Evan McClanahan

In the heady days of my seminary education, one of my liberal professors (as if there was any kind) mentioned his opposition to the Vietnam War during his first years in the pulpit. As you might imagine, it was a point of conflict in the parish. Many of his parishioners, after all, were drafted and had bravely fought in World War II or Korea while their wives and children supported the war effort back home. To be a conscientious objector to war was a luxury only the hippies of the 1960s could enjoy, for “back in my day, we fought for our country without complaint and didn’t have the choice!”

My own congregation split over the issue in the 1960s. First Lutheran was a former “E & R” parish (that’s short for Evangelical and Reformed, a strange fellowship of Lutherans and Calvinists) that had been become United Church of Christ when that mega-merger took place. Overnight, we found ourselves in a far more liberal denomination that would eventually support conscientious objectors to the war in Vietnam. That, not unlike my professor’s experience, predictably riled the veterans who had answered the call to serve in wartime and felt the next generation should do the same. So, half the congregation wanted to leave the UCC and the other half wanted to stay. You’ll never guess what happened next. 

In my mid-twenties, listening to this professor reminisce about the good ol’ days of opposing war (while the Iraq War was seriously heating up, and my guy “W” was leading the charge), I rolled my eyes and thought, “What a sucker! Doesn’t this guy know that American hegemony, the slaughter of innocents, and the military industrial complex is necessary for world peace?” (Okay, that isn’t exactly how I phrased it.) Alas, it’s good to be young and dumb. 

I’m still at intellectual war with many aspects of theological liberalism, of course. But I’ve done a little reading and re-thinking about that whole “American military hegemony is awesome” thing. Taking absolutely nothing away from the brave men who were drafted onto the front lines of “good” or “necessary” wars (like both of my grandfathers), those who volunteered for noble service (like my father and brother), the women and children who suffered on the home front while the men were away at war, and the mothers and fathers who tragically lost children at the hands of the imperial aims of the Nazis or Japanese, I am seriously rethinking the current state of America’s war ambitions. 

Indeed, ever since the end of World War II, it seems hard to justify any of our military engagements or the majority of the 900+ military installations we have around the world. Without going into a diatribe that wouldn’t fit into two entire Lutheran Forums, studying the JFK assassination in some detail demonstrated to me that the “war hawks” have and will wage wars and find enemies if it kills them…or a president. And they have, nonstop, since World War II.

Perhaps there was and is some value in “containing” communism in Korea and Vietnam, in the nuclear build-up that bankrupted the Soviets, in multiple wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now in our proxy war against Russia to protect the sovereign, Russian-speaking border of Ukraine. But I have become convinced that war has proven best for the military establishment in Washington D.C. and awful for the soul and finances of our nation. We should not have been in Vietnam or the Middle East and we should not be in Ukraine. I see that now. I repent of rolling my eyes. While opposing war can cause hard feelings among those who sacrificed, the best time to oppose war remains the present. 

I do believe there are “just” wars. Defending one’s homeland is justified. Service to one’s country is also justifiable as Christians. While our “commonwealth” is in heaven, we are citizens of a nation which is organized (in theory) to maximize the public good. I am not an anarchist. I am a precinct chair for my political party, I block walk for candidates, and I encourage my members to vote and participate in the political process.

But as the father of a 12-year old young man, looking at a landscape that seems like never-ending wars possibly against Russia, China, Iran, and maybe a few South American nations, I am asking if it is time to consider the theological weight behind being a conscientious objector. If I must die, or my son must die, to defend the homeland, so be it. But last time I checked, China, Iran, and Russia were not invading Galveston. And the last time I checked, America was supposed to be a constitutional republic, not a global empire. The non-stop wars are only justifiable if waging offensive wars to defend oil, overthrow regimes, and funnel money to bomb-builders is justifiable. 

Such wars are not justifiable, and it is time our church bodies said so, even the conservative church bodies (like mine) that generally support the military and support the wars our government proposes. Samuel warned us, after all: if you have a king (which is what our presidents have become), they’ll kill your sons in war. So, don’t have kings! 

It’s time we became a lot more skeptical about the propaganda our government spews and to start providing “air cover” (pardon the pun) to those Lutheran Christians who cannot participate in war as a matter of conscience. Perhaps we can distinguish between non-combat service and combat service. That’s a worthy conversation to have. Certainly, our chaplains are more valuable than ever to discouraged troops sent off to immoral wars, and I commend our military chaplains for serving those young men and women far from home.

But if these wars increase in scope, scale, and number and our (declining) volunteer military can’t meet the demand for war, I will not be volunteering my son (or, heaven forbid, my daughter!) to die on the western border of Russia, in the waters of the North China sea, or in the Arabian desert. We will be conscientious objectors, taking seriously the call to be “blessed peacemakers,” saying to our leaders that it it past time to withdraw from being a failed American empire and to become a constitutional republic again that actually respects the lives of her citizens. Far from making me a terrible American, I will remain a patriot to the original vision for America while maintaining my Christian commitments to peace, good government, and financial sanity. 

If and when that day comes, I hope my denomination will have my back. For, if not, I can easily imagine a scenario where the government rejects my principled stand, and where my son will face serious consequences. The time to formulate the theological doctrines in defense of conscientious objectors is now, before our empire careens fully out of control into World War III, necessitating a draft. I know it is a change of course for those conservative church bodies that either tow the party line on military action or just want to stay out of politics. But these unstable times call for such reflection now.