Category Archives: peace

Good money after bad

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$720 million a day. That’s what the American Friends Service Committee estimated as the cost of the Iraq war. That finding was published in September 2007; I doubt it’s exactly the same today. And we have to admit that the Quakers have an anti-war bias. But I don’t expect them to be grossly dishonest with numbers, even to support their views.

The Washington Post article that reported the finding stated, “The $720 million figure breaks down into $280 million a day from Iraq war supplementary funding bills passed by Congress, plus $440 million daily in incurred, but unpaid, long-term costs.”

Some accept that figure as the cost of “doing business” in the modern world.

Me, I can’t help but wish that Caesar put my tax dollars to better use.

The Night The Music Died

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Today marks the 30th anniversary of the death of John Lennon. I shared some thoughts about his passing in an article I wrote for our blog at HopeForLife.org (it’s also on Heartlight). I won’t repeat those thoughts, though I invite you to read them on those sites.

Lennon’s most famous song, at least as a soloist, is probably the song “Imagine.” It’s a beautiful song, though I think the message is completely misguided. Lennon says that people need to ignore the transcendental and live the moment; I argue that the world has been doing that for millennia. We need a better awareness of the eternal, which will help us live the present in a more meaningful way.

One song that I hope gets played a lot and especially gets heard is the song “Give Peace A Chance.” I’m hoping that the world, especially the country I live in, will seriously consider this song. We’ve tried war as the solution to everything for far too long. It’s time we gave peace a chance.

What comes to mind when you think of John Lennon?

They will no longer train for war…

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They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.  (Isaiah 2:4)

A while back, I posted about the U.S. involvement in the Soviet-Afghan war, how ex-government officials have admitted to funding Islamic extremists in order to suck the Soviets into a prolonged war in Afghanistan. We knew that their 10-year war in Afghanistan would destroy their economy and eventually bring down the Soviet Union. (We didn’t realize how much we would suffer for funding these Islamic extremists. Fortunes of war and all that…)

The U.S. involvement in Afghanistan is at 9 years and counting. While fighting that war, we also began another war in Iraq. And everyone says, “I wonder why our economy is in such bad shape.”

Admittedly, the U.S. has often found war to be profitable. But at some point, a nation that continually chooses war over peace will suffer the consequences.

If I didn’t oppose war from a Christian point of view, I’d be forced to oppose it from a logical point of view.

When the fighting will stop

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“He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples.”

That’s the first part of Isaiah 2:4, the verse I quoted from yesterday. It’s interesting to me that even in this view of the Messiah’s kingdom, there will be disputes between people and a need to mediate between nations. I don’t know that Isaiah is literally saying that people will continue to find reasons to fight in the realized kingdom, but it does show how deeply ingrained in the human psyche is the desire to fight.

I’m frankly pessimistic about the possibility of human beings to eliminate wars, particularly disputes over territory. There are few places left on earth that don’t have multiple groups that can claim historic rights to that territory. Texas boasts of having existed under six different flags (though that’s only because the Native Americans didn’t use flags!). If you think about it, any of those groups can say, “This land used to belong to us; it is still rightfully ours.” (Well, I don’t know that the Confederacy would do that) That happens time and again in our world, with war being the result in most cases.

Those who have what they want insist that the status quo should be preserved. Those that have lost territory ask that historic ownership rights be preserved. And I don’t see any end to this.

Until one day, when the Lord will judge between the nations and settle disputes for many peoples.

Photo from Wikimedia

Plowshares and pruning hooks

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“They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.”

(Isaiah 2:4)

Aren’t those beautiful images?
We’re followers of the Prince of Peace. That’s what we’re supposed to be working for in this world.