War

I hate war. In my studies of history, I have never discovered one where the cause justified the cost in terms of suffering that war produces. The decision that a war was worth the price is made by the living who did not lose their lives. The people who died don’t get a voice. I think it is arrogant to say that my freedom is worth another person's life, and the lives of all their descendents.

Jesus’ death on the cross set me completely free. The death of no other person is needed to make me freer. If we believe that Jesus made us truly free, why do we want other people to die for our freedom.

The current war is no different. It is an unnecessary war that could have been avoided if leaders on all sides had not been intransigent.

What I find disconcerting is the number of Christian celebrities speaking out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, whom I have not heard speaking against war before. I am pleased to see their oppostion to this war, but I can’t help feeling that their angst is a bit selective.

• These people were mostly silent when the US, France and the UK invaded Libya and wrecked the most prosperous nation in Africa.

• They have been silent about the Saudi invasion of Yemen, one of the poorest nations in the world, with the logistical support of the United States. They call Putin a dictator, but they don’t throw the same barbs at the ruler of Saudi Arabia, because he is a US ally.

• They have been silent about the illegal US invasion of Syria.

• They cheered on the US invasion of Iraq, which caused nearly a million deaths, and spawned ISIS.

• They remained silent during the twenty-year war of destruction and revenge for 9/11 against the people of Afghanistan who had nothing to do with it.

• They are silent about the United States stealing $9 billion dollars from the Afghan central bank, money that belongs to the Afghan people, which is needed to keep them from starvation.

• They did not care about the US bombing of Belgrade to split up Yugoslavia with no suggestion that the old borders were sacrosanct.

• Evangelical Christians cheered on the invasion of Vietnam, and the bombing of Laos and Cambodia for no useful purpose.

• Christians have remained silent about Israel’s continuous, brutal mistreatment of the Palestinian people with military equipment supplied by the United States.

• They have ignored Israel’s illegal bombing of Syria and Lebanon.

• They ignore the pain, suffering and death caused by economic sanctions, and pretend that economic war is good and military war is bad, while claiming to support freedom.

It seems that celebrity Christians don’t care about US and UK aggression nearly as much as they care about Russian aggression. Is it because the victims are white Europeans. I can’t help wondering if the virulence of their verbal attacks on Russian are driven more by racism and xenophobia than by Christian concern and compassion?

There are a few exceptions. Roger E Olson's article about Russia’s and America’s Invasions is pertinent, but it has been severly criticised.