“Churches Have a Lot to Learn from the Military”

Discipline? Self-sacrifice? The church actually has something to learn from the military, argues Iraq veteran and pacifist Logan Mehl-Laituri.

I WALK A TIGHTROPE between two very different worlds.

On one side I am an Iraq veteran with service time in the US Army.

On the other side I see no reason to apologize for being a pacifist. I balance between the two worlds because as a veteran I am not anti-military, and as a pacifist I am opposed to the use of violence. How do I relate to those who perform military service, while at the same time maintaining my aversion to war?

Well, I don't have a clear answer to that. But I do have thoughts about why Christians should explore the following position: Why is it honorable to serve the common good, while the use of violence is not?

Heroic

Even Christians who have not served in the military should know how to appreciate the type of voluntary defense service that is required in a country that is ours, that does not have conscription. To be prepared to use violence at the highest level is not something new for the church. Rather, it was the case for many centuries that Christians ran a high risk of ending up in persecution and violence. To be a Christian was heroic, if for no other reason than that it entailed significant danger to one's own safety.

In the same way, soldiers place themselves in the front line and, on behalf of the community, expose themselves to injury or death. In the USA — on good days — it happens that we fight for freedom and democracy. American soldiers go into combat because they believe these ideals are worth it, even if it should mean injury or death. While the military are prepared to use violence in the service of the good cause, Christians should, at the very minimum, be willing to risk life and limb for the same common good. When all is said and done: none of the saints the church has honored most highly throughout its history are those who paid "the ultimate price" in the service of the good.

Unarmed combatant

As my tour in Iraq neared its end, I informed my officers that I could no longer — for reasons of conscience — carry weapons. At the same time I made it clear that I very much wanted to continue serving in my unit, even when we went into combat. What does it mean to be a pacifist willing to lay down one's life for one's faith, or — at the very least — for the common good? In the USA there are many who, sometimes for good reasons, think that pacifists are free riders, people who reap a peace they have not themselves sown.

Lost one of their own

But given that they were willing to die, if it came to that, in the same way that soldiers are willing to face the world's evil — does that sound like idealistic madness? Think again. In 1984 the so-called Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) were formed in response to the following question: "What would happen if Christians demonstrated the same discipline and the same self-sacrifice when they engaged in nonviolent peacemaking as the military invests in war?"

Since then CPT has done exactly that, in many of the world's war and conflict zones. And they know what it is to lose one of their own in combat. In 2005 four CPT members were kidnapped in Iraq and held as hostages for many months (mentioned in STREK nr. 2/2007, ed. note). Three of the hostages were released. But not Tom Fox, an Army veteran like me. Some months later he was killed. His body was dumped on a rubbish heap in Baghdad. He died because he had stood in the way of violence, as many Christian martyrs before him.

Sacrifice and strength

Military life is a place where men and women can sign up to transcend narrower versions of themselves. Here they can muster strength in the face of real danger, often in defense of something uniquely meaningful. Shouldn't the church be able to stand for something similar? Shouldn't the church be a place where "discipline" and "sacrifice" were among the load-bearing pillars — in the faith?

Ask yourself whether the church has a thing or two to learn from the military…