Pastor s Column: Hard lessons
By Stanley Bohn
Former interim pastor at First Mennonite
(Editor's note: This column is reprinted from Dec. 9, 2004.)
The Prodigal Son in Luke's parable wouldn't learn from his family's teaching or example. So, he learned from a disastrous failure that he was part of a family that should care about each other.
Addicts, after destroying career and family, gaining a prison record and ruining reputations, sometimes learn to take a different path. But before an addict reaches the catastrophe stage, he and his family may try to deny the problem and avoid shame by covering up addictive behaviors. Addicts have referred to this as having an elephant in the room that everyone avoids talking about even though it is obvious the elephant has taken over.
I believe we reached the "elephant in the room" stage with the war in Iraq. We can't admit we're wasting heroic young patriots in a senseless immoral war that makes terrorism worse than it was. Questioning the war seems unsupportive of our courageous children, many of whom are sacrificing their lives, and would show weakening of resolve. Like the prodigal son, we may have to crash before we are forced to admit our critics were right: war damages us and doesn't eliminate terrorism.
This is not "talking politics." This is a moral issue like abortion that affects politics. The Vatican sent a special representative to Washington D.C. to beg us not to invade Iraq. They told us that what we intended was too immoral to be a just war. U.S. church leaders pleaded with the administration to take alternatives to killing thousands in a country-destroying war.
Remember when U.S. Christians could not understand how Christians in Germany, including Mennonites, could morally support Hitler's attempt to dominate the world? Now German Christians can't understand how U.S. Christians can morally support what we are doing in Iraq and trying to dominate the world.
It often takes an outsider to help an addict face reality. So, it may take other countries that refuse to go along with wasting our children's lives to help us.
Long ago, some outsiders, the Wisemen, decided not to be drawn into Herod's child-killing plans. They avoided him and went home another way. Some U.S. soldiers with troubled consciences have taken that option to Canada.
I believe it would help if in our churches, legion halls, classrooms, and homes, we started admitting that there is an elephant in the room that is trampling our children. We can search for a way to avoid Herod
One incentive for going another way is that, like the prodigal, we are given a chance to pick up the pieces and start over.
