Tribal Warfare

Why would any professing Christian think there is glory in war? Why would a professing Christian think there is virtue in being a hired killer for the US Government? The people in the US military do not “fight for freedom.” This country would actually have to be invaded for any warfare by its citizens to be considered freedom fighting, but that has only happened twice in its history, and no professional military would need to be summoned because the people in general would use their own weaponry to repel the invasion. On the contrary, the US military invades other places, obeys immoral orders, wreaks havoc on infrastructures, and kills – as a job. “Service members” don’t join for free. They joined the military because they wanted money for college, or for some other benefits, or because they thought it would lead to adventure, or perhaps because their fathers or grandfathers were in the military. The military does not give us the right to free speech, or the ability to work and provide for our families, nor does it protect us from unreasonable searches and seizures. The US Government is the biggest threat to us in these areas of our lives, and you can bet the politicians will never push to use the military to curtail their own overreach.

Professing Christians in the military, or those who support their military activities, make the claim that we are living in an evil world and war and killing are sometimes necessary. “King David killed people, you know”, one man told me once as he attempted to justify military killings. But he wasn't King David, and his Commander-in-Chief was not God. The only justifiable cause for using force that may result in the death of another person is defense. Attacking the people of the South in 1861 was not a war of defense. Dropping atomic bombs on the people of Japan was not an act of defense. Invading Vietnam was not defensive in nature. Occupying Afghanistan for 20 years was not defense. Bombing and destroying Iraqis wasn’t either. Yet American warmongers think it is patriotic to support aggressive military actions, and even many professing Christians have been guilty of beating the war drums and getting sucked into the odious whirlwind of hatred toward people in other countries (they would kill anyone the Government ordered them to). The repulsive slurs that men have used for one another remind us that people are willing to vilify others based on cultural and geographical factors, and that the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for all of mankind, is not their concern. Government rulers will exploit these biases and stir up war fever in the masses for their own selfish ends. One reason they are successful is because many professing Christians are tribalists rather than holy followers of Christ. This is evidenced by a refusal to support “interracial marriages”, for example. As I have stated before, there is only one human race, therefore “interracial marriages” do not exist. This is not to say that cultural differences should not be considered when it comes to marriage, but this is a matter of prudence, not a disdain for another because of ethnicity. The attitudes and actions of many professing Christians when it comes to the willingness to destroy people in other territories, or in other parts of their own country for that matter, because of their culture, religion, or color of their skin, shows they are rank tribalists who do not have the love of God abiding in them.

The following is taken from - Wickedness of War; The Christian Review, June 1838, pp. 230-237, unsigned

"Christianity requires us to seek to amend the condition of man. But war cannot do this. The world is no better for all the wars of five thousand years. Christianity, if it prevailed, would make the earth a paradise. War, where it prevails, makes it a slaughter-house, a den of thieves, a brothel, a hell....

....The causes of war, as well as war itself, are contrary to the gospel. It originates in the worst passions and the worst aims. We may always trace it to the thirst of revenge, the acquisition of territory, the monopoly of commerce, the quarrels of kings, the intrigues of ministers, the coercion of religious opinion, the acquisition of disputed crown, or some other source, equally culpable; but never has any war, devised by man, been founded on holy tempers and Christian principles."

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