But recently I’ve come to realize that I can no longer support the theory of “just war.” Perhaps it was seminary, my year in Colombia, or my involvement with the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, or some combination of the three that led me to becoming a pacifist. My country has been waging war in the middle east since I was eight years old (not even counting previous wars such as Desert Storm). As a child I was taught that the war was good because we were fighting terrorists. I was taught that the terrorists were a great evil, who would kill us all if given a chance, and therefore the evils of war were justifiable because we were trying to stop a greater evil.
But then I learned that at least 200,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq since 2003 due to the war. To put that in perspective, the six-decade war in Colombia has killed approximately 260,000 people. I began to wonder how a war could be considered “just” if it resulted in the deaths of so many innocent civilians. Despite what the media wants us to believe, the vast majority of people living in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, and the rest of the middle east are not terrorists. Until our soldiers showed up in their countries, they cared very little about what the US or its citizens did. The only thing we’ve really done in this war (besides killing hundreds of thousands of people) is give terrorist organizations recruitment material. Research has found that our so-called “war on terror” has only increased terrorism because civilian deaths are one of the main things that increases terrorism.
Over the past week, since the US airstrike that killed Iran General Qasem Suleimani, I’ve heard a lot of people celebrating his death, saying he was a terrorist who killed many Americans. They say the war is inevitable. It’s another example of a so-called “just war,” because we have to fight the terrorists and protect ourselves. But besides the fact that waging war against Iran will almost certainly increase terrorism, the main outcome of war in Iran will be even more civilian deaths. It’s easy for us to ignore the effects of war. The war in Iran won’t be fought on US soil. Our homes won’t be bombed. Our children won’t be killed. But as a Christian I cannot justify the killing of innocent people for any reason. Fighting for peace is counter-intuitive. There are other ways to solve conflict than by killing people, and it’s long past time our country gave them a try.
This past Sunday I led my church in praying for God to change the hearts of our leaders so that they would seek peaceful solutions. I will continue to pray for peace, and I invite you to join me. Christ taught his followers to be peacemakers. As Christians we are called to work for peace. Call your representatives and ask them to support peaceful solutions to the conflict with Iran. Seek out ways that you can work for peace in your own community. War is not just, no matter how hard we try to justify it. Let us work to create a world that is more like God’s kin-dom, one that is free of war and violence and full of peace.
The Presbyterian Peacemaking Program provides a daily lectionary of scriptures based on themes of peace and peacemaking. Over the course of 2019-20 I’ll be basing my blogs on one or more of the scriptures from each week’s lectionary. If you would like to follow along in the lectionary with me, here are next week’s scriptures:
Sunday – Genesis 28:10-22
Monday – Joshua 20
Tuesday – Job 23
Wednesday – Psalm 33
Thursday – John 16:25-33
Friday – 1 Peter 1:1-9
Saturday – Hebrews 12:12-29