I Am Pro-Life

If you don't want to read a fairly vitriolic opinion of war, and the role Christians should or should not play in it, then....don't read below the link.





Most people reading the title above will assume that I mean I am against abortion.  And I am.  But I do not think the sacredness of life is any less worthy of defense after birth.  I am pro-life when it comes to criminals and when it comes to people of other countries and other religions.  I think it is the height of hypocrisy to decide that this life is sacred but this one is not.  As Derek Webb sings, "Are we defending life/ When we just pick and choose/ Lives acceptable to lose/ And which ones to defend."

A friend of mine is joining the military this week, and it is causing me a lot of heartache.  I simply cannot reconcile my belief in a God of Peace, who sent his Son to die for evil people, with the idea that us sinful humans can negate His mercy by killing each other.  I don't see where in the Bible war is justified.

Before you point me to the Old Testament, let me share my thoughts.  Back then, God chose a certain group of people to be His mouthpiece, to be examples to the world of what it looks like to serve the one true God.  They were special.  The rest of the world was not, though I do think some of them knew and worshiped Jehovah.  But regardless of how that all worked back then, I whole-heartedly believe that the New Covenant changed everything.  There is no longer an elect nation.  There are elect persons from every tribe and nation and language.  There is no longer Jew and Gentile.  We are all one family with God as our Father.

And if I hear about how America is God's special people, I might throw up.  I just can't even express my disgust with that view.  There are good things about living in the United States.  There are horrible things about living in the United States (like growing up thinking materialism and consumerism are perfectly acceptable ways of life).  But we are not, as a nation, God's chosen people.  We never were.  We are just a country in a fallen world.

Unless I am way missing the message of the Bible, it is my understanding that we are no longer supposed to be bound to any earthly nation.  Instead, as God's chosen people, we are citizens of a kingdom, serving a King.  A king of peace on a mission of reconciliation with people who rebelled against him, might I add.

I am no longer an American.  I gave up that title when I gave my life and my allegiance to Jesus.

As such, there is absolutely no call for me, or for any follower of Jesus, to kill someone else, no matter what they did to us.  What happened to "turn the other cheek"?  Why are we blatantly ignoring so much of Jesus' message?

Shane Claiborne says in his book, "When Jesus said to love your enemies, he probably meant don't kill them."

I can't think of a better way to say it.  I can't help but wonder how much it must pain him to see a nation that claims to follow him self-righteously wiping out people that he loves and wants to know personally.  And it is happening in his name.  It's sickening.