Armed Intervention and “Peacekeeping” are not Peacemaking

More peacekeepers are dead in Darfur (click here for BBC report) where there is, sadly, no peace to be kept. There was a well argued case against foreign troops being sent to Darfur a few weeks ago on the BBC.

Why are our over heated politicians and media pundits crying for intervention in Darfur? Or, indeed, action against Mugabe, Burmese generals or other nasty governments? And why do we pretend we can bring peace to places like Afghanistan by parking soldiers there?

There is precious little that can be done when there is war – particularly civil war – by putting another army between the combatants. Iraq has shown the mess that follows regime change imposed by invasion.

Some people claim that the interventions in the dismembered Yugoslavia are a fine example of what intervention can do. Here is an article in London Review which might change minds. All we have done is crystallise many resentments. It does not take inspiration to prophesy that there is more grief to come in the Balkans.

When Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers” he was not thinking of men with guns or governments making economic sanctions and political gestures. Peacemaking is about making contact, giving respect and negotiating. And when peacemaking fails we have to admit that some problems may not have solutions.

Ease up on the bioethical propaganda please

I have been receiving emails and posted material urging me to mobilise the Lighthouse congregation to join in a concerted effort to stop the latest embryo and fertilisation legislation.

These have been coming from various evangelical groupings who are making common cause with the Roman Catholics and Anglicans who have been grabbing the headlines on this issue.

No hyperbole seems to be too great for my brethren on this matter. The future of mankind is apparently at stake and I will be guilty if I do not raise my voice in protest.

The proposed technology will attempt to place a nucleus or the chromosomes of an adult person into the the embryonic or egg cell of another mammal species in the hope that “stem cells” can be manufactured.

If the cell can be persuaded to grow and divide it is hoped that the successor cells will become predominantly human stem cells suitable for replanting into the original donor of the genetic tissue.

These cells have great healing potential since they can replace crucial cells in organs like the brain, spinal cord, liver etc. which have been destroyed by illness or trauma.

I personally find this proposal a great improvement on using human embryos for this kind of work and I am irritated by the inevitable invocation of Frankenstein and Dr. Moreau’s Island.

I had no such avalanche of junk mail in the long run up to the Iraq war – indeed many of us seemed to see that adventure as a way of “liberating” the Iraqi Christians. I fear the “sanctity of human life” concept has some very strange applications.

I have a post on human nature on the Theology Review which deals with some of the faulty assumptions behind this propaganda.

The Modern Leper

Important people watch their watches;

Important people dress to impress;

Important people are serious but not sad.

So I’ll look important,

While I smoke,

In the rain.

The danger of living too long

There is a helpful article on Martin Luther’s rather poisonous anti-semitism in “The Theologian” (Click Here),

To people – like me – who see him as a hero this is a big embarrassment. It is even more embarrassing than his strident and unchristian language in relation to the Anabaptists (to whom we owe so much).

ML definitely got a lot more ratty as he got older. I note that John Wesley lived long enough to embed his perfectionism and Arminianism deep into the Evangelical Movement. I sometimes wonder if they both lived a couple of decades too long.

I can detect the same tendencies in myself. Will someone say the same about me I wonder?

What is so good about a career?

In the modern world a man or woman with a career is a somebody.  It is the same in modern churches.  Some of the Pentecostals are up front about this – they will tell you 2007 can be the year of your spiritual victory and this will be proved NOT by being found worthy to suffer shame for Christ (Acts 5:41) but by being found worthy to be honoured by promotion.

In other churches career idolatry may be more subtle but is still there.  Who really believes this saying:

You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God. [Luke 16:15]

 There is a fascinating article in the London Review of Books on the legacy of Hannah Arendt  which is packed with interesting observations and points out how careerism inspired Adolf Eichmann and so many other energetic servants of evil.  Whenever a career is seen as good in itself then the careerist becomes a danger to himself and other people.  He ceases to walk with God and walks in the light of his own good image.  He is pursuing promotion instead of virtue.

Please note, I am not saying that the mark of a faithful disciple is a failed career!  Self-control and conscientiousness are a sign of spiritual fruit and a repentant believer may be a model employee.  In some organisations these are highly prized qualities which are rewarded with higher status and pay.  But the character is what matters and not the recognition.

May the good Lord save us from the career bureaucrats, the career politicians and, above all, the career Pastors.