Following Jesus Christ and serving in the military in any capacity represent categorically incompatible loyalties and endeavors. Any Christian who puts on a military uniform exposes that they are to an extent ignorant of (or deny) the character of the God of Israel and the person, work and way of Jesus Christ. All who follow Jesus should leave the military, cease espousing military service as a noble venture, practice the ways of non-violent active resistance and actively work towards peace with all people at all levels.

Normally I would avoid such black and white statements for a variety of reasons but I have become thoroughly convinced of this belief for two main reasons.  First, deeply considering the tensions between serving in the military and serving Jesus have been part of my personal journey of faith and this position is where I have arrived after many years and much thought.  Second, I have come to a new understanding of the Gospel, an understanding that sees non-violence as deeply intertwined with Jesus' role as the Messiah and therefore deeply intertwined with following Jesus. I would like to share both.

As for my own journey…

Growing up I had always thought about joining the military and these thoughts became a lot more concrete when I entered high school. After the summer of my freshman year my goal in life was set: I wanted to become a Navy S.E.A.L. sniper. This became an all-consuming goal that I dedicated myself to completely.  I quickly joined a Jr. Navy Program and I spent a number of weeks each summer training at military bases. (One of these is where the picture attached to this post comes from.) All of my academics, extra-curricular activities and sports became directed at attaining this vision for my life.

I was also a Christian. I failed to see any incompatibility between my goals and my faith.  I believed there was a God, that God created man in His image, that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and that we are saved from Hell and destined for Heaven if we accept Jesus Christ as our savior.  I saw no disconnect between this faith and my desire to turn the heads of people created in the image of that God into pink mist at long ranges with a Baretta M82A1 .50 caliber anti-material rifle. I thought it would be cool.

In many ways I was a product of my environment. Everyone around me, my family, my faith community and the surrounding cultured, venerated military service as an honorable and noble endeavor that did not conflict with the Christian faith. It is no surprise that my views began to change when my environment did.

While I smirk at the thought of encouraging stereotypes, this journey towards peace started in Canada. While 9/11 happened my senior year of high school and I was sorely tempted to enlist, I felt God calling me to something else and instead went to a private Christian school in Canada. While I was in Canada, the U.S. invaded Iraq, a decision which was criticized by many Canadians as was my belief that Christians could and should serve in the military. My knee-jerk reaction was to defend my beliefs against these “liberal” Christians.  I used Old Testament passages that celebrated killing and violence, presented it as commanded by God and the passage in Ecclesiastes that stated "there is a time for war." However, the problem was that I was really reading my Bible for the first time, and not just listening to and using little verse-bites and proof texts that had saturated the Christian culture around me.

I became increasingly aware that much of what I thought was supported in the Bible actually was not.  In fact, many of the practices I had been defending were actually antithetical to what the Bible actually taught. I was also more aware of the messy history of U.S. foreign policy. The U.S. government has a habit of destroying the enemies of today in ways that very predictably and understandably create the enemies of tomorrow.

My journey continued when I returned home after college and watched the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq drag on. Because of my time in the Jr. Navy program I have many friends who entered the military. Thankfully none of them have been killed but a number have returned with severe problems. Anyone who has had a family member or friend who struggles with PTSD, TBI or addiction knows what I am talking about.  I saw suicide rates for those in the military, even those who have not been deployed, steadily increase. Due to the internet, I saw humanity’s  inhumanity and the horrors of war become increasingly, and at times instantaneously, available for all to see.

During this time I was working with higher-risk youth from poor neighborhoods with a Christian organization.  Encouraging our youth to join the military was seen as a practical, if not ideal, solution to many of their problems. It provided a job, a sense of purpose, it got them out of their home and neighborhood environments, and it promised future education. However, I began to question if it was really worth it. Sending our most vulnerable youth to be further traumatized in war, only to return (if at all) to those same environments, continued to make less sense to me.

Around this time I watched the documentary <em>The Fog of War, </em>and Robert McNamara’s words, “We need to think a lot more about killing,” really struck me. The more I thought about killing, violence and war the more war looked less like an appealing video-game, or a way out of poverty, or a noble venture and much more like an incredibly brutal and dehumanizing endeavor that predictably and understandably breeds animosity among people groups and nations, often leading to future wars. War appears to do a basic violence to those who participate in it or even prepare for it. Wars today are not directed at the command of God but out of national interests, as determined by U.S. politicians, who are essentially owned by large businesses. Ultimately though, all wars appear to stem out of the fear of scarcity and the fear of death. We fear if we do not fight, we will night have enough of the earth’s rapidly dwindling resources. We fear if we do not kill our enemies they will kill use first.

Over the years I increasingly shifted towards a position of non-violent active resistance but I remained silent. This was and is an unpopular position in my hometown where nationalism and Christianity blend so thoroughly. However, in the last year, as my understanding of the Gospel has changed, I have become able to articulate why this position is deeply rooted the Gospel of Jesus Christ and inherent to following Jesus.

I will present this understanding as best I can on the next page.

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As I now understand it, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Good News, is that the God of Israel was faithful to the promises that were made to Abraham. As the story of Israel unfolded additional promises were made to David and to the people of Israel through the prophets. Hopes began to formulate and swirl around how all these promises would come to pass, and many Jewish sects were essentially divided according to how they envisioned these promises being fulfilled. These promises and hopes were fulfilled in the person, work and way of Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah of Israel. These promises continue to be fulfilled, and their tangible benefits and blessings continue to be enjoyed, when and where the people of God remain faithful to the person, work and way of Jesus Christ. Christ ended the hostility between Israel and its Gentile neighbors and provided a way for to join Israel in peace, to be one diverse people, to worship the one true God and participate in and enjoy the unfolding of these promised blessing.  Israel now awaits the second coming of Jesus Christ, the final consummation of all things, and the bodily resurrection and judgment of all people.

In regards to non-violence, a number of the promises made to and hopes of Israel are especially important. From the beginning of God’s promises to Abraham, it is clear that Israel was always to be a blessing to all nations. Additionally, a variety of passages reveal that it was expected that all nations would come and worship the God of Israel and that Israel would be returned to the land where it would enjoy peace and safety with its Gentile neighbors.

But how were these specific promises to come about? Far from being a blessing to its Gentile neighbors Israel had a long history of violent and turbulent relationships with them. Military conquests had only provided temporary peace at the cost of breeding further animosity with the Gentiles nations. Israel had also been taken out of the land and scattered multiple times and Rome was only the most recent Gentile power that had taken ownership of the land promised to the beleaguered people.

It is my belief that all of the promises to and hopes of Israel, including the ones that relate to non-violence, were fulfilled in the person, work and way of Jesus Christ and they continue to be fulfilled and enjoyed by the people of God who remain faithful to the person, work and way of Jesus Christ. But if this is the case, how did Jesus fulfill these hopes and how are they fulfilled and enjoyed now?

Jesus brought about these promises and blessings in part by living and teaching a way of life, the Way of Jesus. The Way of Jesus is a way of long-suffering justice, of costly mercy, of self-denying love, of sacrifice, of grace, of lavish sharing, of forgiveness with no limit, of embracing “The Other,” of humility, of solidarity with the poor and oppressed. It is a way that trusts God for one’s daily bread instead of hoarding out of the fear of future scarcity. It is a way of very tangible love and grace towards one’s enemies even to the point of forgiving them as they kill you. It is way the way of non-violent active resistance, a way that does not stoop to the level of the oppressor in its indefatigable pursuit to free the oppressed.

Practicing this way set Israel free from the fears of death and scarcity. In a community of gratuitous sharing that takes care of the poor and marginalized, who fears never having enough? In a community of people who practice love for their enemies, who fears violent reprisals? As if this were not enough, followers of Jesus also had and have the hope of a future resurrection to an eternal life. Not only are these two fears burdensome in and of themselves, and part of the blessing of the Way of Jesus is being freed from them, but they were at the root of much of the injustice and idolatry Israel was guilty of as well as the wars Israel had waged in the past.

For some time, Israel had been stuck in a fearful and vengeful cycle of violence with its Gentile neighbors. While there had been times of peace with its Gentile neighbors this fear was understandable. Uncircumcised Gentiles were currently exploiting Israel and had in the past attempted to completely stamp out Israel as a people permanently. In reaction to this, many in Israel were feverishly defending the borders of their community through violence or a focus on man-made laws that acted as boundary markers that determined who was “Israel” and who was not. These reactions only deepened the cycle as it encouraged ignorance, fear, and hatred of those that were on the wrong side of the boundary markers, even as it gave outsiders reason to hate and fear Israel.

However, by practicing the Way of Jesus, Israel was freed from these fears. Unafraid of death or scarcity, Israel was enabled to take the dramatic step of welcoming those who had once been bitter enemies into the people of God as brothers and sisters without requiring them first to adopt the traditional marks of the people of Israel, most importantly circumcision. This was the key to Israel’s lasting peace.  It was not some final military victory or ensuring everyone around them essentially converted to Judaism by going through the right religious rituals, but escaping the cycle of endless violence by following the Way of Jesus, embracing “The Other,” and adopting the costly ways of peace as they followed their God into a new understanding of Israel. The re-gathered Israel was one that allowed for rich diversity even as it patiently demanded change as is taught new comers who the God of Israel was, how to worship that God, and what that God expected of them.

Practicing the Way of Jesus is part of how Israel was and is a blessing to all nations. Where the people of God treat people as Jesus treated them and live as Jesus did, this produces tangible benefits for the community itself and everyone around it. Such a compelling and powerful community draws many into the story of God, to Messiah Jesus, and ultimately into the people of God. This in turn allowed Israel to see the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise that all nations would come to worship the God of Israel, a promise that continues to unfold.

From all of this I would suggest non-violence is not an optional or debatable matter for those who follow Jesus Christ for three basic reasons.

First, the Way of Jesus, what Jesus modeled and what Jesus taught, is fundamentally a way of sacrifice that gives up one’s life for the sake of others, including and especially one’s enemies. This Way is not an ideal that floats above in the Heavens somewhere, but is something that should pervade our politics, our relationships, our economics, our environmental practices, our buying and selling of goods, and obviously how we resolve conflicts with one another. It is not a way of violence that takes the lives of others for the sake of security, personal or corporate profit, xenophobia, revenge, nationalism or any sort of ideology or idolatry.

Second, the Way of Jesus was part of the way that Jesus, as the Messiah of Israel, fulfilled the promises made to Israel.  If followers of Jesus abandon this Way, they reject Jesus as the Messiah, they stop enjoying the blessings the Way of Jesus brings and they cease being a blessing to others as they should. In other words, they stop being the community that should perpetually fulfill the unique hopes and promises fundamental to their faith.

Third, the two fundamental reasons wars are fought are the fear of scarcity and the fear of death. Followers of Jesus are free from these fears, so what cause do they have to participate in wars? If they abandon the Way of Jesus and participate in wars, they return to the cycle of xenophobic violence Israel escaped from. They voluntarily enslave themselves all over again to fears they have been and should be free from, costing them and everyone around them dearly in the process.

Military service involves participating in a system of violence.  I say this for two reasons.  First, there is the obvious issue that the military is perpetually preparing for waging war. Second, in support of this aim the military accepts and encourages a level of acceptable violence and aggression.  Evidence of this can be seen in how abuse is intentionally and explicitly used in training to prepare people for the horrors of war and Therefore it represents participating in something that is categorically incompatible with following Jesus.  People must choose which they will serve.  The Messiah, or the military. On this issue there is no middle path.