Well I suppose it is worth war when our enemies are harming other people who shouldn’t be harmed.
There is nothing wrong with fighting terror.
It isn’t necessarily just about self-interest, but watching over others through defending them.
I think you know the difference. Don’t play dumb just to push your own political agenda with Christianity.

I have a hard time accepting that anyone can truly believe we’re fighting a war on terror, self-delusion at its best.

It is about “Us” and “Them”; the Children of the most HIgh and the children of darkness…but they are not the enemy, they are the prize.

So much I agree with, and so much I would like to affirm, yet the use of uninformed hyperbole and and generalized statistics weaken my support.  There is much indictment yet no mention of the spiritual giants who prevailed for the kingdom of God in the face of spiritual infidelity. For goodness sake, politics and imperialism have never been a part of the kingdom message. The historical “church” has always been an institution of men, and often did not represent the kingdom of God.  It is faulty like all institutions of men, and subject to individual agendas and egos.  As a former Navy chaplain I have stood with marines in combat, I have struggled with young men trying to make sense of their lives, and I have held their hands when dying.  And I have also struggled with the notion of the institutional church dictating terms of morality in life and death circumstances, without seeing the blood it requires.  Today I don’t particulary care what the “church” has to say about much at all, but I participate passionately in ministering the kingdom of God and what it means to submit to it.  Here’s the point: I’m tired of divisions and those who say they have a more spiritually informed perspective and who divide into “us” and “them”.  Whining about what’s wrong with others is still whining.  Move past the tired old complaints which nail your feet to the floor, and get on with building the kingdom.

So much I agree with, and so much I would like to affirm, yet the use of uninformed hyperbole and and generalized statistics weaken my support.  There is much indictment yet no mention of the spiritual giants who prevailed for the kingdom of God in the face of spiritual infidelity. For goodness sake, politics and imperialism have never been a part of the kingdom message. The historical “church” has always been an institution of men, and often did not represent the kingdom of God.  It is faulty like all institutions of men, and subject to individual agendas and egos.  As a former Navy chaplain I have stood with marines in combat, I have struggled with young men trying to make sense of their lives, and I have held their hands when dying.  And I have also struggled with the notion of the institutional church dictating terms of morality in life and death circumstances, without seeing the blood it requires.  Today I don’t particulary care what the “church” has to say about much at all, but I participate passionately in ministering the kingdom of God and what it means to submit to it.  Here’s the point: I’m tired of divisions and those who say they have a more spiritually informed perspective and who divide into “us” and “them”.  Whining about what’s wrong with others is still whining.  Move past the tired old complaints which nail your feet to the floor, and get on with building the kingdom.

A thousand pardons, Doc; I am sure you have done much good work with our military youth. Best of luck to you and to the sheep of that flock!

 But if you are old enough, you might just as blessedly done some other ministering: to draft resisters or Freedom Riders.  In their own way, these other young men, and women, also did battle for the Kingdom, and a few lost their lives while others were injured and maimed, just like warriors anywhere else.   You don’t have to apologize for your allegiances, but I, for one, am tired of these attacks on those who question America’s military priorities.  Our “enemies” very often also struggle to make sense of their lives, especialy when some of our soldiers blow up their towns and schools and butcher their kids. 

Jennifer, I’m not sure if I should detect a note of cynicism in your reply or not, and yet I will presume that the intent was to inform me of what I might not be aware.  I will offer this though, by way of apology: my criticism of the article was not of the sentiment, which I might stand alongside of, but of using too broad a brush in applying facts assumed but not in evidence.  I am an old iconoclast, and appreciate thoughtful and well supported criticisms of any institution or action undertaken by humans and then ordained by attaching God’s “approval” to it. 
     You do assume right in thinking I am old enough, though.  In the sixties I spent 5 vacuous years pursuing a 4 year degree, hung out with draft resisters (pejoratively called “dodgers” back then), watched the march on Selma (on television), and was utterly confused by the violent “resistance” of the protest movements. I was raised in both the South and the North, and as a child was stung by the idiocy of open racism in the South and ignorant racism in the North.  Despite being forced to study Greek philosophy and French existentialism, among other things, I managed on my own to read Thoreau, Rand, Lewis, and Orwell, who have little or nothing in common, yet somehow comforted me in my confusion.   On my own I further studied European history, and especially the Bolshevik revolution.  Not surprisingly I discovered that all humans are brutes when chaos prevails, and seem to prefer murder to peace.  I didn’t fully appreciate Dylan until much later.  (Forgive an old man his digression)
     When I think of the great men in this county’s past, I rarely include any of our political or military leaders, though a few might come to mind.  Rather I consider the work of men such as Francis Asbury and Charles Finney, who intervened as God’s representatives during the darker periods of moral decay in our past.  Their written or spoken messages may seem archaic by today’s standard, but they penetrated dark hearts.  Certainly our nation has had a dark past, and if not for God’s intervention through men like these it would have been much darker.  The so-called peacemakers of my day, the Weathermen, Angela Davis, Bill Ayers, etc. quoted Ghandi and Marx in the same breath, worshipped Guevera and Castro, and rationalized their own violence with the existentialism of the French revolution.  One man alone stood out, Dr. King, and even his message was edited and truncated by less worthy followers after his death. 
      Where do we go from here?  Though Jesus himself spent little time criticising his contemporaries, he did level a withering assault on the spiritual “know it alls” of his day.  Can the young, bright, and spirit-filled fill the void and promote redemption and peace, keeping the more bellicose at bay while maintaining a healthy skepticism of all human endeavors and institutions?
 

A title directly from the Tony Campolo play book.

Hyperbole for sure. Not sure about the “millions” of native Americans killed, but then again, I don’t know. Does God really mean up yours? Not as far as I read the Bible. In fact quite the opposite. Jesus always seemed to find a third way in the conflicts he was presented with eg woman at well, woman caught in adultery, etc. God seemed to be extremely patient with Job as he railed against God and wanted his day in court. And the Assyrians in Ninevah? Far from having an up yours approach, God seems to allow the humans to reap the consequences of their own up yours attitudes. Therefore I agree, Christians need not have an up yours attitude, but not because God has one!