All of this being apropos to this post because you’ll find lots of folks in the US for whom a picture of Jesus on the cross superimposed on a flag and used in conjunction with military recruiting and sloganeering is, essentially, blasphemy. Inappropriate doesn’t even begin to do the scenes and descriptions of the evening’s events justice. The idea that God supports war… any war… is fantastically anti-scriptural. I’m not sure what part of “pray for your enemies” translates into gutting them with a bayonet, but I haven’t been able to stretch my interpretation of scripture quite that far.

It is, obviously, a complicated issue. Are there times when force needs to be used to rescue innocent people from oppressors? The political, rational humanist side of my brain steps up and answers, “Hell, yes!” And if you follow that path to its logical conclusion, you end up at a place where religious support of a war you believe to be just isn’t such a bad idea.

The problem is, for us Christians, that Jesus never said it was OK. He was the ultimate example of an innocent who was oppressed. Should someone have rescued Him from the cross?

Many will say that we simply can’t build national, political policy based on the example of Christ. Well, first of all, it’s never been tried. Mercy as foreign policy… it appeals to me. I think it might work. But if it is the case that we simply can not comingle our faith with our political system, then we should separate them completely, and, therefore, get the soldiers out of the church.

You have a choice; either Christ is in charge of your politics and your world, or he isn’t. You can’t put Him on a screen and sing patriotic songs and pray for him to protect your kids when they’re at war, and not pray for Him to protect the enemey’s kids, too. So either step up to the plate and have a Christ-centered foreign policy that acknowledges Him as Prince of Peace — not Prince of Pain — or get Him out of the Church and stop confusing the Son with Uncle Sam.

That is precisely why I have asked my friends from the US to comment. As a Canadian I don’t want to go off half-cocked here.

Frequently in different parts of the world were there is conflict people take sanctuary in a church.
n] area around the altar of a church for the clergy and choir; often enclosed by a lattice or railing
[n] a shelter from danger or hardship
[n] a consecrated place where sacred objects are kept

And frequently they are killed anyway. That does not lessen the meaning or importance of sanctuary or the outrage of their deaths. Some priests, nuns and ministers lay down their lives providing that sanctuary.

The comments at the original blog vary from political scorn, to condemnation, to approval and what’s the big deal, to indifference and fevered patriotism.

My request for information from this church is polite. The comments indicate this event took place as the original observer says. Yes, we can pray for the church leadership and the church community and act always in love.

If we are desensitized to this kind of gathering condoned and occurring in churches anywhere in the world in the name of Jesus Christ, then God have mercy on us.

I think people just get their passions mixed up. They can’t see past their own little world. Not an excuse, just a reason.

Blog on.

Things like this pose Christians a challenge, both in terms of the proper relationship between church and state and the accountability that Christians have to one another. Church governance, in other words. Churches with a congregational polity, like those which belong to the SBC, need to find ways of listening to others. Congregational autonomy shouldn’t mean that there is no accountability at all.
(And those of us who belong to episcopal or connexional churches shouldn’t be smug. We’ve got problems of our own!)

Historically, Baptists have been passionate supporters of the idea of separation of church and state. We come from a persecuted people, so the idea of using the state to push a religious agenda is anathema to us.

To have a baptist church so closely wed itself to a political entity, be it democrat, republican, or any particular country, is an unthinkable evil to traditional and historic baptists.

About 25 years ago, Southern Baptists were taken over by a group we might label as “the religious right.” Jerry Falwell, long a harsh critic of Southern Baptists, is now a Southern Baptist himself. Here is a direct quote from Jerry Falwell at a recent event CELEBRATING THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TAKEOVER. (yes, the celebrated it!)

“I wasn’t there when you guys hijacked it, but I came on board soon after.”

Read it and weep. But then realize that we can’t be responsible for perversions of our faith. I had to move on. They are no longer my people.

Having lived through the takeover, the scene pictured here is particularly painful and horrific to me. The people in the church are probably fairly innocent and ignorant. Many Southern Baptist leaders like their people to be kept ignorant nowadays.

And yes, Baptist churches are completely autonomous. There is no action that a higher ecclesial authority can take because there is no higher authority for Baptists than the local church. The local association or state convention could toss them out of fellowship, but that doesn’t mean anything.

Christianity is a beautiful and sacred spiritual path of grace and renewal. Because it is a goodness, the ugliness that comes from its perversion is particularly ugly, is it not?

peace,

Since I’m more of a pacifist by nature, I find it highly disturbing. It means that the church supports the cause of one party - whether some believers agree or not … I don’t know what to say except that some belivers may feel pressurised to walk the line and support the war because Jesus is thrown in the mix.

I wrote the church first, I think that’s reasonable.

Yes, each Southern Baptist church is independent. At least, that’s what I think I know about them. I suppose I’ll find out when you get your answer from them.

“Rebecca, reading the full posts, what do you think?”

I’m against even having a country’s flag in the sanctuary….

That should tell you what I think of that particular spectacle.