A Baptist minister and former Navy SEAL speaks on Christians in war, in The Way I see It: Reacting to Osama Bin Laden
Ten years ago today I was an active duty Navy SEAL deployed to the Middle East, today I am the Senior Pastor of Valley Baptist Church contemplating the death of Osama Bin Laden. Every now and again I have these moments where my two worlds sort of collide. Today is one of them. The internet is a furry with news, Facebook status updates, and blogs all reporting on this historical event. The chatter has inspired me to blog on a topic that is near and dear to my heart–The Christian and Combat.
First, let me begin by stating that I am writing this on my own behalf. My views are my own and do not necessarily reflect any group that I represent. These are my thoughts in progress and I do not claim to be an expert…although, I probably could. 🙂
Second, I have had many discussions with Christian pacifists over the years. I love the majority of them dearly. They are my brothers and sisters in Christ and we just don’t agree on this one issue. Some have accused me of not being able to see the Scriptures clearly because my background distorts my ability to listen to the Bible’s teaching. I admit that this really bothers me. They are simply wrong and assume my inclination is to hold a “pro war/violence position” because of my military background. In all honesty, the opposite is true. I have had to draw my gun on people (although I have never actually had to kill someone) and I have lost a number of very close friends in battle and have seen the after affects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to take a pacifist position on this subject, but the Scriptures will not allow me to do that (in my humble opinion). Violence of any sort is horrible and I long for the day when God scraps this world and starts a new, but for now I am here living in a sinful fallen world faced with horrible things where there is no simple answer.
“The Christian and Combat” was the title of my Master of Divinity thesis. As a former Navy SEAL who is now a pastor and law enforcement chaplain, I feel I need to get to work and convert it into a user friendly format for publication as I am often asked for my thoughts on this subject. One of these days, one of these days…
My first combat mission was on September 9, 1999–my 25th birthday. At this point in my life, I had spent the last seven years preparing for this moment and had been a Christian for about 3 years. It was dark, pitch black dark, in the Northern Arabian Gulf off the coast of Iraq, my adrenaline was flowing, and I distinctly remember thinking, “Gunnar, how did you get yourself into this one?” I know the feeling that many soldiers and cops experience…my prayer is that I can help those who protect us answer these deep theological questions prior to finding themselves in combat.
There is no way for me to blog about this in its entirety–I need to write that book. But I will attempt to answer a couple of questions: 1) the need for warriors, 2) the authority of the warrior, and 3) the Christians response to violence.
The need for warriors. There is a story in the Old Testament that inspired the writing of my thesis and it is found in 1 Samuel 23:1-5. David and his mighty men are on the run from Saul when David gets word that the Philistines are plundering the people of Keilah. My first point against the pacifist argument is evil is happening all around us. You can be a totally passive person (which I feel like I am) and find yourself witnessing one person or group that is violently attacking another. I love what Dietrich Bonhoeffer says about this reality, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” David and his men were exposed to an evil situation, their initial reaction was not to respond because they weren’t in the best position to help. David asked God a second time if this is what he was to do. God’s desire was for David to proceed onward using violence to stop this evil that was already in progress. Today is no different. Evil is everywhere. Men and women everywhere are doing evil to all sorts of people. Are Christians simply not to intervene? I don’t think so.
The authority of the warrior–military, cop, or individual. The clearest teaching anywhere in the Bible on this subject is found in Romans 12:9-13:4. This passage is pretty intriguing to me this week as it is very similar the Sermon on the Mount which I am preaching on through the month of May. Romans 12:9-17 has all of the verses that pacifists love to quote like: “Bless those who persecute you”, “Never pay back evil for evil”, etc, etc. Yes, I believe this all applies to the Christian and I take these verses literally, but a literal interpretation forces one to look at the whole context–one cannot study Scripture in isolation of the whole.
Romans 12:18-19 begins to shed some light on how we
as Christians are able to do this. First, the Bible says we are to be at peace with other people if it is possible and as much as it depends on our own actions. Then it says, “leave room for the wrath of God.” Okay so this is very interesting. We are not to take our own vengeance because God’s wrath is more effective than our own wrath (okay, the text doesn’t say why, that is my opinion). In my Bible I have drawn from “wrath of God” in Romans 12:19 down to Romans 13:4 where the thought carries through. Here the Bible essentially says that “it” (i.e. the authorities or government) “does not bear the sword for nothing” and that it is a “minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.”
I have met a number of pacifists that I respect. Concerning these verses in Romans 13 they would agree that the government is responsible to bear the sword, but would say based on Romans 12 that there is no place for the follower of Christ to function in this capacity of authority as the one bearing the sword. Biblically speaking, the wrath of the government is the wrath of God (for the record, I am not defending all government actions, time does not allow me to unpack this, but I do think God judges nations Isaiah 34-35 this will be in the book). So to say that the Christian cannot function in this capacity is in essence to say that they Christian is holier than God and this responsibility should be left the the unregenerate.
Every soldier and cop must understand the concept of being under authority. There was one such soldier who encountered Jesus in Capernaum who understood this concept and expressed it to Jesus (Luke 7:1-10). Jesus’ response to this man was, “I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.” This is a pretty incredible statement if you stop and consider it for a moment. The point is that when life is taken it must be under the proper authority of God and the government and right circumstances–whether you are a soldier, cop, or individual defending yourself or others.
The Christian’s response to violence. Yesterday I started preaching through Luke’s account of the Sermon on the Mount (Luke 6:20-49). One verse stuck out to me (v.21), “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.” Am I happy that Osama Bin Laden is dead? Yes and no. Yes because a man who promotes evil and destruction to many people is gone. “Relief” is probably a better word than “happy.” Many of us in the West are not fully aware of the evil this man inflicted in the world. He killed many innocent people brutally. I am sad for what he represented because another will arise in due time…there are many already doing evil to the innocent even as you read this. He is dead, but many died along the way. One peer of mine calculated that some 40 SEALs have died fighting the war against terrorism. I know a few widows and children who are left behind…Osama Bin Laden’s death doesn’t undo this or the attacks that have been committed during his lifetime. But there is pleasure in knowing that the government is following through with God’s command to bring “wrath on the one who practices evil” (Rom. 13:4).
There is so much more I could write on regarding this subject, but I am running out of steam and I would like to post this tonight. Regardless of your theological bent regarding pacifism, I think we all agree on Paul’s instructions to Timothy, “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity” (1 Timothy 2:1-2).
We should be on our knees this day praying as Paul tells us to above. I am thankful for the sacrifice of soldiers, cops, and good Samaritans who put their lives at risk in the calling of restraining evil.
h/t: Hugh Hewitt
May 9th, 2011 9:18 am
I remember back in 2001 watching on tv as people in the Middle East were cheering in the streets and waving flags and how disgusted I felt. I can’t help but feel a little of the same way when I see Americans doing the same thing. I know that Bin Laden’s death is not anywhere near the same as killing thousands of innocents unprovoked, but somehow it feels like it comes from the same impulse. Rejoicing that your enemies are dead or suffering. I am not saying that he shouldn’t have been killed, or that the world’s not a better place without him in it, but as Mr. Hanson put it, “‘Relief’ is probably a better word than ‘happy.'”
May 9th, 2011 2:05 pm
Justice is to be celebrated. Christians need to remember we all deserve death, however, and regret the failure of people to avail themselves of grace. Yet, the Psalms and other scriptures make it clear that God does not mind the celebration of the demise of evildoers… at least in my reading. The key: that celebration needs to be one of thanking God that justice was done, not based on merely the accomplishment of revenge.
May 10th, 2011 6:56 am
I find it rather amazing that so many Christians are ‘wrestling’ with their sense of joy or relief over Bin Laden’s death. Yet those same Christians don’t bat an eye over the thousands of American babies that are put to death each day. They pass the abortion mills with nary a glance and vote for the legislators who keep abortion legal. Most pastors don’t even preach a sermon a year about it. Worse yet, Christian girls seem to get abortions on a fairly regular basis. Does anyone read the Old Testament anymore? What kind of God would give the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill” and then send his chosen people to kill entire groups of people who were evil in God’s sight? In some cases, God commanded them to kill even the women and children. If we are going to ‘wrestle’ with something, would it not be better to go to the Bible itself rather than lean on our own understanding?
May 10th, 2011 10:27 am
Who’s to say that the same Christians who are wrestling with this issue are not the same Christians who oppose abortion? I know that I am one.
May 10th, 2011 4:20 pm
Sam, I know you are one who opposes abortion and I apologize for implying that you are the person(s) to whom I refer. I do know plenty of Christians that are selective however and find them difficult to understand.
May 10th, 2011 4:22 pm
Imagine how you might feel if one of your loved ones had been in the towers. Maybe they need a little slack. The Bible speaks often of the righteous rejoicing when the wicked are vanquished.
May 11th, 2011 3:19 pm
You all are mixing private honor with public virtue; misidentifying and misapplying them for the promotion of radical ideologies. First, one side sanctimoniously cites Old Testament battle hymns as Irrefutable support for a hyped-up argument. Next, on cue, the holy opposition asserts their equally Infallible dissent using New Testament Gospels, contained in the very same “morally consistent” book btw. Oh Lordy, now everybody’s a heretic: from the dancing teabagger to the horrified peacenik. I guess this nauseatingly predictable soap opera keeps you both in a very profitable business, right? The business being: Extremism.
Why do you guys always hafta drag everybody into your rude, confrontational circus? Shouldn’t Christians especially recognize and stay away from shams like this? Jesus didn’t care so much for political radicalism, to his Apostle Judas Iscariot’s chagrin. Okay, to “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s” does imply that it’s sensible to invest in both societal and individual principles even if they occasionally conflict, I’ll give you guys that. Arguably, unlike Paul or Moses, I think Christ’s instruction was meant for the person more than the group and should today be applied as such, to avoid confusion or corruption. That’s as deep as anyone needs to get into this as far as I’m concerned.
May 12th, 2011 3:20 pm
Just curious, innermore. Is there any issue where you strongly inhabit one side or the other? Where you think one side is wrong, and the other is right? Or do you float above all of it, calling “extremist” anyone who actually has an opinion or a perspective? Thinking back, I’m not sure I’ve ever read you taking a strong position on anything in particular…. except that people shouldn’t take strong positions and defend them against opposing views.
I think Jesus, the apostles, et. al., took some pretty strong positions on one thing and another. And they often had pretty harsh words for those opposing them.
But maybe they were just extremists.
May 14th, 2011 9:53 pm
Curiously Miner, you and I are just different. You and your ilk gotta have answers. Problem is, once your kind has the answers then your questions aren’t really questions anymore, just cues to the same answers. Of course you guys don’t see that, which is frustrating to me. Me and my ilk gotta have questions. Problem is, once my kind tries to answer a question then the answers aren’t really answers anymore, just cues to more questions. Of course I don’t see that, which is frustrating to you. I don’t know which ilk floats higher above the room, or is the most confident, virtuous, hardheaded, or curious. That’s up to you guys I guess.
In regards to the issue at hand: whether to laugh or cry when the devil get his head blown off; I think I remarked clearly enough. Didn’t you read the first sentence? In this case, it’s easy to confuse the morality of a group with the morality of a member. The sense of right and wrong is mostly the same for both parties, but the implementations can be quite different obviously. Therefore, no correct “moral response” needs to be determined for a situation like this. So what’re you guys arguing about it for? “Strong positions” are one thing, but opportunists using contrived interpretations of scripture to demonize people make me ill. Both “extremes” do it because it’s easy, it sells books and they’re too lazy to actually come up with an original thought.
As far as never having a strong opinion: thinking back, I’ve stood accused of this before. I thought I had a pretty strong response there.
And there,
and there.
May 14th, 2011 10:41 pm
Innermore, I’m not sure that what you refer to as “strong responses” are all that unambiguous. It’s OK. Ambiguity is fun, or can be. Perhaps others reading your examples will disagree, and find them to be concise descriptions of coherent intellectual positions. As the saying goes, your mileage may vary.
Just a challenge based on your last sentence: can you describe an “original thought” you’ve had? Since you accuse others of being too lazy to have them…. perhaps we will all benefit from your example. Me, I’m very careful to avoid claiming any original thoughts. Too many very smart people have already beaten me to them. So I’m mostly happy to just point them out, and agree with them…. which is mostly what I do here.
To try to get back to the original point of the article I quoted above: Pacifism is not a required position for Christians. Defense of the innocent IS a required position for Christians. People may disagree about what that defense entails. People may disagree over a particular policy or other. But if that disagreement, in the end, boils down to whether or not defense of the innocent is a responsibility of governments, the Christian (Biblical) position is really pretty clear, using any rational historical/originalist interpretive method (basically viewing scripture through the lens of the times and contexts of the people who wrote it, and the people they expected to read it). That doesn’t mean we aren’t required to use some wisdom about particular situations. Christians aren’t called on to be Don Quixote.
But Moses is a better role model for Christians than Gandhi. The Roman centurion (obviously not a pacifist) with the sick child healed by Jesus is a better role model (according to Jesus, due to his great faith) than any pacifist for whom “non-violence” is a higher value than being against legal-abortion-on-demand-at-any-time-in-the-pregnancy-for-any-reason, i.e., the common position of the Democratic party (which is mostly for unrestricted abortion “rights”, but houses nearly all the “anti-war” left, the majority of whom hold both positions), the political home of most pacifists and pro-abortion folks, who are often the same folks.