Wulfie's Wurld

Commentary: God and Governments

I want to carry on with the subject raised by the Death Penalty thoughts from a few days ago. I asked about how it's possible for a government to decide to kill/execute people when Exodus pretty much says "thou shalt not kill." I was waiting for someone to point out that there is no inconsistency in the government working in behalf of God because of what it says in Romans. I'll quote:

"Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." Romans 13:1 (NIV)

Does anyone see an issue here? Look at it this way: if that is true, as many Christians think it is, then people like Kim Jong-il, Adolf Hitler, and Josef Stalin have been appointed by God. So what the hell is Bush, a God-appointee himself, doing waging war against another God-appointee by the name of Saddam Hussein.

If we extend this way of thinking, than God is basically playing a massive chess game against Himself, and we are but the pawns.

I've only had one Christian dare to attempt to answer this. The answer was reasonable. They said that God set up the "concept" of governments, but does not dictate how the governments are run. M'kay. Only the answer seems to beg off the concept of having the authority from God as suggested (state explicitly?) by Romans. That answer also returns us to the unanswered question of who will bear responsibility when a government sheds innocent blood.

To bring it down to the concrete, I would like to hear how a Christian responds to the following conundrum. Will President Bush receive eternal damnation for misusing God's government to create collateral damage (is there a heavenly version of unintentional manslaughter?) or will he be facing the music for attacking another of God's governments?

Commentary: Christians and Killing

Let's face it, I live in a Christian country. In the last election here, people were not voting with their minds toward the issues, they were voting with their Bibles.

One of the Ten Commandments says "Thou shalt not kill." Of course, I've heard all the counter arguments that originally it meant "thou shalt not commit murder" or "thou shalt not shed innocent blood," etc. So I can't help but wonder, how does any Christian country justify either the death penalty or going to war?

Death Penalty: One can argue that the person being executed is not "innocent," and therefore it isn't murder. But this raises several questions.

1. If non-innocent blood can be shed, WHAT, on the continuum of "guilty blood," warrants the death penalty? If I steal an apple, my blood is no longer innocent, and therefore killing me would not be murder, right? Who among us is totally innocent of everything? The standard Christian answer is "only one." Does that mean it's open season on the rest of us?

2. If this is a divine injunction, why are civil governments taking over responsibility for deciding who should or should not be killed? Shouldn't all such cases be sent to priests and whatnot who have a direct link to God for deciding which people are eligible as exceptions to the commandment? Doesn't this mean that some form of government similar to what many of the Arab nations have would be more appropriate?

3. Who bears responsibility for those executed by mistake?

War: What is war, if it is not the wholesale shedding of innocent blood? Are all the soldiers who died in all the wars deserving of being executed anyway? Are all the civilians equally deserving of it? Was the bombing of Bagdad, Hanoi, Dresden, Hiroshima, and Pearl Harbor nothing more than cleaning out nests of people who were awaiting execution? If not, some questions are raised along these lines as well.

1. Who bears the responsibility for innocent blood shed in war? The soldiers who pulled the proverbial (or literal) trigger, the officers who gave the orders, or the presidents and prime ministers who dragged their nations to war?

2. There are many nations who no longer have the death penalty, yet still go to war. How do they reconcile the two?

I guess I'm having a hard time seeing how Chrisitians can justify their killing, and I'm having a hard time seeing how government sanctified killing is rationalized, given the apparent contradictions. Is there some kind of divine "get out of jail free card" somewhere? I must have missed that passage in the Bible.

It kind of makes me glad I'm not a Chrisitian and not really part of the gubmint.

Chain: Five Odd Things About Me

Okay, apparently there's a chain circulating around the blogging realm where, if "tagged," the person is to write five odd or weird things about themselves, then tag five more people. I thought I'd play along. Sort of.

1. I love to break chains. For that reason, I'm not going to tag five others. I particularly like to break chains that predict vile doom for anyone who breaks them. I calculate I've died horribly several dozens of times over the years. I'm looking damn fine for a corpse.

2. I like to draw people. I mean, I really like to draw people. I like drawing faces the best, particularly interesting looking faces. If they're willing to take their clothes off, I'll draw the whole figure. Some do. Most don't. Drawing people is better than drawing anything else. I'm getting pretty good at drawing as well. I guess it's like any skill. It improves if you do it a lot.

3. I enjoy driving a 140 mile round-trip commute through the worst traffic on the planet even though I have a boss who's a moron. That's because I like the work and the rest of the people so well. Life's all about trade-offs and compromises.

4. Although I'm basically an agnostic, I'm a very spiritual agnostic. No, that doesn't mean I do wicca or pyramids or any of that other non-scientific nonsense. It means I think about the concept of God a lot and study various religions and dogmas and histories. During my early morning commute, I talk a lot to God, assuming there is a God and that God is listening, either that, or I'm talking to the roof of my car. Either way, I verbalize my thoughts and questions. I love it when Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons or any of those types knock on my door. They, on the other hand, seem to become dismayed that I know more about their religion than they do, including all the counter arguments.

5. For the first 40 years of my life, I used to say "When I grow up . . . " Of late (the past 15 years) I've decided I don't want to grow up.

Actually, I don't think any of those things are particularly odd. On the other hand, the most humdrum of activities might seem odd to someone.