January 17th, 2003
To the Editor,
Reading the Oregonian's coverage of the broad-based faith coalition against Bush's war (January 15th), I was struck by Luis Palau's defense of the absence of his congregation ("The feeling, broadly speaking, among Christians who take the Bible seriously is that we are sacrificing our own men and women for the sake of the oppressed and for greater peace around the world."). I can't help but wonder what obscure corner of the Bible he takes his inspiration from, to conclude that a pre-emptive war on a third world nation, likely to result in the deaths of thousands, is a just war. Is "Thou Shalt Not Kill" just too... simplistic? Even if one accepts the most optimistic of justifications, that this is to bring democracy to a repressed nation, has he considered that the free expression of the will of the Iraqi people will likely bring about another Islamic fundamentalist regime? Or if we are going to war to preserve the "stability of the Middle East," does he think that there is some interpretation of the Bible that exhorts us to go forth and subjugate sovereign nations so as to preserve the present inequity, in which oil-rich but non-menacing suppliers such as Bahrain, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia repress their citizens while we slurp down one quarter of the world's oil supplies? As trite as it is, the phrase "What would Jesus do?" applies here: I cannot for the life me imagine Jesus signing on to be all that He could be for today's Army. You don't have to be a serious Bible scholar to know that God calls on us to love our neighbor as ourselves and work non-violently for peace and justice throughout the world. Brother Luis, set down your Bible, shut out the world for a moment, and look deep in your heart: don't you believe that Jesus calls us to a non-violent solution?
Kurt
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