A Call to Courageous and Concrete Action
“They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:4)
“We must speak with moral clarity: the continued decision to resort to war is a failure of human responsibility before God… From our Palestinian Christian context, we affirm without hesitation: life, not death, is God’s choice for humanity.” Bishop Dr. Imad Haddad, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (read his entire letter here.)
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Beloved in Christ,
I’m writing from just outside of Chicago, where I have gathered with the other 65 bishops of the ELCA, including our Presiding Bishop Yehiel Curry, for a week of prayerful discernment and decision-making in our work as the ELCA Conference of Bishops together.
Over the past week, following the U.S./Israeli attack on Iran and Iran’s retaliation throughout the Middle East, many of us have watched with a mixture of horror and weariness at what feels on the one hand like yet another chapter in an endless story of war, and on the other like a threshold crossed to a new, frightening reality—the outcome, timeline, and scope of which are completely unknown.
My family and I anxiously scan the news each day and night to learn where missiles and shrapnel have landed, relieved when the names of affected villages and neighborhoods do not include the places where our family and friends live, and yet devastated to hear of loss of life everywhere: more than 100 children dead and buried in the rubble of a girls’ school in Minab, Iran; nine killed in Beit Shemesh, a suburb of Jerusalem; rising reports of casualties at U.S. military bases and embassy buildings; and in the West Bank, under cover of war, Palestinian farmers killed by emboldened Israeli settlers, with no accountability in sight.
Having lived and served in Jerusalem, I know something of how endless occupation and war have affected the real lives of real people I know in Palestine and Israel. I know very little about Iran, besides what any of us can access via media sources; but I do know that this war is affecting not just numbers, or a faceless “enemy,” but the real lives of real people with names, families, stories, and the same right to live as you or I. The burden of war always falls disproportionately on the most vulnerable: on the very young and the very old, on those too ill or poor or powerless to leave, who are snatched by the jaws of violence and the hunger and disease that follow. And, despite the puffed-up rhetoric of war—the assurances that this violence, this time, will bring peace and prosperity—the truth is that violence begets violence. It is impossible to bomb our way to peace.
My friend and colleague Bishop Imad Haddad, of our partner Lutheran church in the Holy Land, writes powerfully of this reality with Gospel conviction:
“We must speak with moral clarity: the continued decision to resort to war is a failure of human responsibility before God. Each new escalation tightens the grip of dread, deepens the lived reality of siege, and further constricts the space in which human dignity can breathe. Political calculations and security arguments must never be allowed to eclipse the sacred worth of human life. From our Palestinian Christian context, we affirm without hesitation: life, not death, is God’s choice for humanity.”
The children of our world, who will inherit the devastating and long-lasting consequences of this war, deserve better than this. The people of Iran, many of whom longed for freedom under an oppressive government, deserve more than to become scapegoats or mascots to justify a military onslaught carried out with little apparent plan or concern for what happens to them afterwards. The U.S. servicemembers who risk their lives to protect and defend their nation, including members of our congregations and military chaplains of our church, deserve more than to have this sacrifice squandered.
As followers of Jesus, what is our response? I am alarmed to hear developing news reports that allege some U.S. military commanders have framed the U.S. attacks on Iran as “all part of God’s divine plan,” connected these actions to biblical accounts of Armageddon, and suggested that President Trump was “anointed by Jesus” to bring about Jesus’ return. The idea that the U.S. is the agent of God, that this war is a holy war, is a clear example of Christian nationalism: a dangerous form of idolatry that pretends to uplift Christianity and encourage pride in citizenship, but actually redirects our faith and allegiance from the God of Jesus Christ to the nation itself, and to particular political leaders. Our Lutheran tradition calls us to speak the truth and to call a thing what it is: this is sin.
In an urgent plea from the battered Holy Land, Bishop Haddad calls us to the way of Jesus:
“Yet from this land we call holy, wounded yet steadfast, we refuse the temptation of despair. With the prophet Isaiah, we raise our voice with renewed urgency: “They shall learn war no more.” We remain committed to preaching the Gospel of reconciliation entrusted to us, the good news that through Christ, God reconciles humanity to Godself and calls us to the hard and holy work of reconciliation with one another. Dear partners, we urge you: pray, and pray fervently. But do not let prayer become a substitute for responsibility. Let your prayers be joined with courageous and concrete action. Stand publicly with those who are afflicted. Advocate persistently for a just peace that safeguards the dignity and security of all people. Challenge policy makers whose narratives make endless war appear inevitable.
In this Lenten season, remembering Jesus who refused violence and vengeance and who suffered, died, and rose to break cycles of endless retribution, may God grant us the courage, in truth and in steadfastness, to answer this call in the ways we can, in the places we are.
In Christ,
Bishop Meghan Johnston Aelabouni
Resources:
Letter from Bishop Imad Haddad of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land