What Would Jesus Do About Iraq?

S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 W W W. T I K K U N . O R G T I K K U N 27 FLICKR CC/BLACKNELL What Would Jesus Do About Iraq? by Tony Campolo M ahatma Gandhi once said that everyone knows what Jesus taught— except for Christians. Sadly, this is far too true for far too many Christians, andespeciallyforthosewhoconstitutetheReligiousRight. Nowheredowe get better evidence of this than when we examine the attitudes of most Christians toward what has been happening in Iraq. Recently, at Eastern University, I had a debate with Frank Gaffney of the Center for Strategic Studies concerning America’s policies for the Middle East. As part of the program , there was an opportunity for questions to be raised from the audience. One of the questions asked was, “If Jesus were determining what America does in Iraq, how would it be different from what America is presently doing there?” AmongthepointsItriedtomakeinansweringthatquestion,IcitedJesus’teachingthat what we would not want others to do to us, we ought not to do to them (Matthew 7:12). Therefore, I explained, “It is safe to say that Jesus would not make torture an acceptable policy in the interrogation of prisoners.” Dr. Gaffney responded to my comments by saying that while he had no expertise in answeringthisquestion ,inhisopinionAmericahastopursuepoliciesthatarepractical,suggestingthattorturemightbeanecessaryevilinaworldinwhichtorturingaprisonermight glean information that could save thousands of lives. Unfortunately, it was no surprise to me that most of the Christians in the audience agreedwithDr.Gaffney. Practicalrealities,forthem,tookprecedenceovertheteachingsof Jesus. Gandhi was proved right! When it comes to war, you don’t have to be a Christian to recognize that any reading of the Sermon on the Mount should require followers of Jesus to be non–violent resisters. In thispassageoftheChristianBible,Jesusdirectshisdisciplestolovetheirenemies.Sofaras I am concerned, that undoubtedly means that we shouldn’t kill them! When Jesus preaches that when we are attacked we are to “turn the other cheek,” we might not consider that to be a practical thing to do—but then, Jesus never was much for pragmatic solutions to the horrendous problems and threats that we must face in life. When he rejected the kind of justice that prescribes an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, and taught instead that we must return good for evil and overcome evil with good (Matthew 5:38–42) he wasn’t fitting into the scheme of realistic politics. But then, Jesus wasneverintorealisticpolitics. Hetoldhisdisciplesthat,unlesstheywerewillingto“deny themselves”andbewillingtobecrucifiedratherthanlivecontrarytothisnewethichewas prescribing, they could not be part of his kingdom (Matthew 10:38). EventheApostlePaul,whosomeliberaltheologianscontenddepartedsomewhatfrom theradicalethicsofJesus,supportednon–violentresistance.InhisEpistletotheRomans, he wrote: “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Romans 12:19). Before these words are written off as unrealistic for foreign policy, consider what might have happened if Christians had embraced them and did for the Iraqi people what Paul suggested that we should have done. For ten years, following the first Gulf War, America placed an embargo on Iraq, and the Red Cross estimates that this embargo affected the food supply and the availability of medicines in that country. This, in turn, was indirectly responsibleforthedeathsofhundredsofthousandsofchildrenamongIraq’spoorestofthe poor. Suppose Christians of America had done what their Bible told them to do for their 5.Religion:Politics rev. 8/7/07 10:16 AM Page 27 28 T I K K U N W W W. T I K K U N . O R G S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 enemies. Imagine what might have been if our churches, using their vast resources, had purchased medicines and food for the Iraqi people, shipped them to Jordan, and, from there,transportedthemtothedesperatepeopleinIraq.MighttheinvadingAmericansoldiers then have been greeted with roses thrown at their feet, as Vice President Cheney had predicted? The Apostle Paul suggested that that kind of response to Saddam Hussein might have brought down that evil dictator. That is what Paul predicted when he said that through such loving acts of kindness we would “bring down coals of fire” on our...