blessed are the peacemakers

Reading the Bible (especially the Old Testament) it is easy to see why many Christians get confused about the issue of warfare. I read a blog by a pastor about the connection between using war vocab in worship and reading Scripture that makes biblical heroes out of the Israelites, while justifying warfare they invoke, and even warfare invoked against them.

Hmm...

Many Christians throw their hands in the air. Jesus says "Blessed are the peacemakers." And the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Yet, God watches Joshua's back as he leads the Israelites to overthrow Canaan and commit mass murder. Later, when Israel doesn't behave itself, God empowers its enemies to teach it a lesson through oppression and violence. As mini-Christians in Sunday School, we give three cheers for the victories of the "chosen people" and sweep the implications of their success under the rug. We learn about Christian virtues of peacemaking and tolerance while being subtly indoctrinated with the notion that war wasn't completely off limits. There were special cases. Remember the Israelites?

In middle school youth group, the most popular night of the year was the annual game of Romans and Christians. I grew up in a Midwest mega-church. The youth had the run of the entire church basement, which was the size of a small high school, with classrooms, music and rehearsal rooms, a library, offices, and a huge youth wing complete with its own kitchen. On the night of Romans and Christians, the middle school youth group had free reign over the entire space. It was the one night I could get my non-Christian school friends to come with me to youth group!

None of us eleven and twelve year old kids were thinking about the historical aspects of the game. We just knew that the "Bad Guys" were the Romans and the "Good Guys" were the Christians. The Romans (usually youth leaders and older kids) would hunt for hidden Christians (the kids) all over the bottom level of the church. If found the Christians would be captured and put into jail, whereupon the remaining freed Christians would try to find sneaky ways to break them out.

It sounds innocent enough, but it was merely an extension of our elementary cheers of victory for the heroes of the Bible. We didn't know any better so we rallied our victors. On the brink of adolescence our sense of patriotic-like Christian pride was further engrained with our "Good Guy" vs "Bad Guy" games and lessons.

This is right around the time I went from a twelve year old religious zealot to thirteen year old cynic. Adolescence was encroaching and I was just learning how good it felt to buck the system. Yet, there was truth in my cynicism. I bought a Teen Study Bible at the height of my youth group fervor and vowed to read it cover to cover. My first trouble was at the book of Leviticus. I ran into Sunday School waving my Bible and accosted the twenty-something youth leader with questions about why people with skin diseases were banished and if God hated me when I had my period. At home I was listening to the soundtrack to RENT (which had just debuted on Broadway) and learning about the issue of gay rights and AIDS in New York's East Village. At church I was told that gays were going to Hell and so were my friends that didn't believe in Jesus. I accepted these things as the standard Christian perspective and saw it as reason enough to buck the system.

So I can't tell you what happens in Phase 3 of the Christian confusion on warfare in the Bible. I should have gone to learn all the dirty tricks, but I was going through my obligatory teen religious rebellion. Of course, God waited for me while I was gone.

It wasn't until I actually got to seminary over ten years later that I discovered my cynicism was widely echoed by theologians throughout history. Perhaps instead of cynicism I should say skepticism. I am twenty-three now and as I read the Bible cover to cover again I remember my girlhood self flipping through Leviticus in tears over what all this meant my God was about. This time around it was the passages of Joshua and Judges that stirred me up. Instead of a youth pastor I waved my Bible at all the people I knew in ministry, asking "Did God really advocate genocide?" I remember elementary school and the lessons about Joshua and the Israelites marching around the walls of Jericho with their trumpets. There is a widely used Christian children's video, "Josh And The Big Wall" with cartoon vegetables re-enacting the scene to make kids laugh while they learn Scripture. But I am not a kid now and as I read Joshua I can't believe I spent so many years shouting, "Hip hip hooray!" for what was actually a bloody massacre and political overthrow.

Didn't I tell you at the beginning of this that it is easy for Christians to be confused about the issue of warfare? Well, I know because I am one! We are learning in Theology about how Christian faith is built upon revelation throughout history, specifically during the plight of the Israelites. God giving humankind insights about Godself. Yet, if many of the revelations we cite as foundational to the structure of our faith occurred in the context of warfare, what does that say about Christianity? This is further complicated by the fact that, though Jesus often advocated for peace, he also used violent, war-related terminology in some accounts.

All this goes to prove the notion that it is easy to justify any position with Scripture. A peace activist and a zealous soldier can both point to the Bible to defend their work.

I am thankful that this time, unlike my middle school Leviticus debacle, I was able to connect to resources that explored my questions. It seems that many a theologian has pondered the book of Joshua, among others. History and canonical formation open up the understanding of this part of the Bible to so many possibilities. But the thing that unlocked my personal understanding of the issue of warfare, was what I found to be a predominating Scriptural message.

Love your neighbor.

Your brother. Your sister. Your friend. Your enemy. Your whatever. Love them as yourself.

While war seeps through the pages of the Old Testament so does the notion that as Christians we are called to look after each other. (Especially the ones going through hard times. And the poor ones. And the widowed ones. And the orphaned ones. And the oppressed ones.) My neighbor, as pointed out in the story of the Good Samaritan, is not always my social ally. My neighbor is everyman. In other words, no man on earth is not my neighbor. I don't have all the solutions to my confusion and anger over the book of Joshua. Sometimes I still get a headache over Leviticus. But I try to focus on the things that are not confusing in the Bible. Like the parts about love, neighbors, and justice. Where does warfare fit into any of that?

Nowhere.