[TruthTalk] God and war

[Terry Clifton]

Looking back on my life as an American citizen, I can remember world war two, the Korean "conflict, the Viet Nam thing, Desert Storm, Panama, Haiti, Bosnia, the Taliban, and now back to Iraq.  Very few of my sixty-nine years have been spent when we were not at war with someone.  WW two I can understand.  We were attacked.  It was self defense.  The others seem to have been fought because it was in our "national interest".   If I sound like a dove, I am not.  I took my turn during the "conflict". Neither am I a hawk.  I do not like to see old men send young men off to die, national interest or not.    My grand son is in the army, just volunteered to go to Kuwait.  To him it is a great adventure.  Got me to wondering; how Christian is it to participate in a war where you are the agressor?  The Bible is chock full of wars in the Old Testament, but Christ never taught that to His followers.  It was "Go the extra mile, give the shirt off your back, and turn the other cheek. Don't go for all you can get here.  Lay up treasures in Heaven. The things of the world are just stuff, and stuff rots and rusts, and goes out of style."   I don't want to appear unpatriotic, but It is far more important to me to please my Lord than to please my government, and it appears impossible from my view to please both.   Will someone who has thought this through please give me your findings?   Terry