To war or not to war?

So in light of the class reading on just war theory, I'm going to expand  a little bit on my thoughts.

I have always thought that Christians need to be in all noble spheres of life in order to show the love of Jesus whether this be in the business, entertainment, healthcare or education sector. Needless to say, I have always thought of military service as noble and an act of laying down one's life for his friends. However, after reading William Hays' stance on Violence and Just war, I had to rethink my stance. Even now, I 'm still not sure where I stand.

However, I understand that we are to follow the ways of Christ in all things. Not just for the parts that are easy but even for those that make us uncomfortable. In fact, I would say especially for those parts that make us uncomfortable because they are counter-cultural.

Moreover, I'm beginning to understand that a reliance on violence for defense really reflects the rebellion that the Israelites exhibited against God:

So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. ⁵ They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead ^[a] us, such as all the other nations have."
 ⁶ But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. ⁷ And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. ⁸ As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. ⁹ Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do."
 ¹⁰ Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. ¹¹ He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. ¹² Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. ¹³ He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. ¹⁴ He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. ¹⁵ He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. ¹⁶ Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle ^[b] and donkeys he will take for his own use. ¹⁷ He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. ¹⁸ When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day."
 ¹⁹ But the people refused to listen to Samuel. "No!" they said. "We want a king over us. ²⁰ Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles."
 ²¹ When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD. ²² The LORD answered, "Listen to them and give them a king." 

So I guess, it's no longer enough for us as Christians to trust that God will protect us or to say like Daniel did:

"If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. ¹⁸ But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

Where does that leave us then. Are Christians in the military committing sin by being a part of military resistance. Well this is what Hays' suggests and as much as I don't want to, I agree with him. But what about the wars sanctioned by God in the OT. Should we look away from those as well...?

All these questions and no answers at least not until we see the face of God.
Sufficient for the day is its troubles...

Introducing...Good and Evil

So this weekend I was watching cartoons with my niece and nephew. At some point we started watching Strawberry Shortcake, which by the way I highly recommend :-), and I realized that even in a cartoon series with characters as sweet (no pun intended) as Strawberry Shortcake and her friends, there's still an evil character. That got me thinking to all the other cartoon I ever say during my chilhood.

Here's what I realized; I have never, I mean never, watched a kid's show that didn't have a villain. Never. In my 21 years of existence. Never. Even writing now, I'm still slightly amazed. How can there be no cartoons without villains? It's like it's in our culture to place good and evil side by side. Think about it. For Dora, there's Swiper the Fox, Dragon Tales? Berenstein Bears? yep, there's a villain (usually a different one each episode). Forget the Disney movies. They're classic hero-villain protrayals. Just in case you're concerned that you've never heard of these cartoons before, not to worry, I'm that one random kid that watches way too much kids TV:-)

I started thinking about the effect that this portrayal has on children. On the one hand I think it's great that children areen't deceived into thinking that the world is all strawberries and ice cream (although Strawberry Shortcake might disagree with that), but at the same time, I think it's also kind of distorted. I mean what if a kid decides they want to be the villain instead of the good guy. There's no guarantee that the child's actually going to learn the values or morals that you're trying to get across by depicting good and evil. That a risk. A huge risk to take just so we can present the world in black and white.

But while I'm pondering these things, I'm just gonna sit down and watch another episode of Strawberry Shortcake. Sufficient for the day is its own troubles...

Where is the Love?

The story of Tyler Clementi, the guy who committed suicide after footage of him engaging in sexual relations with another man was released, is all over the media and social networking sites. My roommate and I were having a conversation about the issue, and she was telling me how a lot of gay people commit suicide because of the stigma associated with homosexuality.

Let me just say at this point that I do not support homosexuality. I do not think it is biblical or in line with God's intention for creation and I think Romans 1. However, let me also say that I'm a firm believer in Romans 2:

"You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. ²Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. ³So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? ⁴Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?"

I get really angry when I see people holding signs that say "God hates gay people" or something akin to it. I almost want to say it’s bad publicity for God. It’s like we take one idea and completely isolate it from the purpose and intent that God originally intended. We say God doesn't support homosexuality; therefore he must hate those who practice it, forgetting that we were loved even in our own sin:
^"6You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. “(Rom 5)

As Christians, this should be our attitude to homosexuality. Not one of ignorance, lest we mock our faith by not knowing what is required of us as God's children; and not one of quick solidarity, lest we champion a cause we neither believe in nor understand. And not one of acquiescence either. Oh how we love to take sides on issues either to please a group or to please ourselves.

I think its time we the Church stood up and called out Love. Again, not condoning the sin but accepting the inner. Surely we can do that. Jesus modeled it for us…

Good eyes. Bad eyes.

The title here is an allusion to Matthew 6:22-23 which says:
"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness" (NIV)

Since we've recently studied the sermon on the mount in Biblical Heritage class, I thought I'd just bring up this particular verse as it is one that has great consequences for our society today. Very often, we tend to disregard the importance of 'good' eyes in a world that is plagued by sensuality. I remember watching a movie rated PG-13 once, and thinking "who the heck thought this would be appropriate for 13-year olds?!". It's like we spend so much time trying to keep youths away from violence, that we fail to see the the pernicious effects of sensuality in the media.

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine once and she suggested we go see a movie. I declined the offer hoping she wouldn't probe me further on my reason for doing so. No luck there. She did asked and I had to explain to her that I'd seen the preview and read the reviews, and I just wasn't comfortable with the movie's sexually explicit content. She looked at me incredulously and said, "Really? That stuff gets to you?!".
Yes friend, that stuff gets to me. It gets to all of us. I used to think the problem was that I was just a really visual person and so I was more affected by images, but after reading the Matt 6:22, I began to understand that I was just more aware of the importance of guarding my eyes. "The eye is the lamp of the body" is what Jesus says. It illuminates us! Yet we're so willing to let anything and everything pervade it.

For those who are having a hard time identifying with me, let me give you a scenario that I hope will drive my point across. You've recently moved into a new house and your friendly neighbors next door come over and ask you to join them for a home-cooked meal and cool hangout time. You get there and have dinner with them. After the meal is done, you ask what else they have planned for the evening and they casually explain to tell you that next on the agenda will be you watching them engage in intercourse. I hope at this point you're thinking "awkward!" and running out the door of your neighbors' house! Sounds like an extreme case doesn't it? But think about it. What do these movies ask us to do by showing sexually explicit content?  They ask us to participate, by viewing, in situations that if presented to us in the natural world, we would waste no time in fleeing from.

What we watch is important friends. This stuff gets to us and unfortunately it also gets through us.
Sufficient for the day is its own troubles...