Sarx

One Million Blogs for Peace (of which Sarx is a member - are you?) has launched their Tuesday Topics: which will be a series of questions or blogging topics on Tuesdays… I’m game. Here’s this week’s offering:

Think back four years ago, to when you first heard that the Iraq War had started.
Were you for or against the war at the time?
If you were for it, what has changed your mind over the last four years?
If you were against it, why were you against it?

You know… I’m not sure what my answer should be.

I have this series of posts beginning on 6 March 2003 and going up to 7 April 2003. Through the entire series I kinda shrug my shoulders at two things: one, George W Bush is no different than Bill Clinton (all the more reason to vote different); and two, humans are sinful schmucks, there’s going to be war, no matter which political side one picks. This is the joy of using blogging software! I can find posts from 4 years ago:

Who said this?
The day the war broke out…
“Peace” Activists
OCA Pastoral Letter
Hymn Sing “Were you there?”
War in the Classroom
OCA Synod on the War
Rubber Bullets used in Oakland!
How many lines of sight did Monica’s Blue Dress block?

And finally my ultimate statement of non-involvement…
Which Arky is yours?

I wasn’t a peace activist - not in the way that some would have wanted me to be. But neither was I a war activist. Neither the Radical American Left nor the Radical American Right appeal to me.

Peace, however, does. And Peace is a Person-to-Person thing. It can affect nations, yes, but nations might be at war always: but Christians must be at peace. The pledge at 1,000,000 Blogs for Peace says, “I believe in the immediate withdrawal of all foreign combat troops from the nation of Iraq. I believe in using my blog, in whole or in part, as a tool toward this end.” And I believe that no Christian should be sitting in a troop. Ever. Because he must be making peace with the person in front of him: not political peace, not secular peace, but lay-down-his-own-life-rather-than-injure-another, forgive-70-times (at least), turning-other-cheeks peace. It’s impossible for a Christian to pick up a weapon.

But we’re humans: we’re sinners. We play dumb and follow-the-leader just like everyone else. We forget the Gospel of Love and convince ourselves that the Gold Calf of “Well, I love my family and nation more than that Iraqi so I can kill him” is just as good or we get all excited about the Ba’al of an opressed Kurd being worth more in human terms than a Iraqi Republican Guard. We don’t make peace, we just kill the Iraqi and call it even.

Nope. We have a Christian job to do and we’re not doing it. Nor was I doing it then.

What has changed my mind? Not much. Humans are still sinners - all of equally so. But I think peace can be made, one person at a time. I’m willing to stake this blog’s neck not on political positions but on the belief that Christian Peace (which is not anything at all like the UN) is worth more than any Ba’al or Golden Calf out there.