One of the many memories I have from my world travels as a Marine center on a Serbian soldier I shared a beer with in an open air bar in Thailand in 1994 during Operation Cobra Gold. We talked a while about our individual duties, where we had been, and the camaraderie that members of all the worlds armed forces seem to share when they aren't scuffling with one another.
He then struck me with a question I could not answer. I have given it much thought since then, and am struggling with the answer more today. He asked me..."You are from America, which is a Christian country, My people are also Christians, so why are your people bombing my people? Aren't we all Christians? They are just Muslims!"
Granted Milosevic is guilty of ethnic cleansing and other atrocities, but given the world events over the last 3 1/2 years, wouldn't most Americans now agree with my Serbian friend (not Milosevic). Were we on the wrong side in Bosnia? I used to think that we were indeed on the right side because it was unjust for one group of people to try to wipe out another just because they are different. I am now thinking that maybe it was the Muslims who "started it" and it was the Christians who had finally gotten the upper hand and were trying to just win their own war, which in a round about way has become the "Global War on Terrorism". Maybe Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld, Congress and about half of the American Public won't admit it, but we are in a holy war. No one will admit it because it is not politically correct, but everyone knows it deep down inside.
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Your initial reaction was the correct one, IMHO. More to the point, it was the Christian one. There is nothing whatsoever about the life of Christ as recorded in the Bible that leads me to believe that He would agree with that Serbian's rhetorical, "They're only Muslims."
I think most anyone who was raised in an American evangelical tradition will remember singing a song in sunday school. I forget the name of the song, but the chorus goes something like this: "they will know we are Christians by our love."
If we forsake what Paul wrote is the greatest gift of the Spirit, can we still look ourselves in the mirror and claim to be Christians?
Don't get me wrong. I'm not arguing pacifism. There's a huge gulf between pacifism and the religious bigotry articulated by your Serbian friend.
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