New Testament teachings revolve around empathy, vulnerability

The Rev. Josh Longbottom, associate pastor, Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vt.:

The sayings of Jesus are overwhelmingly in support of empathy and vulnerability. They leave no room for a God in sympathy with war. Consider “love your enemies,” “turn the other cheek” and the warning “for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.”

Jesus himself personified the path of the suffering servant, someone who shows the way through vulnerability. In the end Jesus went to his death willingly rather than take up arms in defense of his righteousness.

What kind of God would want war?

Not the God of Jesus.

The God of compassion, mercy and grace, the God who sent Jesus that we may all have life abundantly, that God certainly must be heartbroken by war.

There are many different images of God in the Scriptures, and part of the process of developing Christian maturity is to sort out one from another. In the Old Testament it says very simply “thou shalt not kill,” but it also tells the story of a God-sanctioned-conquest by Israel.

What do you think about that?

I believe that the true God is not evenly revealed throughout the Scriptures and that ultimately one has to make careful choices about who the God is that they are going to put their trust in.

Christianity has always been about believing that who Jesus is reveals the heart of who God is. If you believe that, then it’s pretty hard and maybe even impossible to imagine that such a God would be for any war.

Jesus never said that a prohibition against killing would be practical. He just said love your enemies, and then he did.

– Send e-mail to Josh Longbottom at joshlongbottom@sunflower.com.

Waging war is in our nature; pursuing peace comes from religion

Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel, Chabad Jewish Center, 1203 W. 19th St.:

Many times the question is asked, “Wouldn’t the world be better off if it weren’t for religion? Religion is, after all, the cause of all wars, and one can believe that we would be closer to world peace without it.”

In truth, however, rejecting religion because you believe in world peace is like refusing to enter a Japanese restaurant because you like sushi. It just doesn’t make sense.

War comes naturally to people. It existed long before any religion. Peace did not. Peace is not natural to the human condition. It had to be taught and learned. And it was a religious idea.

The first and most powerful vision of world peace was presented to mankind by the prophets of ancient Israel. They predicted a time when “one nation will not lift a sword against another nation, and they will no longer learn to wage war.” In a world that saw war as an inevitable fact of life, religion introduced a radical new concept: War is ultimately undesirable, and peace is the ideal state for which to strive.

Without religion, we would find other things to fight about, like parking spots and noise from the neighbors. But without religion, world peace would not have entered the human vocabulary. Whether you are aware of it or not, your dream of world peace is biblically inspired. Ideals do not live in bubbles. Like people, they need parents to give birth to them and a home environment to sustain them. Peace without religion is homeless. It was our ancient prophets that gave birth to the vision of world peace and still provides a framework to implement that vision.

True, religion has been used by some as a pretext for war. But this does not invalidate all religion, just as when football players brawl it does not invalidate the game of football. Ridding the world of all religion would not end war any more than abolishing football would brawls. In fact, religion still provides the strongest argument for peace between people: We were all created by the same God. Without this belief, is there anything that really unites us all?

– Zalman Tiechtel can be reached at rabbi@jewishku.com