draw the connection between wartime video games and this romantic view of war - or of a pretend war.
A number of years ago, I was sitting in my aisle seat on a flight home from somewhere, watching what others were watching on their phones or laptops, as one does. A couple of rows up, across the aisle, a laptop popped open after the plane was in the air and Saving Private Ryan began. If you aren’t familiar with the opening of Saving Private Ryan, it is one of the most intense, graphic, and (I am told) realistic portrayals of battle - the landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day - in any movie. It isn’t a short opening - it takes perhaps the first 25 minutes of the film. After the opening, after the battle scene was over, the laptop closed - that was all the movie he (a fortyish married man) watched on a flight long enough to watch the entire movie. That scene, for me, depicts this fascination with and romanticization of war. And I get it. Many men wonder, I can’t speak for women, but I know many or most men wonder, if it came to it, would I have the ability to risk my life for family, friends, and country? There is a draw to proving oneself in this environment. Looking over Telegraph Hill at the massive Civil War battle of Fredricksburgh, Robert E. Lee is believed to have said,
“It is well that war is so terrible - otherwise we would grow too fond of it.”
This may not state the draw as you or I would, but it is this fascination - alongside the horrors and deprivation of it - that cloud our thinking about war. Particularly as a Christian - what am I to do with it?
There is a long tradition in Christian theology of trying to answer this question. You could google ‘just war theory’ and find numerous restatements or rearrangements of the following six principles:
The war must be for a just cause.
The war must be lawfully declared by a lawful authority.
The intention behind the war must be good.
All other ways of resolving the problem should have been tried first.
There must be a reasonable chance of success.
The means used must be in proportion to the end that the war seeks to achieve.
Of course, reasonable people can disagree about any of these conditions applying to any particular war. Is it really a just cause? Has it been officially been declared or entered into by the authorities of the impacted government? Is the intention good? Is it for liberation? rescue? protection? Who decides these things? Could you avoid war another day? What defines a reasonable chance of success? All of these things are difficult to definitively state. The last condition means we should not bomb civilians just to inflict pain on an enemy (for example) - we should not prosecute a just war by methods that are unjust. These conditions aren’t an answer, they are just a framework for thinking about war.
World War II seems to fit these criteria according to almost anyone - genocidal regimes invading sovereign countries to further their reign and extend their genocide. Many Christian (and, I believe Jewish) theologians would hold up Abraham’s defeat of Kedorlaomer, one of the invading kings who had captured and carried of Lot and others of Abraham’s family. Abraham’s rescue of Lot and his family is met with the blessing of Melchizedek, described as ‘priest of God Most High.’
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth.
And praise be to God Most High,
who delivered your enemies into your hand.” (Genesis 14:19-20)
The war in Ukraine fits the just war criteria, I believe. They are defending their country against a larger, better armed aggressor to save their people from subjection. But that doesn’t end the question. The people of Ukraine might be justified in fighting to defend their country, but that does not justify committing an atrocity in the prosecution of that war. Fighting in a just war does not relieve them from acting with justice toward the aggressors.
There are more questions, for me, for us, for our hearts. How am I to feel when I see the images of the civilian dead left behind in territories formerly controlled by Russian troops? How should I feel? What does it mean for me to love God with all my heart and love my neighbor as myself? (Matthew 22:34-40).
For me there are some ways to think, feel, and respond that are connected to the Christian tradition, to the principles of Scripture, and to the heart of God. I am not infallible, I don’t know what all these are and I won’t get each response right. But as one called to look at the brokenness of the world in order to bring truth and love and justice from God’s heart - I can’t look away, or tune out, or simply give in to where a natural emotional response might take me. Here are some words to consider from the Christian tradition and scriptures:
Lament - recognize and share the anger, grief, and pain of those suffering and of the injustice they are experiencing. And for the suffering in my community.
Justice - seek what is just, and not more than that, for this conflict - and act with justice in my own relationships.
Restoration - move toward a peace that restores - even if this is simply in my life.
Humility - the fog of war is real, I won’t have perfect knowledge about this conflict. I don’t have perfect knowledge about any conflicts.
Mercy - retribution, even verbally, even in our hearts is not for me to seek - in Ukraine, or my home, or my community, or online.
As it turns out, as with many larger political and cultural conflicts playing out all around me, I can’t directly do a lot to change the conflict in Ukraine. If I was Ukrainian, I probably would be fighting to protect my country and people. But I am not. I can do some things, and I should. Alongside concrete actions, those things might include lament and should move toward justice and restoration with humility and mercy.
But do I bring the same restorative movement I want to bring regarding the war in Ukraine to the culture wars, the political wars, the online wars that are being waged all around me? Do I want to? When I see the social, religious, cultural, political wars that I can follow on my phone, do I lament? When I see the casualties of these wars, do I move toward justice and restoration with humility? Do I interact with mercy?
Or do I, like the guy on the plane, just tune in for the battle and vicariously (or digitally) wade in? There is a draw. I get it. And, at times, it can get me.
Christians believe we are being transformed, remade, changed - slowly, painfully, by the movement of God’s Spirit in our lives. I am called to cooperate with that movement, but I can’t make it happen myself. I can close the laptop, but it is God who helps me not want to tune in for the battle. This is a battle I do fight - a just war of restoration and freedom and transformation for which God promises victory - eventually, after many likely defeats. If Christians understood this process a little better, we would grow in humility and mercy, especially when we see others fall.
Keep your eyes open, guard your heart, act with mercy toward justice. And, if you want to join me, pray for Ukraine.
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