Exodus 20:13, anyone?

Ugh.

Reading or listening to "Christian" news services, which almost always seem to have an extremely right-wing bias, really makes me feel marginalised as a non-right-wing Christian. I wouldn't say I'm left-wing, really, but I guess my politics do lean somewhat toward that direction.

However, it seems like the vast majority of "Christian" news services around the place are running the pro-right-wing line, much of which seems to be really contradictory to what the Bible actually tells Christians to do (you know the stuff about loving everyone, not killing people, etc).

This morning I received an e-mail from one of the "Christian" news services with a message from General Jack Singlaub about how we should all be supporting the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, how they were "winning the war," how the media was evil and corrupt for saying that things weren't going all that well over that way for the "Coalition of the Willing," how Christians need to take a stand and tell the troops how great they are for going somewhere to kill or be killed.

It literally made me want to scream.

This guy wrote: The liberal media want you to believe that U.S. troops in Iraq are guilty of widespread torture...oppressing civilians...murdering U.S. journalists...opposing the war effort... And losing the war. Whatever the facts about an isolated incident with a handful of Marines in Haditha may turn out to be, we can't let it take the focus off of the real mission -- supporting the troops who are defeating terrorists like Abu Al Zarqawi in Iraq so we don't have to fight them here at home... And despite being immersed in a lethally hostile environment, they're [the troops] upholding the highest standards of decency and civilization in their selfless mission to liberate the Iraqi people from tyranny and confront the America-hating terrorist fanatics on their own ground.

What a lot of piffle. And God, why am I imagining this guy with a very Southern accent all of a sudden? Quite possibly in a white suit? Sitting on a verandah, typing this on an elderly typewriter as a servant dutifully wipes the froth from his mouth?

I mean, obviously the person who wrote this wasn't thinking about the video of a marine singing a song about how fun it was to kill Iraqis (including the lyrics: "I grabbed her little sister and put her in front of me. As the bullets began to fly, the blood sprayed from between her eyes, and then I laughed maniacally. . .I blew those little f**kers to eternity . . .They should have known they were f**king with the Marines."). Of course, the guy who did the vid has now said that it was only a joke, but don't they say that often the truth is spoken in jest? Obviously there's some pretty twisted attitudes going around out there, as well as actions that have seen Iraqi civilians murdered by Marines in Haditha (think of the case from last November).

Or about how the US presence in Iraq is seen by many European and countries with a high Muslim presence as being more of a threat to stability in the Middle East than the things that Iran is currently doing. What about Abu Grahib? And those rumours about more massacres? Or people who get taken away by the police/military and disappear? How will they deal with the specter of civil war that always seems to be looming around the corner?

And the media in the West really isn't reporting all that much about the War on Iraq. Did we hear about the thousands of Iraqis who took to the streets to protest the arrival of George Bush? Perhaps it doesn't serve America well to have stories about thousands of people, as opposed to the five or six they cobbled together for al-Zaqarwi's death, protesting and raising their voices against what they see to be an invading force? There are a lot of interesting perspectives on this kind of thing to be found at Daily War News and Baghdad Burning. Unlike what this general has said about "liberating the Iraqi people from tyranny," it seems more like they've created a different style of tyranny and it is definitely not welcome or appreciated by the majority of the people who have to live in that country.

And as I don't have my own servant, I shall wipe my own froth from my mouth following that little rant!

But all of that aside, how, as a Christian can the War on Iraq be justified? How is it just and right to kill people? How is it morally correct to have based the invasion on a lot of lies? How is torture justified? What kind of Christians are we if we do not condemn all of the wrong things that have happened in Iraq, regardless of which side has committed them? Saddam Hussein was bad. The "Coalition of the Willing" is bad. Those leading and carrying out the suicide bombings, attacks on people, etc are bad. Let's not pretend that there are any sides in this conflict who'll come out of it "better" than any other.

As Christians, we are meant to be showing love to the world, encouraging healing and treating people with the care we would like to be shown ourselves. Loving our enemies and doing good to those who despise us. After all, I think that was kind of what Jesus was telling us to do all along...