If Peace Is Weak, So Is Jesus

It’s anathema in politics to preach “peace.”  We can talk diplomacy, and maybe even deign to use the word “cooperation.”  But peace?  That’s the epitome of Kumbaya naivete — and, one assumes, a political death knell.

Tomorrow, the Christian Witness for Peace in Iraq will be at the National Cathedral in Washington to call for an end to this literally godforsaken war.  They are calling for peace.

It’s time that we in the Democratic Party joined them.  Although our government says “we don’t do body counts,” others do, and by one estimate, over 600,000 Iraqi civilians have died violently since the U.S. invasion.  That’s like the entire city of Baltimore being wiped off the map — pretending, that is, that Baltimore’s in the middle of a tinderbox like the Middle East.

Sure, some Democrats have been unafraid of the p-word.  But all too often, we’re tempted to take the politically expedient, rather than prophetic, course: we lecture and blame the Iraqis for the disaster zone that is now their country.

The Iraqis’ failures should be beside the point, at least for us.  We must take responsibility for the havoc we have wreaked.  And, for those of us who take our Christian faith seriously, we must remember the clear words of Jesus:

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”  (Matthew 5:9)

We must also go back and read the prophet Micah, who tells us what foreign policy is supposed to look like in God’s kingdom:

“Many nations shall come, and say, ‘Come, let us climb the mount of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, that we may walk in his paths.’ For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples and impose terms on strong and distant nations; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. Every man shall sit under his own vine or under his own fig tree, undisturbed; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, But we will walk in the name of the Lord, our God, forever and ever.”  (Micah 4: 2-5)

No, we mere mortals haven’t yet reached the point where we can truly live out God’s command to “beat [our] swords into plowshares” and refuse “to train for war again.”  We are far from heaven.  But we have been occupying the Iraqis’ metaphorical vine and fig tree for the last four years.  And if we’re remotely serious when we pray to God, “Thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we must give the Iraqis their country back — not because they owe us, but because we owe them.

Meanwhile, religious right leaders like James Dobson continue to offer uncritical support for his war and “admire [Bush] for standing firm.”  Jerry Falwell insists that “God is pro-war” and that “President Bush declared war in Iraq to defend innocent people.” 

Are they ashamed of their faith?  Are they reluctant to believe that we might actually have the ability to move our world in the direction Scripture demands?  I’m not sure.  But those of us who have a vague interest in reality must take a different approach.

For if Jesus is truly the Prince of Peace, and if our war is neither directly nor indirectly promoting God’s peace, our job as Christians is clear.  We must encourage the Democrats, for their part, to advance an enforceable bill — one with teeth — to get our military out of Iraq.  And we must encourage the Republicans to crawl back in their hole and let us try our hand at cleaning up the mess they’ve made.