Value

This is what I think about when I stare at a white wall for several hours.


Randomly, my mind turned to a topic that we discussed in history of civ last year: the Force Publique in the Congo. These were all white, Belgian soldiers and mercenaries in a colonial army; inevitably, they used nasty methods to ensure that the peace was maintained. The most appalling aspect of this, I thought, was the "right hand policy." To ensure that money was not wasted on ammunition, soldiers of the Force Publique were required to provide a right hand for every bullet fired.

I'm sure you can see where this went.

Anyway, I started to think how this atrocious concept could be applied to viewing today's new concepts of international occupation and ethnocentrism. Piecing together what I'd come up with about our occupying forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, I came up with this simple logic, which justifies our presence there:

We are Americans. We become angry and sad when other people kill Americans, and rightfully so (I'm talking about 9/11). This has led us to kill others in their countries, so that they may not kill Americans in America.

Such is the motivation for the War on Terror. I have been a supporter of this war since it began, but not anymore. I'm sure you're wondering how the right hand policy of the Force Publique fits into this, and I'm getting there. Right now--

The underlying sociological premise upon which the right hand policy was built was this: the Congolese are not equal in value as Belgian colonists. Looking back, can't we see that this is remarkably far from the truth? I've never met a person from the Congo, but I'm sure that I would find the value of that person equal to someone from Belgium, and my government would probably agree. So, if that is true, then how does the War on Terror follow?

How does trading ten Iraqi lives for mine follow?

As Christians, this should be even more obvious to us, but it seems that this is not the case. In fact, we were, as the American church on the whole, more susceptible to vengeful ideas and vigilante politics; a crowd of hurt lovers, wishing to take the hurt back to those who sought to kill us in the form of an again-romanticized crusade. It is now appearing to me that swords do not mend wounds, they only cause more.

There must be another way. Indeed, we should be more inclined to lay our lives down for our enemies than wish their destruction! In Jesus' name, we must seek peace-- this would be His glory.