(Re)inventing the Sacred

Opening statement: I have published this short essay on my blog simply to say in public the things that I often think in private. There are some statements in the writing below that may be offensive for some and may inspire anger and even hatred for others. But before reading, please know that I do not intend to offend anyone or to incite negative reactions. As I said, I just want to say in public what I think in private. Feel free to criticize, but I ask that you do so in a gracious manner. I will not publish comments that I believe to be malicious in any way.

I am often confronted with the idea that, in warfare, soldiers are sacrificing their lives to save others. I am told that I must respect their actions in warfare because of their sacrifices and because they’ve given up so much to fight for my rights. On the surface, this is a solid idea. There is no question that I respect and am humbled by soldiers and the difficult work that soldiers do. Indeed, being myself a pacifist, I can and will never do what a soldier does. In one view, I could say that soldiers do the work that I cannot do. They fight for me and for my freedom in this society because I will not and cannot fight or kill. However, as much as I respect military personnel and the fact that they place themselves in dangerous situations (presumably) for the sake of freedom and helping others, I cannot speak of deaths and injuries sustained in warfare as sacrifice. Moreover, I cannot truthfully say that I respect soldiers because they do what I am unwilling to do in order to preserve my rights and freedoms. That is to say, that, although I do have great respect for military personnel, my respect is not a product of their fighting for me [the reasons for my respect will be expounded upon soon enough]. In this entry, I explore the idea of sacrifice and ask the question, “Is sacrifice a reality in warfare?”

I will begin by speaking about the real reasons why I respect military persons. I mentioned before that I am a pacifist. I have explained my reasons for this conviction in previous entries and will not take the time to do that here. The purpose of this section is to explain that, while I understand that military personnel perceive that they are fighting to protect my rights and freedoms, they are in fact not fighting for my rights and freedoms at all. Military operations in war exist for the purpose of combating ideologies that the dominant culture views as inappropriate and dangerous. In the case of the current war, we have terrorism. Ideally, each and every person engaged in military operations in the current war believes that he or she is fighting to preserve the rights and freedoms of the American people against the dangerous ideologies that fuel terrorism. On the surface, this is a true statement. But, in the case of the body of Christ [the universal Church], the idea that the military fights for the freedoms of the persons who make up Christ’s body is false and can never be true. The Church does not need armies and wars to defend it. And when these things have been called upon to protect the church, the outcome has always been disastrous. The Church of Jesus Christ is sustained by the Spirit of God and faithfulness of Christians worldwide to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Certainly one may question thus: “If the armies of this world set out to destroy all Christians, would God intervene and stop the killing of his people or would Christians have to stand up and fight for their own safety and freedom to live in faith?” Certainly there is the reality of death - and the reality of the fact that not all Christians (unfortunately) live nonviolently - but does this reality always imply the doom of a people to perish? If Christians believe that Christ is our Lord and our Savior, then we must be willing to trust in the faithfulness of God to sustain us amid violence and oppression without the use of military powers and principalities of this world. When Christians support the idea that war is tragic but necessary, we show nothing but our lack of faith. Indeed, when Christians call upon the powers of this world to sustain us, we are no longer Christians because we have ceased to have faith in Christ alone as the source and protector of all life. It is for these reasons that I do not hold as reasonable the honoring of military personnel simply for the fact that they fight when we do not. This idea presumes that Christians need military people to fight for us. Once again, the argument comes: “If you refuse to fight and if the military does not protect you, you will die.” To this we must say, “Faith in Christ does not require that our life on this earth last longer than this present moment. Our faith, our hope, and our trust are in the promise of salvation and true life brought by Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. Christians do not need the military to protect us because our life will not end after our physical bodies cease to exist.” If those people who call themselves Christians would have faith in Christ enough to trust in the effectiveness of the resurrection in defeating death, this world would certainly look much different. Understand this: I have profound respect for those people who serve in the military. I never want to demean their lives or belittle their deaths. The reason that I respect military persons stems from the fact that they do actually live out what they believe is right - something that pacifist Christians can learn from. They fight for and suffer with innocent people who have no defenders. But in the end, the point is this: in the resurrection of Christ, their fighting is not necessary. This is why my respect for military persons is not rooted in the belief that they fight for me: because they don’t. God fought for me and won two-thousand years ago when he was beaten, humiliated, crucified, and raised from the dead thereby eliminating the need for war on our behalf. I have seen the poster that says, “A Modest Proposal for Peace: Let the Christians of the World Agree That They Will Not Kill One Another.” If this were to become a reality, then maybe the world would see the senseless nature of war and we could, indeed, have peace in the name of Jesus Christ.

As a non-military citizen, I cannot attempt to portray all that military training entails. Therefore, I welcome any correction regarding the following statements. To participate in warfare, a person needs training. On a basic level, military training involves a sort of reprogramming of the civilian mind. The mind and all its instincts are programmed to fight and fight effectively and to kill (only if necessary). We must at this juncture ask ourselves if, since we must be trained to be effective fighters, this is a profession for which a person could have ever been created for. Or, to put it another way, does not the fact that one must be trained to kill reflect the essential truth that warfare and killing are not natural to humanity. We were created to be peaceful and military training reverses our otherwise non coercive impulses - moving them toward the need and drive to coerce in order to gain a favorable outcome in a given situation. Thus are military personnel trained to fight. Because of this training, a military person always has the ability to fight back against and, as a last resort, to kill the enemy. It is in light of this fact that I cannot speak of the deaths of military personnel as sacrifices. Because they have the ability to fight back and kill the person who could potentially injure and kill them, the military person lacks the ability to offer an effective sacrifice. Sacrifice implies the willing laying down of one’s life for another - and in the Christian world view, of laying down one’s life even for the enemy. Indeed, the only word that can effectively describe the death of a military person is tragedy - not sacrifice. At the very basic level, the death of a military person in combat is essentially an accident - still not a sacrifice. These things are not sacrifice because of the above named ability and instinct to fight back and kill before being killed. Therefore, it is right and proper to speak of the death of a military person in combat as an accidental death that occurred because the soldier wasn’t paying attention, because he didn’t pull his trigger before the enemy did, because he was careless, or any number of other reasons. The point is that none of these things are, in effect or essence, sacrifices because none of these involve the willing laying down of one’s life without any intention of fighting back in any way. A person who sacrifices knows that he or she will die. A person who sacrifices does not intend to stop the sacrifice but accepts that his or her unwillingness to fight back will probably result in the loss of their own life. There is nothing tragic about sacrifice because a sacrifice is not an accident - it is an intentional act with a known outcome that does not include fighting back or avoiding death. It is for these reasons that I cannot speak of the deaths of military persons as sacrifice. Certainly, they are tragic, sad, and senseless and preventable. But they are not sacrifices. What then, can be done to stop these tragedies? I refer back to the quote, “A Modest Proposal for Peace: Let the Christians of the World Agree That They Will Not Kill One Another.”

Grace and Peace,

Andrew Tatum