Backward Christian soldier: An open letter to the Christian General

[The Blue Flower]

From Sojourners.org online magazine:
by Jim Wallis

Dear Lt. General Boykin, 

You've gotten a lot of press this week, General. Perhaps you
didn't expect the things you've been saying in churches to go
public - about America's "Christian army," the holy
war we're waging against the "idol" of Islam's false
God, and the "spiritual battle" we're fighting
against "a guy named Satan" who "wants to
destroy us as a nation, and he wants to destroy us as a
Christian army." You call yourself a "warrior for
the kingdom of God," but most of your service has been
with the Special Forces and the CIA. You say, "We in the
army of God, in the house of God, in the kingdom of God, have
been raised for such a time as this." You apparently have
no doubt that "America is still a Christian nation,"
while other nations "have lost their morals, lost their
values." You think "George Bush was not elected by a
majority of the voters in the United States," but that
"He was appointed by God." You say, "He's in
the White House because God put him there." And maybe you
believe God has put you in the new position to which you were
just appointed as deputy undersecretary of defense for
intelligence. 

Because your views sound like a "Christian jihad" at
a time when the United States government is sensitive to
offending the Muslim world, you have become a controversy. I'm
sure you've been under a lot of pressure since the story of
your religious views broke in the Los Angeles Times. Your
critics say your private religious views are your own
business, but when you speak with your uniform on, you're a
spokesperson for the U.S. military and government. We don't
need to make the Arab world angrier at us than they already
are and it doesn't help when you say things like, "Why do
they hate us? The answer to that is because we are a Christian
nation. We are hated because we are a nation of
believers." Or when you describe the Muslim warlords you
fought in Mogadishu, Somalia, as "the principalities of
darkness" and a "demonic presence in that city that
God revealed to me as the enemy," that "will only be
defeated if we come against them in the name of Jesus." 


General, I think the hymn "Onward Christian
Soldiers" must have been written just for you. I'm sure
your superiors have already given you a lesson in politics and
public relations. And I've heard you have toned down your
opinions and said you didn't mean to offend anyone. Whether
you keep your job is a political question, the outcome of
which we will know soon enough. 

But I want to raise some different issues: biblical theology,
bad teaching, and church discipline. General, your theology
bears no resemblance to biblical teaching. You utterly confuse
the body of Christ with the American nation. The kingdom of
God doesn't endorse the principalities and powers of
nation-states, armies, and the ideologies of empire; but
rather calls them all into question. You even miss the third
verse of "Onward Christian Soldiers," which reminds
us, "Crowns and thrones may perish, Kingdoms rise and
wane, But the Church of Jesus, constant will remain." And
let's not misinterpret the famous first verse, "Onward
Christian soldiers marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus
going on before." The cross, General, not the Special
Forces. 

Brother Boykin, I believe you are a product of bad theology
and church teaching. Why were you never given sound biblical
tools to help you discern the shape of your vocation? Why were
you never taught in Sunday school about the real meaning of
the kingdom of God, and the universality of the body of
Christ? And why have you never heard that only peacemaking,
not war-making, can be done "in the name of Jesus?" 

General, I really don't want to blame you for the lack of
Christian teaching that you have obviously suffered. But there
is a legitimate issue of church discipline here. When a
high-ranking military officer espouses a zealous religious
nationalism that claims the name "Christian" for
both his nation and his army, and when he invokes the name of
Jesus - not to love our enemies as he instructed, but rather
to target them for destruction - the church must discipline
that errant brother and name his public statements for what
they are, not mere political incorrectness, but idolatry.
General, you have substituted your nation and your army for
God, your faith is more American than Christian, the Jesus you
claim is not the Jesus of the New Testament, and his kingdom
will not be ushered in by the U.S. military. 

Whatever happens with your job, I pray that you find a church
that offers you the ministry of repentance, forgiveness, and
restoration to a more authentic biblical faith. 

[xultar]

1. AMEN!

[Wickerman]

2. Praise the Lord

but that is good