There’s no right time in the church year to bomb another country, but it seems particularly horrific to do so in a season of repentance and humility, leading to the days in which we remember the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The US attacks on Iran came during the Christian season of Lent and the Muslim season of Ramadan—”both lengthy periods in which people try to refine their character and bridle their impulses,” writes Lauren Jackson in “Believing,” a New York Times newsletter on faith. “They’re fasting and meditating, reflecting and abstaining, all in pursuit of self-mastery. That’s a stark contrast to what’s happening on the geopolitical stage.”
Most people are in favor of peace, surely, even if they disagree on the way to get there. But for those in the historic peace church tradition—the Church of the Brethren, for example—how we get there does matter. The question isn’t whether we say we’re for peace—that’s easy. It’s sticking with a deeper truth when the strongmen of the world flex their power.
I didn’t learn pacifism in the church of my childhood. I learned it from the Church of the Brethren, which declares unequivocally that all war is sin: Wars that are legal or not, wars launched as a distraction, wars to fulfill a prophecy, wars to save people from a cruel leader, wars to take oil, wars that kill children as collateral damage, wars for peace. All war.
To be honest, there’s been some slippage in this view and not everyone is unequivocal anymore. But the Church of the Brethren still is committed to the hard work of peacemaking and the countercultural idea of pacifism.
There’s another faith tradition that speaks into this moment. The attacks by the US came shortly before the Jewish holiday of Purim, points out Rabbi Jay Michaelson, writing in Religion News Service. He draws parallels between our own political moment and the corrupt King Ahasuerus. “A story set in the sixth-century BC features characters who seem ripped from last week’s headlines.”
The hero of the story is Esther. Amid “all the nihilism of Ahasuerus’ court,” she “risks everything to save innocent lives.” Like her, “we are called to act ethically in a world often governed by the least ethical among us.”
Michaelson concludes: “It is not new to be ruled over by demagogues who incite hatred or tyrants who are swayed by them.” When we despair? “Turn to the scroll of Esther and read—and take inspiration from her example.”
Wendy McFadden is publisher of Brethren Press and executive director of communications for the Church of the Brethren.