Move Over Robertson, God May Have a New Co-Pilot

Dr. Marsh has impeccable Southern religious credentials: born in Mobile, Alabama, growing up in a minister?s family in Alabama and Mississippi, attending Gordon College and Harvard Divinity School, and obtaining a doctorate from the University of Virginia. He was a member of the Theology Department at Loyola College in Maryland, served as theologian-in-residence at the Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation in Baltimore, and is now in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where he lives with his wife and three children. He is also author of a number of highly regarded books on religion in today?s society, such as ?God?s Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights,? and ?The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice from the Civil Rights Movement to Today.?

In other words, Dr. Marsh brings us a believable, informed voice on religious matters that speaks with authority and should be listened to when he says he is surprised by how little attention the evangelical ministers have paid to actual Christian moral doctrine when they rallied their congregations to support the invasion of Iraq. He found that the main argument of ministers like Jerry Falwell was that the invasion offered a wonderful opportunity to send missionaries to the Mid-East to proselytize all those Muslims over there, and that, anyway, President Bush was a ?brother in Christ,? one of their own, so that alone proved it was God?s will for ?our nation to be at war against Iraq,? and we should ?gloriously comply.?

Yet, according to Marsh?s analysis, this enthusiasm for war is based on torturous and faulty reasoning out of Christian doctrine. For example, attempts to justify the war as a morally ?just war? failed since even a just war should be undertaken only as a last resort, and many ministers ended up dismissing the ?just war? theory as irrelevant today. Nor could these ministers fit Saddam Hussein successfully into wicked King Nebuchadnezzar?s throne with pithy catch phrases. Compare the ultimate reliance of most evangelicals on totally trusting Bush?s judgment and the terms of the evangelical Lausanne Covenant convened by Billy Graham and Jon Stott, among others. In 1974 they clearly separated the world-wide community of the Church of Jesus Christ from any particular ?culture, social or political system, or human ideology...? In other words: separate Church and State, render unto Caesar what is worldly, and render unto God one?s faith. The thrust of the document was that Christians should hunger for righteousness, pursue peace, forbear revenge, and love enemies.

As for me, I find almost nothing in the Covenant that I find in the evangelicals? self-righteous thirst for war and revenge. Nor, anything in George W. Bush?s many statements and exhortations. Brrr, this gives me chills: No wonder, I say, that Bush initially referred to his war as a ?Crusade,? and no wonder the Muslims including Osama bin Laden pounced on that choice of words. This is how we all became ?Crusaders,? and the vaunted War on Terror has turned into an intractable war of civilizations, a war whose many original economic and cultural roots are now almost obscured by the viciousness of the religious themes. No wonder Bush repeatedly says ?trust me,? and constantly harps on being The Great Protector, as if he were a combination of John Wayne and an Old Testament prophet. Bush is actually playing right into Osama?s hands, as if acting a part in Osama?s script. The war wasn?t about oil. It was for revenge and proselyting.

In Dr. Marsh?s view far too many of the evangelicals have sadly gone astray, ?wayward Christian soldiers? indeed. We can only hope that thoughtful evangelicals, truly concerned with their faith, are listening.

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