Does god help us kill people? Even people in the midst of terrible acts?
I am not suggesting this guard should not have fired her weapon or, by association, that we shouldn't have police to preserve the peace. This guard had an explosive situation on her hands and did her best. I am just questioning this view in which we assume god micromanages the world for our benefit and another's destruction. Would god help an American soldier kill an Iraqi soldier? What about the Civil War? Both sides claim the same god; who's side is he on?
I can't pretend to understand what it is like to be a police officer facing an armed gunman or a soldier facing an armed foe in a battle I did not choose. What would I pray? "God, let me kill this guy before he kills me"? "God, help me stay alive"? How about, "God have mercy on me"? It seems to me that if we believe in a god who created and loves all of us, we cannot help but see every death, regardless of whose it is, as a terrible tragedy. I am perhaps bothered by the reduction of complex tragedies to simple victories and defeats.
What do you think? Are those of us in faith communities too quick to assume god is on our side?
Hmmm. That reminds me of a Bob Dylan song. It is talking about war in particular, and I recognize that is different from police or security matters, but I still think it has something to say about our proclivity for claiming god's blessing on what we want to do.
Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.
Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.
Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.
Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.
When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.
I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.
But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.
In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.
So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war.
7 Comments:
I do think people attribute a lot of personal decisions to God that maybe shouldn't have been. But I never could have written this post. I think your feelings about violence are Christ-like, and I admire them. But my own response to the Omaha shooting, perhaps closer to home since Charity lives there, was violent in return. Just once, I thought, I wish the shooter would not manage to kill himself before we could catch him. I wanted him to have to stand alone and watch the horror and fear he had inflicted and then watch us all demand remorse from him for what he had done. Thank God I'm not God and that no one like me is Him because the final judgment would be very harsh and unfair and without righteousness.
I don't always know what to do with the violence itself. What disturbed me about this story was the attribution of the events to god.
Oh, and don't worry--I'm not all that Christ-like. I have no idea what I would do if someone tried to hurt me or my family. I have a monumental temper, and I see frightening violence in my own soul. Shoot, I have a tendency to want people I love to suffer when they tick me off!
I think this is where "true religion" (and I'm not limiting it to my brand, Christianity) becomes so subversive. Jesus overcame violence not by violence, but by love. Martin Luther King, Jr. pointed this out in our nation; people like Gandhi or Nelson Mandela did so in other nations. The interesting thing is that it appeared to actually work!
I'm glad you commented back so quickly because I was horrified after I hit send that my tone wasn't right at all. I heartily agree about the misplaced attribution, but I sympathized so much with that guard's humanity that I rushed to her defense for having worded her relief so imperfectly. That wasn't really fair since your post was so true and well-put.
No reason to be horrified--your tone was fine!
I completely sympathize with the guard as well. I can't imagine dealing with the aftermath of that. I imagine her comments came out of simple relief for having survived.
Incidentally, do you think our apparent thirst for "justice" might have something to do with our human need to rank and calculate and justify until we can live with ourselves?
I think so - I certainly wouldn't justify it with anything higher than a human need. The way I see it is, it's impossible for us to believe we are capable of the same evil someone else is. So we fling our own sense of justice around without realizing how awful it would be if it were flung back on us.
it's impossible for us to believe we are capable of the same evil someone else is. So we fling our own sense of justice around without realizing how awful it would be if it were flung back on us.
Wow! Truer words were never spoken.
Matt, I heard a radio sound bite interview with the guard and the same thought crossed my mind. Thanking God for giving me the strength and courage to kill another seems wrong to me to.
I think of the Amish folks who experienced the school house shooting (was it last year?). I remember being impressed by their initial reaction but I wonder what the ramifications have been on their community since then.
Matt, I simply think that we have a God who died to cover our murderous sins, and he has always knows that we might find ourselves in such a crazy situation. The situation convened in sin, resolved in sinful response, and is ultimately covered by sinless blood because none of it will ever by right. As for me, I'm glad others didn't die. Thank you, Lord, for your mercy on my behalf.
Tom
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