catapult magazine

I was thinking about posting something about this under Laryn’s thread about structural sin. There’s a difference I think.
Is the concept of Holy War (I’m not referencing the false definition of Jihad here) appropriate at any given time? In the old testament it was. Does the New Testament theme of love your neighbor as yourself constitute universal peace in the face of tyranny?
Especially with Iraq and N. Korea right now, and following East Timor a few years ago, I don’t know what a Christian response should be. Obviously it will depend on the situation but that doesn’t help us very much. Was a young man in Holland with a pistol shooting SS in alleys justified in what he was doing?
When I was an exchange student, my German father told me of his father who was a Nazi soldier. His mother was pregnant with him and his twin sister when his father was told “fight or you and your family dies”. What’s the proper response? What should my response be?
I hate war. Though I hate being universally tied to a principal without biblical backing to something I don’t fully understand. Perhaps raising questions is part of the solution even without answers, but I don’t think that’s good enough. What do Christians do now? With Iraq? With N. Korea? With Turkey? With half a dozen African countries that have been tied up in Civil war for the last 20 years?
Is violence ever the answer?

You know what it’s easy to forget? That God is still in control of what looks like bloody, unfair, unjustified chaos. Instead of wondering what to DO about it, I often wonder what we’re supposed to learn from all this? Why do we always feel the need to fix things that we view as confused and in need of fixing? This applies to both pro- and anti-war parties. God gaves us minds and free will, but our society never seems to know when to shut up and trust God.

True enough Annie. I agree and yet…
I hate waiting. I hate not doing anything, and even though I know that trusting God is far from “not doing anything”, I want to be proactive. “Be still and know that I am God” seems to be a good beginning, but Christians can’t rely on that solely, can they?

I’m really glad you brought this up. I’ve been thinking too about why we all feel like we must take a side. Talking of war in terms of one team being “unsportsmanlike” and “rooting for the underdog” and hating both sides etc. displays our tendency to feel like we must choose a perspective as our own. In our biblestudy, we talked about the possibility that it makes us feel better to have “decided” which side we fall on; maybe it gives us the feeling that we’ve “done something”, that we have some sense of control at least over our feelings about the war, or that we can put the issue to rest and stop mulling over it again and again. But the mulling goes on and on for me and is not helped by the fact that I feel driven to find a side to be on.

I think the news contributes, in large part, to this constant turmoil. I’m not so sure that the news does anyone any good just by “reporting the facts”. What kind of direction is found in the blind (“objective”) depiction of “facts”? Lately, I’ve been fantasizing about how nice it would be if a journalist went into Iraq and started to reveal the grace of God found amidst the most unGodly of situations. Such a broadcast would recognize the evils of the situation, but also would give hope that God’s love ultimately rules. It would be nice to be reminded on the nightly news not of death and destruction, but of Christ’s rule— to be reminded that whether Saddam wins or the U.S. military prevails, neither outcome is any kind of VICTORY, not if we understand victory in terms of Christ’s resurrection, which is a conquerring of death (which has the greatest sting as a powerful weapon in times of war) itself.

Thank you, Grant. That was a wonderful post – that kind of pragmatic idea I was looking for in another thread.

The news itself would have to change a lot to carry that off. For one thing, the people reporting the news would have to become sincere, believable, and earnest. I was in a hotel in Springfield last week and saw a CNN reporter who looked like he was the same sort of plastic airbrushed person as on the commercials. His facial experessions of concern and interest seemed rehearsed. God’s grace is a grace of oridinary people (think of Moses, Joseph, Jacob, Esther, etc). I could believe that news easier if it came from someone who was a little overweight, with a pockmarked face and slightly balding.

In that case, if I weren’t afraid of dying and didn’t have a family, I’d volunteer.
I guess I am happy that in this war, the media isn’t playing up our “smart” bombs (what an oxymoron that is!). In the gulf war, it seemed like I was watching a video game. It was “cool” to see a tall square building’s doors getting blown out when a bomb was dropped down the middle. I don’t want war to be entertaining.
I have seen some of the reporters who have been shadowing the soldiers. I agree that it looks rehearsed. It’s like watching Keanu Reeves try to come off as believable in a movie other than Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (and Bogus Journey).

norbert you are a classic, if ever there was a sissy ass bitch you would be it….you could barely fight a cold let alone a “holy war”….get a grip…society today has rendered you useless…all this book reading and silly education business. come on!
you don’t know shit from your left hand when it comes to anything but wasting time on your computer talking about shit that doesn’t need to be talked about….go spend some time with your family or plant a tree…but don’t waste my time with your super undereduacted responses to this idiotic blogs about who knows what.
do us all a favour and never go near your keyboard again…..you offer us nothing….
just stop…..

At the risk of bringing down your wrath, I’m going to type something again. Thank you Mr. Bergundy for such a helpful post. Hopefully you may have opened up this thread again for more constructive discussion.
It has been 2.5 years since the last post, and I’m not sure much has changed in the world.

Yeah, the waiting goes on. But this thread is also kind of a time capsule, yes? The uncertainties and sense of shock connected to repeated violent imagery has led to a more staid resolve that this is the reality we will be in for many years to come.

There seems to be a surge in battle films lately. I can’t tell if people are being nostalgic for the good old days of WWI and WWII or if it’s only money-motivated (I’m not quite that cynical)? There definitely is something un-glorious about a war that consists of random car bombs and pot shots taken at unarmed Haliburton semi trailer trucks.