On Killing and Dying

“ Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. ”

I just saw a bumper sticker that read: “Thou shalt not kill. What part of that commandment do you not understand?” It was signed , “God.” Now, I don't know what point the driver was trying to make, but I assume it was a protest against the war in Iraq. It would be a protest against all war, and all killing, if he meant this literally, which is what the sticker asks us to do.

Now, is God asking us not to kill, at all—pure and simple? If so, we mustn't eat anything, for we eat things that are living and must kill them in order to do so. If that were true, the words of God to St. Peter in his vision on a rooftop —“Rise, Peter, kill and eat” Acts 10:13 —would be blasphemy. There was a tablecloth full of animals. Thou shalt not kill , then, only means kill people . That squares with the injunction God made with Noah regarding the shedding of man's blood. But God told Noah that the killer should be put to death by the dead man's brother. Genesis 9:5 How can this be, if any killing is a sin?

The problem is solved by reading any other version of the Bible than King James for Exodus 20:13—our own Prayer Book has it “Thou shalt do no murder.” And suddenly the way is clear—well, clearer . What God has commanded we aren't to do is kill an innocent person, kill a human being outside legal means or manner . God Himself commanded wars of conquest for the Jews' Promised Land, to kill every person living in Jericho—a victory that is still in children's songs. Joshua 6 God is not inconsistent. He commanded many laws against sinful behavior, for which the penalty was death by public execution.

Since the day Cain killed Abel, the death of human beings by others' hands has been in the world. It's a sad commentary on humanity. It's a great tragedy that lethal force must be used to stop certain criminals—as was done in this city a few weeks ago against a man using a stolen Bronco to attack a police sergeant in her car. But what else was there to do? He heeded nothing. He laughed at all attempts to arrest his crime spree.

So, my bumper sticker friend is somewhat misinformed if he quotes God saying, “Thou shalt not kill,” as meaning all killing. God never commanded that. There is murder, and there is use of lethal force in law enforcement, self-defense, and then there is war.

Is war ever justified? In our age, the memory of World War II is fading. The threat of world domination by madmen like Hitler seems cartoonish, and is only portrayed by cartoonish movies, such as Indiana Jones. Could there really have been a dictator bent on world take-over? We forget so easily. Nikita Khrushchev told Western ambassadors at a reception in Moscow in November, 1956 , “We will bury you!” Recently, Osama bin Ladan, the Taliban of Afghanistan, and Saddam Hussein have had visions of expansion, of ruling the world through fear and oppression. The rule of fear and dominance goes on, and mankind continues to fight wars against such expansion.

Tomorrow we will again celebrate the signing of a Declaration and the birth of our nation. The words of the American colonists blaze across a page of parchment in proud defiance of their colonial governors, claiming a higher authority over the people of earth and submitting to His imperial rule alone:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.”

These men went on to fight, many of them to die, for the liberty Americans have always treasured and fought for. Some still die today to preserve this freedom. The burning bodies of victims jumping from the World Trade Center still in our minds, we have sent soldiers around an ever-shrinking world to put an end to another threat to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We would have other people, presently dominated by force and fear, to enjoy these unalienable rights as we do.

But we are often cast as oppressors. We have been smeared with the accusation of seeking world domination. This is a test of our purposes, and the responsibility of the remaining world superpower to check itself constantly against such abuse. Is the United States involved in a justifiable war in Iraq, or are we doing murder, against the 6 th Commandment?

First our soldiers— none of them —are committing any crime or sin. With the possible exception of any violation of military code, our soldiers and marines have fought oppression and waged peace with the greatest restraint and humanity of any armed force in history, respecting the cultures and citizens of that land and being greeted as liberators. We don't hear complaints or see nearly as many suicide bombs in Afghanistan—the people there are generally so grateful to us that they won't abide such insanity against Americans. Most of the suicide bombers who detonate themselves in crowds of innocent Iraqis are not Iraqis themselves, but rather trained, brainwashed assassins sent into that country from terrorist camps outside. There is no general objection against us in Iraq. Schools are open, water is pure, a society is emerging from its long nightmare and only these terrorists stand in the way of peace, and of our soldier's occupation ending. We have no goals for world domination. As imperialists, we have done a particularly bad job over the last century. We always let other nations go free. That's because the ideal of freedom is woven into the fabric of our birth as a nation. Life, liberty and the pursuit of freedom: gifts of God for all people. The war in Iraq: good or bad idea, will be played out in history. If we lose our resolve to instill freedom in that land, it may have been for nothing. If we prevail, it may change the entire world for the better.

So, to kill may also mean to set free. What is it to die?

St. Paul wrote the Romans that to be baptized was to die with Christ. We are now dead, those of us who have entered His kingdom. We will rise with Him to new life as well. Our old nature is dead and we regard it well dead and gone. While we lived in the old life, our lives were worthless to us. We know that now. “ For he that is dead is freed from sin.” Jesus taught about killing as a sin, but showed His disciples what was sinful in it: anger without cause, dehumanizing and insulting someone's person, or demeaning him is worthy of judgment in God's eyes. “Raca” meant “a brainless one.” To kill for such reasons increases the sin and makes killing murder—worthy of hellfire.

We hear denunciations of criminal justice, of police shooting, of wars of liberation, and of capital punishment. When honestly asserted, these protests are respectable and reflect a sensitive, honest distaste for all killing, a distaste we might share. But when coupled with slogans such as “Pro-Child, Pro-Choice,” or “Death with Dignity”—the slogans of Planned Parenthood and the Hemlock Society—I find their objective is only to kill the innocent and defenseless and to let mass murderers and enemies of life go free. We have turned the world upside down for a political expedient, and killed our millions right here at home unobserved, unlamented.

To die is only to leave this life behind and go wherever you are bound. If heaven-bound, you are free from this world's horror and offence. It is our duty, our goal, to set every man, woman, and child free to seek a relationship with God that can make him or her free to ascend whenever death takes the soul away. Failing that is the only tragedy, obtaining that is the only good. To live, to die: this life is fleeting anyway . What comes afterward is the reason and the result of what we do here. We mustn't glorify killing: it is a horrible price to pay for freedom and peace. But a peaceful people woke one morning 4 years ago to the sudden deaths of 3,500 of its citizens. Nothing we ever did justified that.

We fly our flag today, tomorrow, its red and white stripes symbolic of the 13 brave colonies that stood together and created a nation, of the blood shed and the purity of their purpose. We aren't perfect as a nation—no, we are far from it. We do evil and we fail our promise again and again. But in this experiment of freedom, we find an opportunity for greatness and dignity, for the gifts of God to be shed here and abroad. To lawfully kill in pursuit of liberty for a world shivering in fear is not a violation of the word of God. To die for the liberation of slaves can be the noblest of deaths, and may only be a doorway into eternal life.

PFH+