"As an anti-war guy, do you defend yourself when someone kicks in your door and decides he want your stuff or your wife? At what point do you defend yourself and your family? Or do you just take the peaceful way out? If we don't defend ourselves, we will be overrun. You have certainly never been in the military. By the way, I don't think we should be borrowing money from anyone. We don't have to. We need to change our way of spending. Even in the military. If we put our whole military budget into healthcare, these polititians would still puke it away on something such as acorn, unions, or something else that would not benefit us as a country."I was never in the military although I had received a three-year full scholarship from the Air Force to attend college, but after the first year (the one I had to pay) I felt I could not serve in good conscience. I concluded that even if I believed in the just war theory, I would have had no say as an officer on whether I believed the war I was fighting in was just or not. As an officer or soldier, we just follow the chain of command; there is no possibility of opting out of a war that one feels is unjust. At that point, following my personal conviction, I opted out and pursued ministry. I do have a friend who was a soldier who left the military due to convictions of conscience he had developed while serving.
Jesus taught a few hard teachings. The hardest for us to follow in our culture seems to be the teaching to love our enemies. We're taught, even on a personal level, to demonize and conquer our enemies. As a Christian, loving those I should not even like is one of my priorities. That is one of the ways I show Jesus to the world. This means that I am willing to build bridges that people have burned, and I allow grace for mistakes. And I hope others do the same for me because I also burn more bridges than I have meant to and make my share of mistakes that hurt people. I am not perfect by any means, but I am blessed to be given grace every day to strive for perfection. And I need to give that same grace, in a practical and tangible way, to others.
Is this difficult love a feasible foreign policy if our whole nation did it? I doubt it, but I am not worried about feasibility, just faithfulness. Although, I must admit that it works good for Switzerland and was proposed here in America, even by Presidents, prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. See Common sense neutrality: Mobilizing for peace
if you are interested in reading some of those views expressed prior to WWII. God can handle feasibility and protection; I need to follow his difficult teachings even when it is "unrealistic" to do so.So far I have been blessed and have not had someone come in and steal from my house or harm my family. If I found myself in such an unfortunate situation, I hope I would respond with love and forgiveness. Dying is not the worst thing in the world. As a follower of the Prince of peace, I am willing to follow his example and die but not kill. There is nothing wrong with being overrun. My world is not this world. My goal is not the accumulation of earthly goods. The possessions they would be confiscating are not really mine anyway. Jesus taught the Apostles that they were to just knock the dirt off their feet and continue on. Christian traditions have done this before, so I know it is not impossible. If I was overrun and found myself not being able to continue on, I would move along. There are many things worth dying for; I can't think of anything worth killing for.
