America the Bully-Full

I don’t normally weigh in on highly politicized and publicized situations, especially ones that I’m (admittedly) not well educated in the details of. However, with the influx of posts on Facebook about the situation in the middle east- the majority of which come from Christians in my news feed- that are full of hate, anger, and violence toward ISIS, I couldn’t not discuss the matter.

First and foremost, I need to make one thing absolutely clear- I do not support, endorse, condone, celebrate, etc., what ISIS is doing. A few of my responses to Facebook posts have been met with questions of whether or not I think it’s “okay” what’s happening over there. I do not. I think it’s horrendous.

That being said, most of the things I’ve seen on Facebook regarding the issue are strikingly anti-Biblical responses to such matters. They’re full of hate; they’re full of elitism; they’re full of violence. That’s not the Biblical way. There are appropriate ways to respond to these issues, but what I’m seeing from the typical American Bible Believer is not that.

I’m basically going to bullet point this post. The various reactions to the situation that I’ve heard will be given a point and then discussed, and a more appropriate, Biblical, response will be presented. I can promise that some of you won’t like this. It will fly in the face of traditional American Bible Believers. It will contradict what you’ve been taught growing up. It will make you think. What it won’t do, though, is fill you with hate, fear, anger, etc.- all the things that the usual responses from Christians present and do.

(*NOTE*- none of these are exact quotes. Some are very close, and others are phrases/ideas from people strung together. They do all hold true to the meaning of the individual posts)

• “The perpetrators of such atrocities are savage animals; they’re scum.” 
  • I’ll meet you in the middle. The actions that these people are doing are savage and animalistic. The actions are scummy. But no person should ever be called scum; no person should ever be reduced to the position of an animal. That’s dehumanizing. That’s not okay. The Bible (and Christ Himself) always restores humanity. It’s never taken that from anyone. One’s humanity, their divine image, is always upheld. The entire story of the Bible is about bringing people back to that. Anything (action or word) that degrades a person is anti-Biblical. No matter who they are, or what they’ve done,  the Bible calls you to treat them with respect and dignity as a person made in the image of God.

• “They’re killing thousands of people; they would kill every Christian if they could. We need to stop them. Thankfully we started to bomb them.”
  • No. No. No. We’re outraged by the death of the Christians, but are celebrating the death of those doing the killing? That. Makes. No. Sense. We can either be pro killing, or anti-killing, but we cannot be both. We cannot oppose the death of Christians but support the death of those killing the Christians. All life is sacred. The Bible teaches us that. The Bible also teaches us to pursue peace without violence. As Christians, we can either be pro-life or pro-murder. There is no half-and-half. Most people who are outraged by abortions are also outraged by those who go into abortion clinics and shoot up the place. But they support the bombing of ISIS. There’s no difference.  A life is a life is a life. Nobody is worth more than anybody else. Us killing those doing the killing is no more moral than those killing in the first place. No murder is honorable, no matter what the other person has done.

• “They said they want to raise the flag of Allah in the white house!”
  • Big. Freaking. Whoop. Wanting them dead because they want to follow their religion makes us no different from them. They’re killing Christians because they’re Christians. If we start killing them because they want to “raise the flag of Allah in the white house” we are basically killing them because they’re not Christian. We’re the same as them.

• “America must do something!”
  • When did America become the enforcer? When did God decree America His defender of the weak? Last I heard that was God’s job. The Bible teaches us not to create large armies, not to amass weapons, not to engage in war. Now, before you argue that God commanded the Israelites to go to war, let me address that quickly. First, Israel was God’s chosen people. America is not. We have not been given the same commandment. Second, Israel was defending themselves most of the time, and trying to gain the land God had appointed to them. Again, we’re not doing that. We’re going into other people’s land and saying we know better. (Sounds like every empire throughout history, and all the rulers that tried to squash the Israelites… hmmmm….) Third, most of the time when the Israelites did go to war, they won because of God. They didn’t defeat Jericho through force. They walked around the walls and it fell down. In both 1 Samuel and Judges, we see Israel going to war. They end up winning because the enemies get confused and fight amongst themselves. There is no Biblical commandment to do things by force. Rather, Jesus teaches us to do things out of meekness, and humility. Bombing others is not that. Yes, it is the Christians place to address the genocide. No, it is not anybody’s place (least of all America’s) to go to war with them. We’re called to pray for our enemies, not attack them; we’re called to be meek and humble, not powerful and angry.

• “They’re fucking savages and will not rest until they’re all Dead or have imposed their will on everybody.”
  • The second part may be true. (We’ve already discussed the problems with the first half of the statement.) The part we’re failing to recognize is that anyone going over there and fighting them in an effort to stop them is doing the exact same thing. We’re imposing our will upon them by force. That’s what we are outraged by them doing, but we can do it. Double standards don’t work. They never have. They never will.