If the call to military might from the religious right is incongruous with the Christian message then the call to justice around the world from the religious left rings hollow. How easy it is to call for justice from a position of comfort. American churches will not have power to confront the world's justice problems until they call their own people to personal sacrifice. American churches will begin to have true authority around the world when they are willing to have less for themselves. Wealthy people may contribute, but they cannot wield true spiritual authority to those who are starving.

From the right there is the problem of arrogance. From the left there is the problem of smugness. But neither side is willing to confront the problem of plenty because it would cost too much of its constituents and threaten too severely the status quo of the religious establishment. It's too easy to preach justice issues for others while ignoring the greatest justice issue of all: that we are unwilling to help others until our own needs and wants are fully met. The world does not and should not listen to us until we are willing to give up our right to plenty.

The Allied victory in WWII rid the world of Hitler's threat. I suspect also that it helped provide fodder for today's apparent mindset that military force is the answer to all evil. We live in a very militaristic society, witness the tank or airplane along the roadside in front of the National Guard armory, or the thrilling display of power as the Air Force Thunderbirds fly overhead, or the oohs and aahs of the crowd when the roar of a B-52 flyover stuns the senses. Do Christians ever stop to think that these are killing machines? Do we really think that God thrills at the display of our military might?

I suspect that pre-WWII Americans would be surprised at present-day American willingness and even eagerness to rely on military power. Americans were drug kicking and screaming into WWII but today seem all too ready to fly the flag with military might wherever in our world threats to our existence seem to emerge.

I am not a pacifist in the strict sense of the word. I do believe, however, that American Christians have been all too willing to accept militarism as a way of life and as the means to be protected from all evil. Someone once said that even as the cross was God's supreme revelation so war is the supreme revelation of human evil. When entered it should be with great sorrow and humility. Christians for too long have gloried, not in the cross, but in American military might.