'Christian' Militia in the News

This morning, I read about the arrest in Michigan of eight "patriotic Christians" who had plotted to bomb a funeral service of a policeman. On the same day, I received another email about the "pray for Obama" bumper sticker – this time from my sister (who's really a very committed Christian, intelligent, etc. A wonderful person). So I wrote down these thoughts:

Most of us, by now, have heard of the bumper sticker going around which reads: "Pray for Obama – Psalm 109:8”. It’s may be a trivial example of how ugly some of us Christians have become in recent years – but it’s also a horrific example. The full passage, which is supposed to elicit satisfying chuckles from us when we look it up, reads “May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership. May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow." As my friend likes to say, “yeah, funny… but not in a HA-HA way.”

How did we get this way? How did we forget the obvious: that we Christ-followers are simply not allowed, by Christ himself, to pray for children to lose their dads. Even if they're our enemies, we're to pray for God's blessing on them, not his curse. When James and John asked Jesus if they should call down fire from heaven on their enemies, Jesus simply rebuked them. “No rhetoric. No argument. A simple ‘NO, There is to be no violence or hatred in the cause of God’” (Peterson)

Unfortunately, Christians are still killing others in the name of Jesus, sometimes with guns (like the eight "patriotic Christians" arrested in Michigan yesterday), sometimes with words (as in the bumper sticker mentioned above). As Eugene Peterson writes, "Do we forget so easily that Jesus equated word-killing and sword-killing?" Jesus' rebuke still holds. It has yet to be rescinded.

The group of “Christian zealots” that was arrested in Michigan were similar to groups all over the place in Jesus’ day. Everywhere you looked there was some group of zealots plotting some kind of violent act. The first followers of Jesus, however, were conspicuously different. Without one exception, they didn’t kill, didn’t use violence, and, as far as we can tell, they didn’t even enter into word-killing or hating people with their speech. The fact that they didn’t kill was all the more remarkable because “in the religious atmosphere of the day it was the most natural thing in the world to do. Why didn’t they? 

The simple answer is that they were following the resurrected Jesus, and the Jesus who was now living in them wasn’t killing anyone” (Peterson). I would add, the Jesus who was living in them wasn’t killing anyone with swords or words.  That’s what’s so remarkably depressing about hearing these words come out of fellow Christians.

Is it OK to disagree with the political decisions of governmental leaders? Of course. Disagree. Debate. Write. Voice your opinion if you like. Vote the person out of office next election if you want. But there’s no place for hate or for violent words. No place for a Christian to pray for someone’s death – to pray that “his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.” How did we descend to such a depth of depravity? All in the name of God and country? I thought the resurrected Jesus that now lives in us came to bring life, to save, to love, and to bless. I thought his attitude towards his enemies was, “forgive them Father for they know not what they do.” I thought he commanded us to love our enemies. I didn’t know it was just an optional suggestion. I thought that at the very core of the Christian faith was “ENEMY LOVE.” I thought that was a big part of the cross of Christ – part of the main point.

Am I missing something?