We are often faced with the choice of this morality or that. Some of our decisions will be identified as moral for one group and immoral for another. I presume that a Christian going to war in defense of country and family, sent to the front, and demonstrating skill in gunnery, kills soldiers in the army of the reputed enemy. He or she is not perceived as being a murderer, so is accepted of God and honored by buddies and country. For me to kill another person would be an immoral act, but may be a private decision in violation of the meaning of government and citizenship. There is paradox or contradiction related to the matter and I must be responsible to God and self for my belief and conduct. (The real paradox/contradiction is that I would not hesitate to kill or maim anyone attacking directly my family members – if I were able to do so.) I have devoted thought to the decision of Dietrich Bonhoeffer to join the plot to kill Hitler. He was acting on his own authority, as a soldier of the enemy to affect a death to end a war and save the lives of many persons on both sides of the conflict. Some writers find his decision unsatisfactory in the light of Scripture. Further, the plan failed and he was executed for treason. Where was God? In the end we cannot know how God evaluated the context. I don’t believe that Bonhoeffer will lose heaven’s place for him because of the event. A clear case of duplicity can be made, and those who fault him for the event have a point. Those who see his effort as heroic also have a case. For me, it wouldn’t work. I would feel I had murdered or maimed a person. Even the military knows that there have been many soldiers who have shot their rifles into space so that shells would rise ten or more feet above the oncoming enemy soldier. It is a common problem, and would invite court martial if proved. Happily for persons like me, my country has an alternative situation for conscientious objectors, and those objecting persons have obligation to meet the requirements of the nation in asking for the alternative pattern. The problem occurs far more often than we realize. Currently there is debate among the various states whether or not certain vaccinations should be required. Many parents are opting out of some of the inoculations, and the matter may come to a head if vaccinations are made mandatory so to protect the larger society. It is known that persons, young and old who evade some vaccinations are more likely to be infected, and more likely to cause endemic spread of the disease in question. On Immunity, by Eula Biss, addresses this issue related to medical procedures.
I have wondered how, in-all-the-world, did the men permit a teen-aged girl, slight in body, to put on armor and lead them in battle? Where were the authorities? She went into battle, likely surrounded by soldiers who would die rather than see her attacked, but she fought genuinely. She said she heard voices to go and do what she succeeded for a time in doing. Found heretical by the church she was burned at the stake. Joan of Arc was later made a saint by the church. We make more of these paradoxical/contradictory decisions than we realize. Some can’t be avoided. We have no hope except in the grace of God that will evaluate motives. Such events occur often and privately. Little wonder that God proposes to make all ultimate evaluations. It is not likely that any person has enough evidence to judge any other person.
There is no place for the revenge motive in Christianity. We understand the move Peter made at the arrest of Jesus – to lash out. Jesus healed the ear severed by Peter’s knife, and remonstrated with Peter, not the soldier. The activist Peter in this hour became the denying Peter later. The dying malefactor on one side of Jesus was likely condemned by the crowd to outer darkness, but Jesus said: This day shalt thou be with me in paradise. A great truth of Christianity is unconditional love, which is God’s gift to us. He never asks us to kill in his name. He does inform us that we may be called upon to suffer and die for him. Several of my classmates have done so. He forgives us as a loving father when asked – through the invitation from faith persons to do so. We surrender and the large truths of God are invoked: life, love, mercy, peace and a list of virtues related to the Fruit of the Holy Spirit. All of them are affirmations. In God there are no negations. However, anything that he does not affirm becomes negation conjured by mankind and may be often practiced. Many Christians find it difficult to live by the affirmations of holy God, which are found in Scripture. In biblical context is found freedom, and the context of the kingdom of God. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020