No Greater Love

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In a recent post, ST asked a question; eliminating your nation’s enemies with extreme prejudice: No Greater Love, yes or no?

Wouldn’t a lot of it depend on your nation, and your nation’s enemies, and the reason why they are enemies? American soldiers eliminate America’s enemies with extreme prejudice, and American soldiers are definitely examples of No Greater Love. But the soldiers who fought for Hitler and Nazi Germany also eliminated their nation’s enemies with extreme prejudice. Many or most of the soldiers who fought for Nazi Germany were teenage kids-many or most of those who fought for America in WWII were teenage kids too, but the point is, I don’t believe that all Nazi soldiers were just as bad as Hitler because they fought for him: in some (many?) cases, they may have been doing so because their families were threatened: in a society like Nazi Germany, it seems safe to assume that large numbers of soldiers were under duress of one sort or another. And, some of them probably were just as bad as Hitler: some of them were scared for their families, some were just very confused kids, some were downright evil: we can recognize that, and sympathize with some of them, but were any of them an example of No Greater Love? They were willing to give their own lives, but the Bible tells us that isn’t enough. I am in no way suggesting that every last soldier who fought for Nazi Germany was totally devoid of love: as I said before, many of them did it in an effort to protect their families, and that is admirable to a point, but obviously, only to a point. The bottom line is, Nazi soldiers who were willing to eliminate their nation’s enemies with extreme prejudice cannot be put in the same category as American soldiers who did and do the same. At best, the Nazi soldiers were confused, brainwashed kids; I look at them and just shake my head, and think “you poor kid, how did you end up in this mess?” At best, I feel sympathy for them, but not the admiration and gratitude that I feel for American soldiers.

I do, however, feel admiration and gratitude for Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who refused to serve in the military under Hitler, who spoke out against Nazism, and who ended up being executed for it. He had been staying in America and could have easily avoided a great deal of trouble by just staying in America. He returned to Nazi Germany to speak out against Nazism, knowing what the consequences would probably be. I think he provides an example of how Christians should behave when the government of their country wages unjust war. He was so patriotic, but his was never a blind patriotism.

So, anyway, that is my answer: it all depends. I used WWII as an example; many wars, such as Vietnam, are not as clear cut as WWII was, but even when things are murkier-even if it turns out in the end that the war was a mistake, I would still argue that American soldiers are an example of No Greater Love not because everything the American government does is always 100% correct, and not because everything every American soldier does is always 100% correct, but because American soldiers really are fighting for freedom; freedom for their own country and other countries as well. Conservatives aren’t supposed to care about people’s intentions, but this is one case where intentions mean everything.

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Published by Judy Campbell

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17 thoughts on “No Greater Love”

  1. WooHoo, glad you’ve jumped in, JaC! The water’s warmer here, isn’t it? Well done…P. S. You may wanna talk about “American servicemen”; there be Marines hereabouts, just sayin’ (grin).

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  2. American servicemen eliminate the country’s enemies *for each other*, too…Even when the “rules of engagement” (ROE) make success all-but-impossible – truly no greater love, imho. (See “Bengahzi”, for example).

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  3. The saying is greater love hath no man than this: that he lay down his life for his friends. Of course soldiers do that, or risk doing that. But you could also do it without killing anybody, y’know, like Sydney Carton does. Christ really had nothing to say about warfare.

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  4. E, “Sydney Carton” [?] Christ does mention troop strength and negotiating for peace, if an enemy is stronger, as an example of prudence in civil/political matters – I’ll find the reference…

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    1. Some of John the Baptist’s first adherents were soldiers – presumably Romans – to whom he gave advice, so war/occupation were not subjects outside Christ’s notice. Both were in the air folks breathed at the time – still are…so the conduct of war needn’t have escaped Christ’s notice; however, since His kingdom was not the geopolitical one that even some of His apostles expected, it isn’t surprising that He didn’t address the issue in a nuts-and-bolts way.

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  7. As far as I’m concerned, our military defenders are all saints in the mold of the militant archangel MICHAEL. Sydney Carton is the Dickens character in Tale of Two Cities Who substitutes himself to be Guillotined in place of his beloved Lucy’s husband. And I’m not saying Jesus was anti-military, just that it wasn’t an issue. He and his disciples believed they were living in the last days; all that mattered was staying under the radar so they could spread the gospel.

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  8. Didn’t think you were saying anything otherwise, E: I know better; thanks for the clarification re: Dickens. Jesus may not have thought anything about armed conflict, but at least one of the apostles, Simon, “The Zealot” may well have…Not to mention the readiness of the ‘Sons of Thunder’ to call down retribution on those who didn’t receive the Gospel with open minds/hearts…Grant you, Jesus nixed that…

    The apostles and disciples transformation to loving, willing self-sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel is, it seems to me akin to the servicemember’s willingness to run toward the guns, to be ‘martyrs of charity’ (Frs. Seelos, Kapaun, Capodanno, “The Four Chaplains”, every Medal of Honor recipient) exemplifies and amplifies Jn. 15:13.

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  9. Another thought here, from the Christian East: “Just as people do not enter a war in order to enjoy war, but in order to be saved from war, so we do not enter this world in order to enjoy this world, but in order to be saved from it…”.
    -St. Nicholas of Serbia, Thoughts on Good and Evil

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