The church cannot bless war
A Christianity that affirms the state’s wars is not Christianity. It is idolatry.
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In the early morning of June 22, American bombers bombed Iranian targets, and just like that, war has come that many warned would. How long will it take before the church responds?
As with all war, we turn to prayer, and yet, too often, that prayer is quiet enough to be mistaken for approval. The church is not the chaplaincy of empire. The church is the body of Christ. The church does not serve the interests of statecraft. The church serves the kingdom of God. And as such, we do not respond to war with worry or with patriotism. We respond theologically, with clarity, compassion, and a call to speak the truth about violence and our participation in it.
The Theological Declaration of Barmen, written in 1934 to protest the Nazi-influenced German Christian movement, begins this way: “Jesus Christ, as He is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death.” The Word has not changed. It confronts every power that seeks to take the church’s allegiance from Christ, even powers that come wrapped in a flag and quoting familiar scripture.
