The birth-place of Just War and the decline of Christian pacifism

This week for the pacifism series I'd like to return to a little history. A few weeks ago I asked the question: "Why do you think the Church has seemingly derailed from the practices of non-violence and pacifism over the course of history?" A few people had some good answers regarding the Church as it is today, but I think a better question would have been, 'What started us off the path of non-violence?' That is chiefly what we will be dealing with today.

In the year 312 Constantine I, who was in the number two position under the emperor, was struggling to climb the ranks and prove himself as a worthy replacement for the big man. He had a decisive battle coming up against one of his greatest competitors, Maxentius. During this period of history a big emphasis was put on belief in magic, dark spells, unseen spirits and the like. As Constantine prepared for battle he felt a great need to up the ante beyond military might alone since he believed the opposing rulers of Rome had rallied the forces of black magic on their side. One night Constantine had a dream where Christ appeared and commanded him to carry the sign of the cross into battle. For the first time in history, soldiers went into battle with an emblem of Christianity painted on their shields. Had it been a generation earlier, it would have been an unspeakable blasphemy for Believers. Before heading into battle Constantine was said to have seen a flaming cross in the sky with the words, "In this sign thou shalt conquer". Constantine won the battle. He became the ruler of the Western half of the Roman empire. But even more importantly, Christianity received a new role: it was no longer illegal in the Roman empire. From Non-violence: The History of a Dangerous Idea, "Constantine became the Christian emperor, the defender of Christianity, and, as such, forever changed the character of the religion as he promoted it and used it to solidify his power. Whether he himself embraced the religion or simply used it politically has been debated by historians ever since."

It seems to me that when religion (Christianity for our purposes) gets mixed with the goals and aspirations of a nation-state, the religion will conform to meet the expectations of the state not the other way around. "One bad apple ruins the bunch" or more poignantly as Tony Campolo stated it, "It’s like mixing ice cream and horse manure. It doesn’t really affect the manure but it really messes up the ice cream." 

We will never know what dreams Constantine dreamed, what visions he saw, or if any of them actually were from God. But we have history to see that many outrageous and counter-Christian ideas have come from people claiming to have a mandate from God. We look away embarrassed at the mention of the Crusades or the white Christians of the South using the Bible to prove their right to own slaves. I'm sure it was easy for the Christians during Constantine's reign to start letting things slip. After all, his mandate effectively ended the persecution that had defined the early church. Why not compromise a little to maintain their own security? The emperor was able to give the Church what had never previously had: political power. And the church slowly became drunk on it.

Yet, if you look at the life of Jesus, you realize he made a point of doing things completely opposite of how people expected (and wanted) him to. He flipped things upside down. He said crazy things like, "If you want to save your life you will lose it" and "The first shall be last and the last shall be first." When Peter tried to defend him from a group of soldiers that wanted to put him on the cross he said, “Put your sword back in its place. For all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?" At all times Jesus could have had power over every authority and government on the face of the earth, but he chose instead a path that would change hearts instead of behavior. 

What do you think of Constantine's visions? How do you think history would have played out differently if he had lost the battle? 

Letters to God from a ridiculous 4th grader : Entry 2

Today's entry is from June 29, 1997. I've changed the names of the people mentioned to protect their identity....I'm friends with them on facebook. In this entry I discuss, with much wisdom and insight, the parenting styles of two of my friends' parents.

June 29, 1997

Dear God,

Today I got back from South Padre Island with my friend Sally. Tammy (Sally's mom) thinks that Jessica's mom, Liz (Jessica was another friend of mine) doesn't like her. Liz thinks that since Sally's dad got divorced twice that Sally and Tammy are both bad (confused with all the names yet?).  I don't think that Tammy is bad, I just think that she's more free about letting Sally do things. Which brings me to another thing: Jessica's mom doesn't think that Jessica knows what gay and sex means (I still don't know what those mean). I think that Liz is not willing to accept that Jessica is growing up. Please God, show Liz that Tammy isn't bad, just that she parents different (how very diplomatic of me).

Love, Charissa 

Jesus should have taken Biology

Matthew 12:24
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.


Seeds don't actually die. Jesus used this metaphor in the Scriptures to give illustration of our need to "lose our life in order to save it", but one of my friends in my community group last night said she always gets frustrated with the metaphor since she studied Biology in college. It's ok, I don't think Jesus was lying or anything, he probably just didn't take Biology. But the metaphor still kinda works- even with the correction. When He tells us to die, He's not literally asking us to kill ourselves. He's telling us to put to death the rotten self in order that the true self might shine through. You know, the self that Adam and Eve had before they screwed things up, the one we'll get back when we finally see Jesus, the one that God is creating in us if we let Him. There is always life hiding underneath, even if it's very small, even if you can't see it. When the seed falls into the ground, it sure looks dead, but the new life and eventually fruit will spring forth.


Here's another observation from this verse, one that has come into sharper focus since I've started gardening:
Plants don't always produce fruit. They have seasons of fruit-bearing, but it's not constant. In fact the plant is always running through the cycle of "death" and life and re-birth. Matthew 7:16 says "You will know them by their fruit..." Them being us, the believers. Are you ever discouraged or scared when you realize you might not be bearing fruit? I know this verse used to freak me out. I would go through a time of frustration, of silence from God, and on top of that I would realize nothing good was coming out of my life. I knew I must not be a Christian! "The Bible says we'll know them by their fruit and I have none, so that must mean I'm a failure." But it was usually just a season of "death". To keep with the garden metaphor, God was pruning my leaves and branches, cutting out the things that were hindering me from loving Him better. And eventually life sprouted up again. 


Death is a part of this life. We are called to die not just once at a church youth group altar call, but to do it again and again. You may not have fruit on you ALL the time, but if you are in Him, you can rest assured that you WILL bear fruit. 

Blah, blah, blah

I haven't much felt like posting lately. Some days I just have nothing worth saying...or more accurately, nothing worth overcoming my laziness to write. I've sat here for about ten minutes now trying to figure out a way to merge all the things in my head into one cohesive idea, but it's not happening so I think I'll just do a round-up of what's been on my mind.

1. If I published some of my personal, recent journal entries on here, there's a good chance most of you would question my walk with the Lord. I wonder if the people who were around when King David was penning out his frustrations with God thought he was sacrilegious or crazy. Did people start praying for him to "come back into the fold"?

2. Sometimes I get really caught up with myself. Without even realizing it, all of my thoughts, actions, motives turn to me, me, me. How does this affect me? How will this benefit me? Why doesn't anyone notice me? And then, out of nowhere something jolts me from my bubble and I remember how small and insignificant I am. Does this ever happen to you? What is it that brings you back to reality? For me, looking at the sky always works. Seeing how big it is reminds me of the world I'm a part of. It reminds me I serve a really big, really loving, really epic, really hard to understand God. Listening to Sigur Ros song always does the trick too. This one came on in my car on the way to work, while I was busy whining to myself about my life:

3. I wanna start a little mini series on here where I ask various different people the same vague-ish question (Why do you believe in God?) and let them answer however they want to answer. If you're interested in participating shoot me an email or leave a comment. I'll probably post one a week.

4. I have some really exciting possible future plans (so what else is new?) that I'm dying to tell people about but won't because I'm perpetually the "girl who cried wolf". Once I've sat on the idea a little longer I'll dish about it on here, but in the meantime just know that it's really expensive. For the next year I'll be on a strict budget, so don't ask me to go out to eat with you- I have no self control.

5. Before we had computers how on earth did we keep track of everyone's license plate numbers? How did we make sure there weren't repeats? Was there one big book somewhere that everyone had to consult?

The root of hatred is love

What makes us hate people? I don't know if I've ever given much thought to why I might hate someone. Maybe because it doesn't come up that often. Not to brag or anything, but there are very few people I hate. This isn't as virtuous as it sounds since it probably just stems from my need to be liked by as many people as possible. But still, it takes a lot for me to hate someone. Generally I find myself struggling with it when I encounter meanness. I can't handle mean people.

When I was a senior in high school I took Spanish-1 to fulfill the bare minimum requirement of language credits needed to graduate. What can I say? I am an over-achiever. I was one of the few seniors in a class full of lower-classmen. There was a girl named Jamie in our class who was severely autistic and beyond socially awkward. She was obsessed with Pokemon cards and carried around a huge binder of them, tucked away in plastic sleeves, everywhere she went. She was constantly talking about them, doodling them and trying to corner people into talking about them. For the most part, when the teacher was talking, she kept to herself and no one bothered her, but whenever we split off into pairs she would revert back to Pokemon expert mode. There was another kid in our class named David. David was your quintessential jock. Super buff, tan, good looking, popular with the ladies, and an all around douche-bag. He had a personal vendetta against Jamie and made it his goal to publicly embarrass her as often as possible. David was always calling attention to Jamie when she was just minding her own business. He'd point and laugh, usually bringing the rest of the class with him. I know this is awful, but I distinctly remember thinking, "This is the first person that I actually can't fathom Jesus loving." I didn't want to admit it to myself, but I hated him.

But why? Was it just the act I hated? What deep reason did I have for not only hating the sin but the sinner as well? Did I have a subconscious standard for him that he wasn't living up to? Maybe.

I've been reading through George MacDonald's Unspoken Sermons over the last month and recently I happened upon a possible explanation for my hatred. He suggests that maybe we hate because we know, deep down that inside every person is something worth loving, something we want to love, and when their actions cloud our vision of this truth, when they make it hard for us to see the loveliness they possess, we hate them for it.

"But how can we love a man or a woman who is cruel and unjust to us?-- who sears with contempt, or cuts off with wrong every tendril we would put forth to embrace?--who is mean, unlovely, carping, uncertain, self-righteous, self-seeking, and self-admiring?...These things cannot be loved. The best man hates them most; the worst man cannot love them. But are these the man?...Lies there not within the man and the woman a divine element of brotherhood, of sisterhood, a something lovely and lovable,--slowly fading, it may be,--dying away under the fierce heat of vile passions, or the yet more fearful cold of sepulchral selfishness--but there? Shall that divine something, which, once awakened to be its own holy self in the man, will loathe these unlovely things tenfold more than we loathe them now--shall this divine thing have no recognition from us? It is the very presence of this fading humanity that makes it possible for us to hate. If it were an animal only, and not a man or a woman that did us hurt, we should not hate: we should only kill. We hate the man just because we are prevented from loving him. We push over the verge of the creation--we damn--just because we cannot embrace. For to embrace is the necessity of our deepest being. That foiled, we hate."

If we were to realize the root of our hate, what would happen to our tendency towards war and violence?

Letters to God from a ridiculous 4th grader: Entry 1

I have a keepsake box in my closet that is packed full of pictures, my childhood blankies, my letter jacket, all the notes I ever wrote in high school, and almost every journal I've ever kept. Periodically I'll read through the old journals and notes and recently I had the brilliant idea to post some of the classic entries from my adolescence. Please tell me you were as ridiculous as I was in 4th grade.

Here's an entry from June 1, 1997:

Dear God,
I know this is the first time I've really written to you. I'm supposed to be all happy and gayla (apparently gayla was an acceptable/real word in my vocabulary) but no, Stephanie just HAS to ruin what was going to be a perfect night (I was beyond mean to my sister in all these old journals).

Life is going well in the boy world. After the recent F-5 tornado I've recovered emotionally (I wasn't even in Austin when this happened) and I think Matt has too (my 4th grade boyfriend), considering he got hit in the head with a chunk o' metal and had to get stitches (nope. This did not happen). Matt is the sweetest guy I know besides You and Jesus.

Well, gotta go!
Charissa


Clearly I felt the need to lie to make my story more awesome, even to myself.

Whoa nelly...that is me

This morning Donald Miller blogged about the Enneagram Personality Test. Now, I've taken a lot of tests and surveys over the years, most of which come relatively close to diagnosing my personality quirks, but this- this is dead on.

My own inner dialog is a constant conversation of introspection as I attempt to figure myself out. I'm always trying to classify myself, always trying to put things in compartments. Without even knowing it I obsessively compare myself to everyone I know. Not in an insecure way...I just like to see how we differ. I like to see what makes me unique.

I just took the shortened version of the Enneagram and was blown away by how accurate it was after only about 25 questions. Take the test here (you have to scroll down a little) and find out for yourself. Here are a few of the hi-lights from my own assessment. According to the test I am a Type 5:

 

We have named personality type Five The Investigator because, more than any other type, Fives want to find out why things are the way they are. They want to understand how the world works, whether it is the cosmos, the microscopic world, the animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdoms—or the inner world of their imaginations. They are always searching, asking questions, and delving into things in depth. They do not accept received opinions and doctrines, feeling a strong need to test the truth of most assumptions for themselves.

Behind Fives’ relentless pursuit of knowledge are deep insecurities about their ability to function successfully in the world. Fives feel that they do not have an ability to do things as well as others. But rather than engage directly with activities that might bolster their confidence, Fives “take a step back” into their minds where they feel more capable. Their belief is that from the safety of their minds they will eventually figure out how to do things—and one day rejoin the world.  
Knowledge, understanding, and insight are thus highly valued by Fives, because their identity is built around “having ideas” and being someone who has something unusual and insightful to say. For this reason, Fives are not interested in exploring what is already familiar and well-established; rather, their attention is drawn to the unusual, the overlooked, the secret, the occult, the bizarre, the fantastic, the “unthinkable.” Investigating "unknown territory"—knowing something that others do not know, or creating something that no one has ever experienced—allows Fives to have a niche for themselves that no one else occupies. They believe that developing this niche is the best way that they can attain independence and confidence.  Thus, much of their time gets spent "collecting" and developing ideas and skills they believe will make them feel confident and prepared. They want to retain everything that they have learned and “carry it around in their heads.”

It's funny that they use the phrase "collecting ideas" because a while back I used pretty much that same phrase to describe what I do to my brother...although I think I said I "hoarded ideas and information".

Have you ever taken a personality test? Do you ever feel a little relieved when you read a correct diagnosis? Like maybe now that you know what your problem is you can move forward better?

Sorry this is kind of a boring post about myself, but I find it so fascinating! What personality type are you?