(seen at A View From The Sacristy)

The world’s coffee houses and dinner tables are buzzing with debate these days. The Church’s parish halls around the world are filled with talk of war, and America’s place in the global theatre.
Some are saying that the United Nations has given Saddam twelve years to make his wrongs right. The U.N. failed to stand behind its decisions and now a coalition of the willing must take action…all other means have failed. They say the United States has a moral obligation to remove the barbarous man and his government.
Others are saying that we cannot morally act outside the United Nations. The coalition of the willing acting alone, and making a pre-emptive strike, is a dangerous and immoral precedent. They ask, what will Stop India or North Korea from launching pre-emptive strikes of their own? What will stop the United States from making pre-emptive strikes elsewhere?
Some remember the horrors of World War II. They remember the Appeasement offered to Germany by Great Britain and France…they remember what Hitler did in light of their attempts to appease a war monger.
In my own seminary education, the global theatre and its interactions have been fertile soil for thinking theologically about what is morally righteous. I am studying all sorts of Christian theologies…some that oppose any violent act and others that say violence is some times necessary as a last resort. They are fascinating theologies and one could certainly spend a lifetime pondering the theology of war and nonviolence.
As I have been thinking a lot about those theories lately I stopped Wednesday morning as I do every morning and said the office of Morning Prayer. Something happened to me during my prayers. My soul was moved in a strange and dangerous way…. I was ripped from my place of contemplation. I was carried many places and shown the grim truth of war.
I saw death and suffering; both here and across the ocean. The grim truth of war is that people die and others are left behind to suffer pain and mourning alone. Couples are tragically separated…widows left to walk through the ruble alone. Children are orphaned, left to rely solely on the charity and compassion of those around them. The effects of the war will certainly touch our shores in that manner. How much more will it touch the lives of those for whom this battle ground is not a thousand miles away…how sad and painful it must be to have the battleground be your home.
Pain and suffering should not be left to face alone…in isolation. How much worse will a widow or orphans suffering be if they can find no comfort or solace from others? How can we as Church, allow them to suffer in isolation? That goes against the very Christ we claim as Lord and Savior.
No matter which side of the political spectrum we fall, it is a grave sin to distance ourselves from this reality. Every single person that dies or suffers at the hands of war is the Church’s responsibility. The Church in America cannot pretend that it is isolated from the evil reality of violence and death. When someone on a distant shore dies…a part of ourselves die with them.