Addicted to War

I read an interesting article over at commondreams.org today called Addicted to War: An Insider Examines the Seductive Myths of Militarism.

It broadly discusses America's current militaristic focus in regards to foreign policy but as a by-product it discusses the role of the evangelical christian community in helping perpetuating this philosophy.

As far as religion is concerned, Bacevich goes even farther than Howard Dean. A chapter titled “Onward” opens with the bold statement that the United States remains, “as it has always been, a deeply, even incorrigibly, Christian nation.” Noting that about 100 million people in this country define themselves as evangelicals, he states bluntly that they tend to be conservative and vote Republican.
Beyond that, evangelical Christians also celebrate the military as a bastion of the values needed to stop the current slide toward perdition and thus have provided religious sanction to militarization. This links up nicely with neoconservative logic, offering support for the idea of striking the first blow. Books like The Church and the Sword and One Nation Under God replace the “just war” idea with a “crusader theory of warfare.” As Hal Lindsey, author of The Late Great Planet Earth, argues, “The Bible supports building a powerful military force. And the Bible is telling the U.S. to be strong again.”
With evangelicals leading the way, both within the military chaplaincy and the GOP, “Conservative Christians have conferred a presumptive moral palatability on any occasion on which the United States resorts to force,” Bacevich concludes. “They have fostered among the legions of believing Americans a predisposition to see U.S. military power as inherently good, perhaps even a necessary adjunct to the accomplishment of Christ’s saving mission. In doing so, they have nurtured the preconditions that have enabled American infatuation with military power to flourish.”

It has always been disturbing to me that the christian community(as a generalization) is so keen on supporting violence in the name of God and Christ's will.

Is it just me or is the evangelical community as quick to approve violence as they are to denounce anything outside the realm of what is considered sexually moral?

Any way, I found it particularly interesting and something that refuses to slip into the partisan arguments that are so prominent in today's american landscape.

Take a look, the article is written by Greg Guma and should be sure to spark thought if nothing else.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0624-26.htm