I haven’t written much from Camp’s book recently, but here are a couple of other quotes from a section I read through recently. In discussing just war and “just war Christians”, he shares the following story:

Indeed, those who bore the name of Christ were those who often perpetuated the madness of twentieth-century warfare, simply assuming that their country’s warfare, simply assuming that their country’s cause is always the justified cause. Lecturing at a retreat of church workers in Germany, I had a number of occasions to visit with some of the German Christians attending the gathering. On a long walk through the countryside, one dear woman recounted her memories of World War II - nights in the bomb shelter; a morning walk to school after thousands upon thousands of civilians had been killed in bomb raids in her town the night before; a brother in Youth for Hitler. This was not the first conversation during my time there in which “the War” had come up in casual conversation. My curiosity finally got the better of me, so I asked what I had been wanting to ask: “So you all thought you were in a ‘just war’? That you had ‘just cause’ to fight?” With a surprised look she turned to me and excitedly responded in her thickly accented English, “Oh yes, of course!. Don’t you Americans always think that your wars are just?”

Later, Camp closes the section with the following:

This is a great irony of American Christianity: exalting the nation that affords us “freedom of religion,” we set aside the way of Christ in order to preserve the religion we supposedly are free to practice. We kill our alleged enemies in order to “worship” the God who teaches us to love enemies. The most important question about our pledge of allegiance is not whether we pledge allegiance to a flag under “one God,” but to what god we are pledging our allegiance. Perhaps it is, after all, not the God revealed in Jesus Christ we are worshiping, but the god of the nation-state, the god of power and might and wealth.

Can the present day American church learn from the German church of the 30’s and 40’s? This is not a comparison of the U.S. to Nazi Germany, but rather a comparison of Christians’ reaction to their nation’s involvement in war. With so many American Christians conspicuously supporting war at this point in our history (at least in my experience), it seems that we should at least caution ourselves against assuming that it is always for good and just reasons.

I admit my ignorance of the history of the German church during that time period, but apparently at least some of them believed that their government was acting for just reasons. Of course, our belief is that they were very wrong. (And perhaps we should be more aware of and consider what Christians outside of this country think of our own wars waged.)

Had the German church stood up in unison to their government, what would have changed? Would Hitler have been rendered ineffective in waging war on others? What about Rwanda? If all of the Christians had refused to participate in the genocide there in 1994, would it have made a difference? And, of course, here - what would have happened in 2003 had the church as a whole condemned the invasion of Iraq instead of, for the most part, it seems, voicing it’s approval? If the church in any country opposes war now or in the future, how will that be received by the world and what positive results will it bring both for the church and the world?

The real question here is not as much how effective would we be in stopping such events, but rather how much more effective would we be at showing the way of Christ to the world if we did? Are we, as Camp suggest, “setting aside the way of Christ to preserve our religion”? I don’t know with any certainty the answers to all of these questions, but I do believe without a doubt that, as a disciple, I must daily consider seriously what it means to follow Jesus - whether it be in decisions on supporting war, how to spend my money, how to be a father and husband, or anything else. And, for too long, those days have been far too few.

I didn’t make any “New Year’s resolutions” this year (as I never do), but that is certainly something I want to do more so in the coming year than I ever have in the past. After 30 years as a Christian, I still wonder sometimes if I know what the hell I’m doing, if I really have any clue of what it means to follow Jesus. What does it really mean to take up my cross and follow Him, in this country, at this point in time? What do I need to recognize in the example of Jesus that I’ve missed for so long? What do I need to change in order to truly walk in His steps? And, am I willing to actually do it?