Evangelicals love Putin.
My longtime evangelical friend doesn’t. (He voted for Biden.) In his newsletter last week, he said he wants Putin stopped before Putin does to Europe what Hitler did to Europe. My friend urged his large readership to pressure Congress to pass the stalled bill supporting arms for Ukraine.
I’m for Ukraine, I told him. But I lean Quaker.
(I’ve never gotten over my crush on a people who dress and speak simply, live and walk lightly, oppose war and slavery, promote kindness and justice, and make great rolled oats. I’m not a Quaker. But I wouldn’t mind being one if I could keep my flatscreen TV.)
I’m for Ukraine, but I’m not for endless profiteering by the arms industry. The more you feed it, the more it wants.
But what are you going to do? Let tyrants get away with crimes?
I lean Quaker, but I’m not comfortable with absolute pacifism. I understand the moral dilemma. Loving your enemies doesn’t mean letting them walk all over you or the ones you love. That’s not love. (See my April 17, 2022, post, Out of Cheeks to Turn)
My friend isn’t a warmonger. We both read Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship in seminary 50 years ago. We adopted Bonhoeffer as a role model. He was an avowed pacifist. And yet he participated in an attempt to assassinate Hitler. He was arrested and hanged. Last I heard, Bonhoeffer threw himself upon the mercy of God.
My friend is a popular and beloved global religious leader. He is going to Ukraine to pray with fellow Christians for a supernatural intervention to stop this war. You can count on God, he believes. But just in case, he says, keep your powder dry. Call your congressperson NOW.
My friend is a theist. So is Putin. I’m not. I lean humanist.
The way I see it, God doesn’t start wars. And God doesn’t stop them. Humans start wars. And humans can stop them.
One thing I especially like about Christianity is the idea that Jesus, a mortal, vulnerable human being, is divine.
And so are you.
Jesus fed the hungry, healed the sick, soothed the tormented, welcomed the outcast, and loved his enemies.
And so can you.
Someday, we will stop the killing and make peace. In the meantime, practice love, justice, and mercy.
It doesn’t get more supernatural than that. It’s divine.
