The kitchen is clean! Woo-hoo!

As I was cleaning, I was listening to CNN and pondering this whole war mess. I was also pondering the "just war" question. It no doubt seems heartless to reject the "galiant US forces" going in to "liberate" Iraq. I really don't question their motives, or the motives of the Christians that support war. However, I'm reminded of something from Screwtape Letters. If you have not yet read Screwtape, stop reading this, read it, then come back and finish reading this.

[Since I know you won't do that, I'll summarize: Screwtape is a fictional book by a guy names C.S. Lewis. Lewis takes on the person of a senior devil (Screwtape) writing instructions to his nephew (Slubgob) who has been assigned as a temptor to a human in late thirties England. Slubgob's goal is to corrupt the human to the point that he goes to hell, and Screwtape's goal is to eat Slubgob. So, the rights are wrong, and the wrongs are right. I doubt I would be a Christian if not for this book.]

Screwtape said something to the effect of "We must always encourage them to push all the virtues outward, and to keep all the malice, envy, and hate close to home. So, they can have the greatest compassion for the poor Nazi GI -- 1000 miles away -- but must be mean and hateful to their neighbor." Earlier today, I heard on the news how peace protesters had essentially started a minor riot in San Francisco, and I think that this illustrates the point: peace, love, and freedom for Iraq, but for my neighbors? Malice and destruction. It seems that, for at least some of the protesters, the goodness of the "big goal" justifies abandoning the principle at home. This is just one point of the larger inconsistency of the pacifist movement: most of the same people who are pacifists are quick enough to use the courts when they feel they are wronged -- yet the authority of the courts ultimately boils down to "do this or you'll go to jail. Go to jail, or we'll grab you. Cooperate when we grab you or we'll kill you." I'm not sure that there's a clear moral difference between that kind of force, writ small, and the force the US is using, which is just writ large. Funny how nobody protests that.

(This kind of hypocrisy abounds. As a Southerner, I have observed that many Northerners are just as much -- if not more -- racist than many southerners. However, it was at least in part pressure from the north that brought down segregation. They wanted justice in the south, but perhaps did not particularly want it at their local high school. Yes, they got it anyway... but the point is that social justic sounds like a much better idea when it's someone else's society.)

Anyway, I guess what I'm arriving too is that justice is not a terribly good standard for Christians. Or, as my mother used to say, "Most people should be glad that they don't get what they deserve." Justice is a two-edged sword -- "you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things" (Romans 2.1) -- it will cut us just as quickly as it will cut those we oppose. What we need is a better standard. Such a better standard is what Christianity -- whether the metaphor is liberation, resurrection, grace, love, submission or even peace -- is all about. The standard of Christianity is one that allowed an innocent man to be condemned to a horrible death that he did not deserve. It's about justice deferred into the hands of God and love drawn close into our hearts, knowing that we can trust God to take care of justice. (And if you don't like that, take it up with God.)