Fighting ourselves

Last week, a man on the radio said the war in Iraq was prophesized in the Bible. I am aware that many Americans believe the United States is justified by its Christian beliefs, and such, to fight and save the Iraqi people; however, I had no idea that God Himself had prophesized this war so long ago. I wish someone would have read whatever passage it was sooner so we could have prepared ourselves.

I realize that in times such as these – times controlled by blood, rape, death and mass destruction – people call upon their faith in order to cope with the tremendous stress of it all. I realize that in times such as these, we are all forced to question our roles in life, to question our beliefs, to question the meaning of our existence and our responsibility during our mortal lives.

In times of war, even if we are completely removed from that war, we are each immobilized by very uncertain fear. Often, people use religion to help them through this process. People depend on their religious/faith communities for support and strength in order to continue their lives and maintain hope for the future. Fortunately, humans find an outlet in religion through which they can be comforted even in times such as these.

Americans, along with many other Christian Western countries, have noted the outrageous and unacceptable religious fanaticism of other countries, specifically those in the Middle East. For decades, interest groups have fought to remove militaristic religious regimes such as the Taliban.

Millions of people around the world, including Americans, have been well aware of the dangers of religious fanaticism to the stability and safety of the world. The U.S. desire to resolve the issues between Palestine and Israel is testament to the general effort to create a world in which peoples of varying cultures and religions may live with and among each other without killing each other.

However, Americans often feel justified in their desire to “calm the savages” based on their Christian beliefs. Unfortunately, I do not mean Americans want to help save the world because they live by the Christian principles of universal love; rather, Americans feel justified because they feel they are God’s chosen people and that our political interests, our wars, are, in fact, holy.

Whether it is Trinity Broadcasting, Fox News or CNN, one cannot watch for more than 10 minutes without hearing someone say, “I’m just praying to God to give me the strength to keep fighting” or “I just thank God for this great country and this opportunity to fight for peace.” Using religion in this way, as a way of justifying war and finding strength to continue killing people, is very different than using religion to cope with war and to cope with death. Religion, in this case, is used as a weapon.

I realize this is an extremely sensitive subject, and I hope all of you, even those of you who may feel attacked by this argument, will not call me anti-American or pro-Iraq. I, like everyone else in the world, like all participating UN countries, agree with the U.S. government that Hussein and the current Iraqi regime are dangerous.

I agree with everyone that the United States, unlike so many other places, is a land of opportunity and has, over its short history, been able to provide unimaginable opportunities for people from around the world. However, the strength of the United States does not give it the right to be arrogant, to abhor other countries or to use religion in the same way we criticize people of other countries of using it.

We, as Americans, must not make the war in Iraq a holy war. We must not justify war, any war, by religion. If we do, we are just as dangerous as our enemies.

The fact is, over 10,000 Iraqi troops and civilians have been killed by Americans. This number might, in all reality, be closer to 40,000, though we will never know the reality of Iraqi casualties. Ten thousand people – soldiers, mothers, babies – all dead because of a war supported by American people and fought by American soldiers. Ten t people – that’s SMU’s campus.

Imagine if SMU disappeared; imagine the 10,000 families that would suffer, the hundreds of thousands of people that would be impacted if just some small school in Dallas, Texas were obliterated. Imagine the horror. This is the work we are doing in Iraq right now.

Again, the purpose of this argument is not to question whether or not we should be at war. I am urging those of you who support the war to question and understand how and why you think we should be at war, how and why you justify the war.

There are many different and completely reasonable ways, on both sides of the table, in which we can approach the issue of this war. However, we must not make this into a holy war. We must not, as a majority Christian country, make this into a war for Jesus Christ. We must not use religion – religion that claims to seek perfect and eternal love – to justify the killing of thousands of people, including our own.

If we do, what are we saying about our religion? What are we saying about our beliefs? How are we different from our enemies?