God's Wrath in War

Sorry to have all these postings on war...don't mean to be so somber, but wow, this is just crazy stuff that really just draws out the difficulty we face as people trying to do right in this world. This is from that military chaplain who I quote in the previous post.

SOF: The Soul of War: "Let's talk about love your enemies. That's sorely tested in combat. I think, in a very chilling way, I came to the abyss of hate in Fallujah. The body parts of four Americans, charred and hanging off a bridge over the Euphrates, brought me to a point where I could truly sense myself going down a vortex of hate, that in a city people were harbored who were that debased. So at that point I felt that I was crossing a line to say, 'Yes, these people's time on the planet is over, they need to leave. There's no second chance, there's no other form of justice. They have forfeited all rights to humanness.' That was a chilling, chilling moment for me, because I knew I was entering a new territory. And once you cross this line, there's no coming back. When do I become like them? I found myself fueled with a sense of hatred that I could easily have said, you know, 'Hey, I'm God's wrath. We are God's wrath. This needs to be taken care of.' The only thing that pulled me back from that was the power of the Holy Spirit, all the Christian disciplines, and my sense of understanding that, wait a minute, as much as I abhor everything that's done, and as much as I believe what was done was evil and that, if these people don't come out and surrender, there's only one alternative, that is to go in and kill them or apprehend them, I knew I could not cross that line and say, "OK, God's on my side, and here we go."

No, this is chaos, this is human fallenness to the max, and we're using the most brutal tool of human society, the military, to solve a very, very terrible problem. And this isn't God here, this is fallen human beings. So God help me and have mercy on me. I'm a part of something like this, and I prayed that it wouldn't be, but here we are. Save me from becoming a debased, immoral human being. And save my soldiers as well."