The obscenity of power and wealth; the blessings of servitude

At age 18, I enlisted in the United States Army. I had no pacifism in my background, except that my mother was a gentle, warm and loving human being. The United States had completed an astounding military feat. U.S. armed forces had won World War II.

My older brother had served on a PT boat in the South Pacific. Our family, church and community honored him. I enlisted in the Army without moral qualms. I was proud to serve my country.

After enlistment, I was sent to Fort McClelland in Alabama for basic training. I was issued a variety of equipment. I was issued an M-1 rifle. It was the first time I had ever touched a weapon that was manufactured specifically to kill people. I was told it was my special friend. The Korean War was looming on the horizon.

At Fort McClelland I was trained to be an infantry rifleman. I was also trained on the carbine and machine guns. I learned the intricacies of throwing hand grenades. All of our targets were in the form of a human body. It was there at Fort McClellan that I realized that I was being trained to be a killer of other human beings. At the end of basic training, I received my orders. I was assigned to the Sixth Infantry Division in South Korea as an infantry rifleman.

In Korea we off-loaded at the Inchon Replacement Depot. While waiting for specific assignment, I was called in by surprise. When I was in high school, I had taken a year of typing. In Korea because I could type, I was pulled from my infantryman assignment and was assigned to the Signal Company of the Sixth Division. I became a valued and appreciated office worker. In my military career, I never again touched a weapon of any kind.

I was devout in my Christian Faith. These events in the 18th year of my life, left me with a lot of years of pondering. Could I call Jesus “Lord,” and participate in any exercise of violence? In order to face this question, I spent a lot of time talking to my friend Jesus. He had no record of violence. He taught his followers to love their enemies. Can a person love their enemies and still shoot and bomb them? Jesus taught that we are to “go the second mile, “to “turn the other cheek” “to do good to those who wrongly use you.”

In our deepest roots, Christianity is a religion of violence and killing. Our deepest roots are with Israelites and their history. The Israelites fled Egyptian slavery under the leadership of Moses. They somehow believed that an unorganized Palestine belonged to them as a gift from their God. They became a warrior tribe and then a significant area nation. They killed everyone who refused to submit to their rule. The power of the nation reached it pinnacle under the rule of King David. David was a ruthless killer. He made Jerusalem his capitol. He and his son, Solomon, built a beautiful capitol city including a magnificent temple for their Tribal God. They built a kingdom with killing, cruelty and slavery.

After Solomon, the kingdom fell apart. Eventually, the tribes of Israel were conquered and the city, including the temple, was destroyed. A small remnant of Israelites found themselves in Babylon as a slave people. They had time to think about what had happened.

THEIR COLLECTIVE THINKING CONCLUDED THAT THEY HAD MISUNDERSTOOD THEIR GOD. Their God did not in fact intend them to be a great nation through military might and killing. However, the intent of God was for them to become a great nation through servitude. II Isaiah with its sublime “servant” passages sets out the new plan for greatness. II Isaiah was written by powerless slaves in a land that was foreign to them. This small group of slaves refused to assimilate into the general Babylon population. Eventually they were allowed to return to their Palestinian homeland.

The next 500 years of Israelite history is a mixed bag of attempts of Israelites trying to figure out their role in the greatness of their God’s calling.

Jesus lived in an era and area of enormous Israelite poverty. This time it was under the heel of Roman military and economic power. The Israelites who prospered were the few, not the many. Those who prospered were those who cooperated with the Roman rulers. Their idea of greatness fell back into the King David mode where greatness was defined by wealth and power. Disaster loomed for the masses of Israelite people.

In this situation, Jesus came with a message that was not new with him. It was the “servant” message that he drew from that small group of slaves in Babylon almost 600 years earlier. The heart of that message was simple. IF ANY AMONG YOU WOULD BE GREAT, LET HIM BE THE SERVANT OF ALL.

There are some Christians who faithfully pursue the ideal of servitude. The vast majority are still looking to the Kind David model for greatness.

St. Francis became my life model since I first learned his story.

Military power and wealth are obscene and evil. They kill and destroy. Servitude builds and blesses. Christians need to speak up.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer, Alaska. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.