 The war within our hearts  The Layman – Volume 35, Number 1 – Posted February 8, 2002
Far more helpful was a letter from my former pastor, a dear friend who has dedicated his life to renewal of the PCUSA. His inner turmoil as he ministers in this time of crisis resonates with mine. His thoughts are rooted in Scripture not politics. With his permission, I share some of them with you: “A confession: I find Romans 12:14-21 a very hard passage these days. It starts with ‘Bless those who persecute you’ and ends by admonishing me to ‘overcome evil with good.’ My problem comes not in grasping the high ideal set forth in this Scripture, but in actually living that way. In fact, it’s worse than that. I’m not sure I want to live that way to introduce goodness into the arena where the persecuted have fallen. “Still, we all know how it works out when vengeance sits in the driver’s seat. We’ve watched it from a safe distance in that decades-long, eye-for-an-eye struggle between Israelis and Palestinians. Americans have regularly admonished them (I myself have often said it!), ‘Vengeance won’t settle this issue.’ There is no conclusion – none at all! – in following a policy of retaliation. The last wounded party always claims the right to take one more shot. And the battle re-ignites and blazes on and on and on. “Some words of C. S. Lewis came drifting back. In dealing with the subject of forgiveness in the midst of war, Lewis said, ‘Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive.’ Loving our enemies is also a grand Biblical idea until we have some actual enemies we’re supposed to love. This real world of ours has an annoying habit of testing our theology. “But what if someone strikes my wife! Or, suppose they take aim at our children or grandchild? Ah, there’s the rub! When others enter the picture, suddenly the paradigm shifts. That, by the way, is why a strict pacifist position won’t work. It is patently immoral to stand by passively while others are violated. And so, even for those of us who follow Jesus, there are times when ‘striking back’ becomes a moral imperative. “American determination and skill will without question win this war. For the Christian, however, ‘striking back’ has got to go deeper than war. It’s got to mean transforming the source of the terror and threat – the human heart and will. Lincoln is purported to have said, ‘Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?’ “But mark you, it’s not just the enemy’s heart that needs changing; it’s mine too. The change called for is a complete repudiation of hatred and vengeance in human relations and a shift toward understanding and peace and love. “Given the violence in our world today, this seems an almost impossible task. Some, whom we now identify as our enemies, find their entire reason for existence in passionate hatred. Their minds are literally controlled by it. Hatred is their whole identity. Blowing themselves up in ‘the cause of hatred’ is sold to the young and impressionable as a heroic fulfillment of life. “Christ has called us – the Holy Spirit working through us – to seek the complete transformation of the human heart. Shining the light of Christ’s loving presence into the darkness of hearts like ours and others is a hard, costly and painful calling. But that is precisely our calling. So I think it’s probably time for me to get back to work!” That “work” – the first great end of the church – ought to be our highest priority in 2002. We then could be the faithful and obedient church in society, not the politically correct and irrelevant one. Robert L. Howard of Wichita, Kan., is chairman of the Presbyterian Lay Committee. |
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