A Word about War part III

I surf YouTube a lot. I really enjoy seeing some of my favorite authors, speakers, musicians, etc. I could essentially spend hours on that website. Yesterday I had some time to watch a clip and wanted to see if there were any new clips featuring Tony Campolo. I plugged in the name in the search engine and one of the first clips that came up was John McArthur. I should have known better but my curiosity was peeked.

John McArthur has classically been known for his outrageous statements, but I found it most interesting when he criticized Tony Campolo for making the statement that, "…Jesus central message was the kingdom of God and bringing that 'to earth as in heaven'". McArthur said that the problem with people like Campolo, Mclaren, etc is that they are classic liberals who seek to make the Gospel social when in reality it is, "…about rescuing people from a literal hell and getting people to heaven."

I sat there and wondered if Jesus would have said the same thing. Please understand that I don't hate McArthur or think that anything he said was new. I have heard this same message preached from many pulpits. I find it interesting that God is not concerned with poverty or social justice when God's economy is set up in such a way that the "Meek shall inherit the earth". I fear that this attitude leads to countless believers thinking that Christ message was divorced from context in socio-economic meaning. In this way, Christ message has been minimalized into an individualistic compartmentalized consumeristic acceptance. The call and conviction of the believer has nothing to do with caring for the poor in their economic status, but only for their soul and getting them to heaven. St. James is very clear and explicit on this issue.

I was a little disturbed this morning when I turned on my computer to find Senator John McCain plastered on AOL News saying that we should keep sending cigarettes to Iran because that is a way of killing them off. That was not what disturbed me because it is classic McCain. AOL News typically has a survey that they ask you regarding the news headline. The Question was "Do you think that John McCain's joke was inappropriate?" 53% of people said no and 63% said they trust him on foreign policy.

My heart aches as I hear that people are so filled with hate that to joke about killing ones' neighbors isn't marked as inappropriate. The idea that the Gospel has nothing to say about this type of behavior is ludicrous. If the Gospel is truly the good news, I am not sure that this good news would be good to those who suffer and are only told that God cares for your soul and not your stomach. I am also not sure that the Gospel would be good news if those who are to enact Christ are crying out for vengeance and war.