Christian Pacifism On July The Fourth

Matthew 13:30 ‘Let both grow together until the harvest. . .’

I remember July 4^th celebrations when I was a kid. There was a big hill near the place we watched the annual fireworks display. It was the early 70s and the Vietnam War was coming to an end for everyone but the people living in Vietnam. From my little knoll in southeastern Wisconsin, Vietnam wasn’t even a word in my vocabulary. I don’t remember my parents even speaking of Vietnam or watching anything on the news about it. Everything I now know about Vietnam, I learned on my own well after the fact. I remember hearing that some extended family members had served in Vietnam but I hardly knew them and I don’t remember them ever talking about it.

No, from our little tor in the burbs, Vietnam did not exist, and war was everything Hollywood told us it was. War was John Wayne. War was a respectable undertaking, an honorable and noble and necessary violence. And even when the good guys had to die in war their deaths were clean and heroic. There was no blood involved, no severed limbs, and no debilitating lifelong injuries that could occur. War looked darn right fun.

So as naïve children we stood on our hill and waited for the great patriotic firework show to start. And when the bangs and the pops got to going, we got to dying. We pretended we were shot. We pretended we were blown up. We grabbed our little chests, made gruesome ugly faces, and rolled down the hill in the greatest performances of our lives. And once we reached the bottom of the hill and our death scene was complete, like a video game player today we pressed the “replay” button, scurried back up the hill, and did it all again. The loud “Flash-Bangs” were always the best! We died a hundred times every 4^th of July.

I think, for many people, Hollywood-War and its recent counterpart, video-game-war, is still reality. Many read about the wars being waged around the world and see the occasional propaganda vid-bits produced by news agencies who want us to believe we are getting the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but no one really gets a full understanding of the brutality being done. Everything we obtain from the general media is sanitized, nationalized and worst of all, patriot-ized. As awful as Gitmo and Abu Grab were, many patriotic Americans cling to their belief in American purity and don’t see any harm in what occurred in those places – nothing as bad as the other guys have done anyways. As long as the other guys are “eviler”, we are immune to scrutiny.

1Corinthians 13:11 ‘When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.’

As Christian men and women, we have to realize somewhere in our walk, that the way the world does things can not be the way we do things. As Christians we can’t live up to the expectations of the world because the expectations of the world are contrary to the Creator’s expectations of us – according to Yahshua’s word.

Galatians 3:11 ‘But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of Yahweh, it is evident; for the just shall live by faith.’

July 4^th - Independence Day - is the day the government of the United States reminds its citizens of the Constitution and the other body’s of law that justify their freedoms and defines their liberties. War and the mayhem that permeates it are necessary evils which can be called ‘good’ for the sake of those who treasure independence and want to keep it and maintain it.

After reading through D. James Kennedy’s book “How Would Jesus Vote?” I found I had to address some issues that were raised about freedom, liberty and the Fourth of July.

Unlike Mr. Kennedy, I do not believe in Christian voting and I do not believe in the “just” war theory. I believe there is a great deal of hypocrisy involved in any Christian teachings that can defend both the vote and the idea of the “just” war.

Isaiah 5:20 ‘Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!’

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2Timothy 2:4 ‘No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.’

When we enlist to become Christian soldiers, our rights and our duties as human beings become those of our Savior = peace and healing, truth and patience, faith and longsuffering. These are the weapons of our warfare. We remove ourselves from the political arena because it is in that place, no matter what system it is, that evil manipulates the ears and eyes of the world. When the Pharisees brought the woman caught in adultery before Yahshua and asked Him how He would judge the matter – it was a political confrontation. Politicians always want to know how you will judge. Those who vote for politicians want to know how their candidates will judge. It is all about judging.

Romans 2:1 ‘Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.’

This is why Yahshua tried to show “judges” in Matthew 5, that how we think is known by Yahweh. And in those thoughts, we are just as wicked as the ones who actually do what is evil. A man that lusts cannot judge an adulterer because in his own heart he is an adulterer.

Romans 3:23 ‘For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of Yahweh.’

As Christians, we are to refrain from judging others. The lawyers and judges over the land today are no different than the Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes Yahshua opposed in His day. We are supposed to be learning how to forgive sins, pardon transgressions and show mercy – not for their sake but our own. Our very involvement in politics draws us back into the muddy mire of pride, and soon we find ourselves rolling around with all the other sows, each thinking themselves cleaner, prettier and holier.

In regards to pacifism, one of the arguments against it which saddens me the most, is the idea that pacifist owe their freedom to those who have taken up arms against aggressors and let there be a Constitution and a society such as this. In other words, pacifist wouldn’t be safe to be pacifist without the military and there would be no pacifist without the military. Truth be told, the military and the supporters of the military want all the glory for having accomplished freedom and peace. You hear it all the time. If it wasn’t for the military and the soldiers who fought and died, you’d be speaking Japanese or German right now.

In their opinion, pacifist could not talk about pacifism if soldiers of war did not bleed for that right.

I humbly disagree. I believe peace is written on the heart of every true Christian. I believe that the Christian truth can and does exists in every nation and under every type of hostile and oppressive government. Might does not make Christianity possible. The idea that there is actually peace and freedom in America is the illusion. War has never created peace. Even after World War Two ended, wars and battles and killing continued in other parts of the world. The fighting never stopped. The necessity to destroy human life in order to save human life has never stopped. It is the great circle of death. War is just as vain and futile today as it was the day Cain killed Abel. Cain didn’t win anything for killing his brother. No nation has ever won anything destroying their enemy – For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of Yah.

Mr. D. James Kennedy writes in his book ‘How Would Jesus Vote” on page 43, “If we are going to see the redemption of the earth, it is going to involve not just people but the works of their hands as well.”

What??? “THE REDEMPTION OF THE EARTH?” Too many Christians are clinging to this work. The redemption of the earth, and the land, and the nation are all part of the hypocrisy in Christian theology, as well as the warrior mentality in its ranks.

Even in the darkest streets of the worst tyranny, those people with a heart filled with love for their fellow man and the truth of Christ, speak anyway. They are willing to risk their lives for the truth, to go to the fiery furnace and enter the den of lions. They are more reverently fearful of their Creator than they are of their governments – something many Christian Americans should take note of. In fact, the problem with most Americans is their unwillingness to see that the military blanket covering them is not there to protect them – but to muffle them and silence them. Making things cozy for you blinds you to the injustices your government is doing. Why would anyone want to upset the general order of things for the sake of a few injustices and offenses? Sadly, too many Christians accept the notion that there will always be some evil so it’s okay to compromise with some.

Most pacifists in the world live without any laws or constitution giving them permission and protection to speak. They speak and protest because it is the right thing to do and they have the faith necessary to do it. Underground movements and underground railroads, as well as inspired demonstrations and vigils have occurred and will continue to occur even under the worst circumstances. Every time you hear about a supposedly fascist, dictatorial government putting down an uprising, it is a testament to the fact that freedoms real voice will always be heard. (What do you think Kent State was?) In fact, Christianity itself was forged within the kiln of one of history’s worst totalitarian states ever, Rome.

Regrettably, I believe it has been America’s desire all along to make their struggle for independence and freedom seem more righteous than any other struggle ever, and that is why Americans like to embellish and emboss World War Two and the twelve year reign of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. For many patriotic Americans, the years 1941 to 1945 are really the true symbol of its revolution from England – not the revolution itself. Watch a little bit of the history channel and you’ll see what I mean. World War Two is apex, the epic climax of America’s claim to fame. Americans like to label those four years of war as one of the greatest turning points in history, as well as the greatest atrocity in history. The word ‘holocaust’ carries a reverence that must not be questioned. And yet, in reality, World War Two is but a flicker of oppression and genocide when compared to the bonfires created by the thousand year dictatorships of Rome and Greece – totalitarian governments America has based its rule upon. These monstrous nations thrived on a militaristic form of Imperialism only an American can relate too. (And there are many more examples of despotic governments throughout history that were worse than Hitler’s Germany. Should we forget about the Holy Roman Empire and the pope-charged Crusaders? How about the various Chinese dynasties, and the Assyrians, the Egyptians and Babylonians? Sadly, the tyrannical enormity of these horrific supposedly civilized governments makes Hitler and Stalin look rather tame. And this is not to lessen the pain and anguish for those that suffered then, but only a matter of putting things back into perspective – something many Americans don’t like to do.)

If there is, as Mr. Kennedy states on page 84, “a legitimate time to fight for one’s country,” then that truth must hold true for every citizen of every nation on earth. Everyone everywhere has a legitimate right to fight for their nation against any aggressor, including America.

Christians have to stop respecting the false demarcations of country which cause nations to war.

1Corinthians 2:3 ‘And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.’

How many times have you had to rebuild your life? How often have you had your home bombed, your business destroyed, and your children’s school attacked by tanks, planes and drones from a foreign power? How many times have the forces of an occupying government made you fear for your life? For most all of us, the answer is “NEVER!”

So how can we possibly relate to the people who have experienced this oppression? The truth is, oppressors can’t relate to the oppressed even if they are the ones who get to write books about it and make movies about it. The truth is always before us. The Europeanized white government of America could not identify with the slaves it chained and the Indians it massacred. But it sure knew how to write it wrong, adapt it later, change and alter its syntax even further down the road, and eventually come out smelling like roses. What the Congress of America did to the indigenous people of this land, and the minorities and poor of the country in the first two hundred years of existence, is equal to any appalling injustices any other government did to its own people. America is no different than any other country.

If the single heinous act that occurred on 9-11 justifies America declaring war on the world, then what does the violence committed against the innocent people of Afghanistan and Iraq justify for them? How righteous is their vengeance for the decades of occupation and murder they have had to withstand?

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Matthew 5:39 ‘But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.’

Unfortunately, many Christians and many Christian leaders today have failed to recognize and respect the terrors Yahshua and His disciples faced in their daily lives. In all honesty, many people today downplay Palestine and Rome’s occupation of it. They just don’t believe that their terrors compare to ours. In fact, most conservative thinkers would have easily sided with Rome and its execution of troublemakers like Christ.

How many terrors have you known firsthand? Is your fear legitimate? And even if it is legitimate, in Christ how can you be beholden to it? Perfect love casts out all fear.

Many Christian Americans are still haunted by September 2001 and yet tragedies such as this occur on almost a daily basis in other parts of the world. It may not be of the same magnitude but if someone drops a bomb on your house while your family is in it, you don’t really care if they were the only ones who died, or ten thousand others died with them. Your pain is just the same, and your struggles with the urge to retaliate against the ones who dropped the bomb, just as powerful. How can you tell the innocent in the Middle East to forgive the pain they have been forced to endure?

Americans are an anomaly that must sadden the Creator to the depths of His soul. Americans can find entertainment in horror through film, music, and art, and yet be so “afraid” of what could happen to them in real life. Few Americans have ever really experienced anything remotely comparable to terror.

Sure, we have gangs, pedophiles, criminals of a wanton sort, but the rest of the world has these as well. The rest of the world however has something Americans don’t. They have governments and occupying governments arming their streets, shops and schools. The tanks and soldiers parading up and down their streets are armed and ready to do combat. Imagine sending your kids off to school with tanks locked and loaded and prepared to open fire at the hint of any threat. And worse, what if you didn’t believe the tank parading down your street really had your best interest in mind because the last time that tank and others like it drove down your street it was spraying bullets and rockets at everything that moved.

America’s fear of terrorism is really just a lack of faith in Yahweh and Yahshua. It is the same fear that drove soldiers to kill before and it is the same fear that will drive them to kill again. Americans have so little to be afraid of and yet stands in fear of so much.

It is not bravery that makes a person shoulder a weapon and fight and repel an enemy. It is bravery to speak the truth of Yahweh’s word and then allow Yahweh to determine the outcome.

Daniel 3:16-18 ‘Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our Creator whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, o king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve any gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.’

On page 74 of his book, Mr. Kennedy says “Didn’t He tell us we should resist evil?” Mr. Kennedy then says that the pacifist twist and distorts this “to the oppression and destruction of others.” (Actually – Matthew 5:39 does not tell us to resist evil but rather “resist not evil”.)

Evil really is what you define it to be. Once a person has embraced patriotism as their core value, they are free to justify everything their nation does as good and vilify everything the other nations do as evil. In other words, good is your country and bad is theirs. AND ALL NATIONS DO THIS!!!! America just happens to be the most militaristic of them all at this time, and that ‘might’ is not the Lord’s doing. Military power is simply the result of faithlessness. They don’t know how to lean on the Lord, so they lean on the things of the flesh.

Mr. Kennedy maintains that the teachings of Christ from the Sermon on the Mount are personal and “not instructions on how nations are to govern.” He uses this as an excuse not to take that message and apply it to government administration. In his mind, Christians that enter into the political arena should keep their moral Christian ethics personal while obeying in the flesh the evil ways of the world in government.

Have you ever really thought about Romans 13:1-3 and how it applies to your life?

Romans 13:1 ‘Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of Yah: the powers that be are ordained of Yah.’

In verse 3 of Romans 13, we are told that “rulers are not a terror to good works.”

The problem with the American viewpoint concerning these verses is solely how we apply it. The “higher power” is only a legitimate and goodly higher power when it is our leader – America’s leader. When it is someone else’s leader, especially a belligerent nation, then suddenly these verses don’t carry any weight at all, and America feels justified when it encourages the people of those other nations to oppose and rebel against their leaders.

Why don’t we tell the people of dictatorships and communist states what we tell our people, that their leaders are “ordained” and “not a terror to good works”? When the words of Romans 13 were originally written there was no America or a supposed Christian nation on earth. All the governments were obviously “bad.” So what government were they speaking of? All governments were “pagan” and “tyrannical” and yet ordained and not a terror to good works. Our perspective has been altered by satan and we are too frightened to admit it.

If we are going to stand religiously on these verses as Christians, then the authoritarian leadership of Iraq, Iran, Russia, China and North Korea are “ordained” and must be legitimate. As Christians, we can’t just use these verses to define our own sense of nationalism while discouraging everyone else’s patriotism. As Christians we have to learn how to see outside the lines – outside the divisions – outside the boundaries governments create, and start to embrace the fullness of the True Word on a global scale. Believe me when I say, the high priests of the economy already have converted. Their multinational corporations are no longer defined by national interests and political implications. They could care less where America ends and Mexico starts. They have learned how to make a profit in every environment, in every political atmosphere. The same company can now employ workers in America, Mexico, China and Russia all at the same time. While we think they are behaving respectably and protecting their employees everywhere, the truth is, American law ends at the border. Out in the real world, these multinational corporations stoop just as low as any other sadistic institution does to make a profit, ignoring child labor laws and abusing worker’s rights. It is just another sign of how hypocritical this world is. Politics is all about clearing paths and tearing down borders for corporations while building fences and walls for nations. That’s a lot of hypocrisy and it stinks to high heaven.

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Matthew 14:29-31 ‘. . . And when Peter was down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Yahshua. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Yahshua stretched forth His hand and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?’

To give credence to his fear of the boisterous winds of violence that are blowing in the world today, Mr. D. James Kennedy begins to speak negatively about “Muslims” on pages 82-83. He points condescendingly to a Muslim practice called ‘hudna,’ which allows a Muslim leader the right to make a treaty with a non-Muslim while having no intention of keeping it. He seems appalled at the idea of any leader making a temporary treaty of convenience. On page 81, Mr. Kennedy reminds us (as well as himself) that “Truth is the cornerstone of Christianity.” Well, if that be true, than we shouldn’t keep embroidering U.S. history with so much ambiguous filigree. Americans have been practicing ‘hudna’ since before the ink dried on their first treaty with Native Americans.

Mr. Kennedy attempts to contrast the arguments of Bertrand Russell with those of Patrick Henry on page 80. He believes that Bertrand Russell stood for peace at any price, including chains and slavery. He then recalls Patrick Henry’s words, “Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?”

Hmmmm. Patrick Henry’s words sound like goodly words until you view the entire picture – the entire world that was forming around him. Patrick Henry and his fellow nation-building founders were enslaving and chaining minorities even as they spoke these poetic lines of freedom. They themselves were already embarking on a genocidal crusade westward – the whole native population of the Americas fleeing for its very existence like forest animals from a wildfire. All of the liberties and the freedoms Patrick Henry and his fellow patriots spoke of were never intended to protect everyone.

In fact, the tyrannical British Empire the sainted Americans were breaking away from is nearly defended by Mr. Kennedy on page 77 in regards to Gandhi’s passive resistance. Mr. Kennedy believes that Gandhi’s passive resistance in India only worked because of how “Christianized” the British Empire was. So, when it came to its dealing with Gandhi, Britain was ‘Christianized.’ When it came to its dealings with America, Britain was a tyrannical throne. Mr. Kennedy obscures the fact that for hundreds of years many people in India suffered and died at the hands of British-Christian Imperialism.

One minute Mr. Kennedy props up the religious British in India and the next minute he demonizes their tyrannical control over the American colonies. It’s all about perspective. The groundwork of American society is littered with inconvenient and ugly truths like this, a very unstable foundation indeed.

America’s Congress and its various representatives have practiced “hudna” for nearly 150 years. Nearly every treaty America’s government ever made with the Native Americans was broken by American homesteaders, farmers, miners, trappers, and industrialists. It appears to me that this supposed Christian government committed to liberty and freedom wasn’t really any different than any other form of government. In fact, if it wasn’t for a great deal of tyranny, injustice, and genocide, America would have never risen up from the ashes of history to become the prosperous nation it became. In other words, America, like every other country before it, had to do evil in order to bear the sash of goodness, it had to bow to satan’s wishes to find the glory it wanted.

Matthew 4:8-9 ‘Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto Him, All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.’

The real question now ought to be – Is America still engaging in similar tyranny, injustice and genocide in a vain attempt to maintain its current status of goodness? When American soldiers go out in the field carrying the stars and stripes before them, is the terror of their presence worthy of a Christian calling? Can Christians around the world really identify with what Old Glory stands for – the truth behind its inception and its application?

Matthew 16:26 ‘For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’

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I agree with Mr. Kennedy when he states on page 58 that “Abortion is a great blotch on the recent history of this country.” I stand opposed to abortion. But what I find most amazing about this particular “blotch” is what it seems to stand for in the conservative mindset. When it comes to voting, Mr. Kennedy matter-of-factly states that he cannot support a person who is pro-choice. He says, “I believe this one issue of life trumps all others.”

I smell hypocrisy again.

It seems to me, from reading and listening to conservative commentators, the abortion “trump-card” is imperative to America’s survival as a nation. It contains the ultimate vow a human can make towards the sanctity of life claim.

Mr. Kennedy admits that the Bible does not directly address abortion, but by piecing together certain verses and teachings in the Bible, it is possible to come to this conclusion against abortion and make it the one issue of life that trumps all others.

But when it comes to the longstanding argument between war and pacifism, Mr. Kennedy cannot piece certain verses together. He can, however, put words in Christ’s mouth and boldly tell the Savior of the world how He should have spoken about pacifism if that was His intention. In other words, as stated on pages 76-77, Mr. D. James Kennedy states that if pacifism was Yahshua’s real intent, then He should have come right out and plainly said it; otherwise it is not.

So abortion can be pieced together through scripture and made a trump-card, but war can’t.

For Mr. Kennedy and others like him, American Christians must be militant when their chosen leaders decide they have a legitimate reason to be militant. After all, it is a Christian right and a Christian duty to kill human life to protect the state from other states, to protect the government from other governments, and to protect the Constitution from other constitutions. But abortion can’t be tolerated. Bombs yes – Abortion no.

I started this writing with Matthew 13:30 for a reason. Because of the sacrifice Yahshua made for us, there are only two types of seed in the world – the good seed and the bad seed Christ.

America has decided for itself that Americans are the good seed and everyone else is the bad seed. Why not? Every powerful empire does this. Every Rome believes in its own version of justice and peace. And every Rome has those who are mistreated, defamed, despoiled, abused, rejected, renounced, jailed and eliminated.

And here’s the part most no one wants to hear, know and understand. All those people who were maltreated and exploited by their governments are the ones in civilization that represent Christ. Christ is not the Christians. Selah.

In Matthew 25, the righteous ask the Lord when they saw Him and helped Him. Christ answers them in Matthew 25:40 ‘Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.’

In Matthew 25, the unrighteous also ask the Lord when they saw Him and did not help Him. Christ answers them in Matthew 25:45 ‘Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me.’

As Christians we don’t look at the things that separate us and bring about judgments. We see a need and we fulfill it – that is all. If we are causing the need, or inflicting the pain, or determining the sentence, we are working against Him. Christ is not an American, or a Mexican, or a Lutheran, or a Catholic, or a Buddhists.

Christ is the person that needs your help and you need to be ready at all times to help, heal, feed and comfort.

Remember – truth is the cornerstone of Christianity. History shows us that America has been, is still, and will be again, just as unjust and just as corrupt as every other government on earth. America knows how to make and break treaties (hudna). America knows how to detain, imprison, enslave and steal. America knows how to secretly support militants and terrorists for its own economic interests. America knows how to wage counterinsurgency, chemical warfare and nuclear holocaust. In fact, America is, as of this writing, still the only nation on earth that has ever used atomic weapons on another country. Only the Lord Himself knows how many innocent lives died during those explosions and how many suffered from the long-term consequences of exposure afterwards?

We cannot separate our Christian walk from our world identity.

We have to be Christians in the world and not stagnant members of any manmade regime. We can’t say Christ is not seeing us through the eyes of people we label “collateral damage” or “expendable.” He is the person who is “collateral damage” and considered “expendable.” We have to be, not on the side of nations and governments, but on the side of the abused, sick, imprisoned and homeless. And we can’t fight this war the way the world fights this war. We can’t kill to give them food. We can’t drop bombs to aid the abused. We can’t combat terrorism to shelter the homeless.

We as individuals, as Christ as an individual, have to stand up and do what is right even if what we do and say will result in us being persecuted.

Many people including many Christians live in this world in fear, and this is why they willingly attach themselves to the governments overseeing their lands. They worry about the tares, about the outsiders growing all around them. Americans believe these pretenders and immigrants are infiltrating our fields and we can’t tell them apart. Fear motivates many Americans to vote and give elected officials the outright authority to be as unjust and as tyrannical as they need to be in order to save them. Kill the hated tares – root them out. Do whatever violent and incorrigible acts you have to do to make me feel safe. As long as nothing obviously bad happens to me and the majority of people in the nation, then no evil is really occurring. It is peace and it is good.

But while nothing bad is apparently happening to the greater portion of the citizenry, some injustices and some evils are occurring. There are people who are being profiled, detained, interrogated and imprisoned without trial. There are people who are losing their rights without any mention of it by anyone. These casualties of injustice are considered collateral and necessary; excusable.

“Anonymous”, writing in his (or her) book ‘Imperial Hubris’ states on page 26, concerning the time right after 9-11, that by October 7, “the window for savagery had shut, and whiners about “collateral damage” and “innocent Afghans” steadily constricted President Bush’s abilities to, as one of his windier CIA officials said, “take off the gloves.”

That is the typical American psyche. Screw the innocents. Silence the whiners. Everything can be solved with violence. Roll up your sleeves and get bloody. Do whatever savagery needs to be done to protect civilization because in this complex equation of justice the civilized can behave savagely without becoming savages. Read that again if you missed it.

Guantanamo Bay is just scratching the surface. There is a plethora of secret evils your government is accomplishing that you will never know about, atrocities they are committing on your behalf. Every time you go to the polls and vote for an elected official, you are casting a ballot that justifies what you prefer to be ignorant of.

The war for American freedom and liberty is being waged right now in the yards and in the homes of people on the other side of the world. People in Iraq and Afghanistan are living with terror (with American tanks and soldiers) so you don’t have too.

What we call a sacrifice, they call an intrusion.

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Matthew 13:28-29 ‘He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.’

The wheat are the children of Yahweh’s kingdom and the tares are the children of the wicked one. Wheat and tares are growing up in this world together; and according to Christ Himself, we cannot go about trying to gather up the bad ones and remove them because in so doing, we will accidently root up some of the wheat. In our attempt to “redeem” the earth, we will destroy the innocent.

This is not a Christian’s job.

According to Christ, it is better to let them grow together. The loss of a few good souls at our own hands is not worth it, even if we are rooting up a whole bunch of evil. We have to let the evil in this world alone, and if we do choose to do battle with them, do it with goodness. Don’t do anything that will harm them or the wheat around them. Don’t do to them what they would do to us. Don’t give an eye for an eye. Don’t even fight with the weapons they fight with.

If we are so adamant about the sanctity of life concerning an unborn child, then we should be just as adamant about the sanctity of life for those already alive and living on the other side of the world. Why are we not adamant about helping the poor, the homeless, and the unemployed? Why are we only adamant about rewarding the industrious and wealthy? Why are we not adamant about keeping the living alive?

It seems our idea of sanctity of life is as fake as a firework; just a lot of noise and pretty colors.

Matthew 13:30 ‘Let both grow together until the harvest. . . ‘

Your faith and outspokenness concerning your Savior is just as possible in tyranny as it is in freedom, and if you doubt that, perhaps you need to examine your faith closer. If it is in you to be outspoken about your faith, then it is in you in a greenhouse, in a forest, in a field, and in a desert. You will suffer long for it and not care about the elements surrounding you.

The biggest problem with most Christians today is that they have forgotten that truth because how they are feeling and what they are experiencing at any given moment says a lot about where their faith is. Are they feeling Christ-like today, or are they just not in the mood to be happy, joyful, positive, charitable and forgiving? Many Christian Americans are whiners and they need perfect conditions in order to behave and think like Christians. And sadly, many are willing to kill and war in order to keep the greenhouse windows closed and keep the temperature set at a perfect level - peace when there really is no peace. The world outside scares the heaven out of them, and they soon act as if they are as bad as anything rising up from hell.

If we are willing to endure hardship and suffer persecution for Christ’s sake like those forefathers of the Christian faith did before us, then our liberty in this world is inside of us – not something a nation or a government, or soldiers can give us or provide for us. We are better than that. We are freer than that.

I am free because His truth has made me free.

I am sorry for the loss of life those in the military suffer, but I am not beholden to what they have done or what they are doing. In my faith, they should not be doing it. I pray they learn to prefer the ways of peace, lay down their arms, and let the Holy Spirit win the day.

Just like Yahshua knew when they nailed Him to the pole, resurrection is on our side – so death, where is thy sting? I have nothing to fear from it. Christianity will continue on no matter how bleak the world appears to be. A tyranny that oppresses people quietly and silently is still tyranny. America oppresses quietly and silently. America makes people around the world suffer for her comfort and leisure and peace.

I stand for anyone who has suffered by her hands because those that suffered by her hands represent Christ. I stand for anyone who has suffered by the hands of any government because they represent Christ.

No chains can hold them and no chains can hold me if the Lord does not want us to be held.

John 19:10 ‘Then saith Pilate unto Him, Speakest Thou not unto me? Knowest Thou not that I have power to crucify Thee, and have power to release Thee?’

If you think any leader, from Pharaoh, to Caesar, to Napoleon, to Hitler, to Hussein, to the President has power over you even if you are in chains before him, then you do not understand the calling under which you have been called as a Christian.

Even in the hands of a Muslim extremist, as a Christian you are safe if you believe it so. The fear many Christians have of Islam and terrorism still has more to do with life and death, then Christ. They have not really given themselves to the Lord – They have not really died in the baptism. They are still waiting for some kind of redemption of this earth, this body, and this life, here and now. They are looking for heaven on earth.

John 19:11 ‘Yahshua answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against Me, except it were given thee from above. . .’

If you think Hitler lost World War Two because of American military might and strategy, then you don’t understand the true power of the Lord. If you think despots are removed from power by the works of good men’s hands, then you don’t really understand the true power of the Lord.

The true power comes from understanding that His kingdom is not of this world, and those that are spiritual are but strangers and pilgrims in this world – messengers of a better place. If the people living here don’t want the message, if they reject the message – and if they abuse and kill the messenger – it is not wholly unexpected for Yahshua warned us that if they persecuted Him, they would persecute us.

The world does not want to hear Yahweh’s message.

John 17:14 ‘I have given them Thy Word; and the world hath hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.’

Romans 6:3-4 ‘Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Yahshua the Messiyah were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.’

Really learn to trust in the resurrection of the dead. Really learn to put your faith in living a life of peace. Really learn to embrace the idea that this world is temporary and not worth killing for.

Really learn that war is not a game and killing human life will never ever bring about a true peace.

Amen