Good Grief

Linus Van Pelt got me all caught up in the holiday spirit, making this seem like a reasonable thing to write in the post below:

Peace on earth, good will to all. That's what it's all about Charlie Brown.

And it is a reasonable thing, and a Good Thing, and a noble sentiment.

Problem is that these same words are sometimes used to express some unreasonable, ignoble sentiments. Take for example Rep. Robin Hayes, R-N.C., who quoted this same passage from Luke 2 earlier this month in a speech to the Concord, N.C., Rotary Club. The congressman laid out his strategy for winning the war in Iraq:

Stability in Iraq ultimately depends on spreading the message of Jesus Christ, the message of peace on earth, good will towards men. Everything depends on everyone learning about the birth of the Savior.

BlueNC notes that this sort of statement is counterproductive, supporting the hostility-inducing notion that "American soldiers are just modern Crusaders."

But Hayes' suggestion isn't just counterproductive, it's also Bad History. As a Christian, I wish there were something to his suggestion that if only everybody was a Christian there wouldn't be any more war, but that simply hasn't proven the case. Despite all that stuff in the Sermon on the Mount, we Christians have a pretty bellicose track record. Historically, the group of Christians that probably most resembles the meek peacemakers Jesus commanded his followers to be is the Amish. And while they may be, themselves, a peaceful people, their history is anything but. The Anabaptists faced lethally violent persecution — all at the hands of other Christians.

The Amish were never truly safe until they got to America. They were safe here not because, as Rep. Hayes seems to suggest, America is a Christian nation, but because it explicitly is not. Only a secular nation, one with an explicit prohibition against the establishment of religion, could provide a safe haven for the Christlike peace churches.

Which brings us back to the separation of church and state — something Rep. Hayes thinks we ought to do away with as a military tactic. That would be, as BlueNC says, counterproductive, i.e., Very Bad for the military and the rest of the state.

It would also be Very Bad for the church.

No need here for an in-depth lecture on missiology, but let's just say that A) having missionaries working alongside an occupying military is a Very Bad Idea, and B) advocating mission work as a means to some other, political ends is deeply offensive.

Hayes' unwelcome comments make it much more difficult for both soldiers and missionaries to do their jobs. The congressman has, in his own small way, helped to make life less safe for both groups.

But at least his stupidity has provided another useful illustration of why the separation of church and state is so very important for the welfare of both.

(BlueNC link via the Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right. Here's a folo story from the Charlotte Observer on the original story in the weekly Concord Standard, whose Web site is useless.)