As a Christian, I am appalled by letter writer Arny Davis’s recent attempt to frame unprovoked military aggression as a biblical mandate. His letter draws a warped, Orwellian conclusion: that war is peace. To be clear, engaging in a war of choice against a sovereign nation is not a "peaceful act." It is the opposite.
Davis attempts to reconcile "biblical teaching with the reality that our country ... has taken aggressive action." There is no reconciliation possible: unprovoked warmongering is fundamentally at odds with the Gospel. Furthermore, he uses the phrase "our country," yet the American people did not authorize this killing spree. This war is owned by one person — Donald Trump.
The justification offered for this violence is built entirely on qualifiers, not reality. Davis relies on words like “possible” and “could.” In a civilized society, “possibilities” and “maybes” are never a moral justification for the mass taking of human life.
Davis claims that “the Iranian people are not the enemy,” yet his logic ignores the victims of the bombs. On Feb. 28, a single incident in Minab claimed the lives of 175 civilians, mostly children, at an elementary school. If we are to be “peacemakers,” we cannot hide behind strategic abstractions while innocent blood is shed in our name.
Davis also asks us to support the “United States and its allies.” Aside from Israel, which allies is he referring to? Our traditional democratic allies in Europe have largely condemned this escalation as a rejection of diplomacy.
Finally, Davis’s defense of “religious freedom” is a hollow contradiction. He claims this principle must be protected yet calls to outlaw Sharia — a fundamental Muslim precept. True religious freedom is not a buffet where you pick and choose which faiths are “allowed” to exist. It is a foundational American right that applies to all, or it applies to none. Davis’s letter suggests a profound misunderstanding of the faith he seeks to legislate against.
True peace is not merely the absence of conflict achieved through superior firepower; it is the presence of justice. Calling a preemptive strike “peacemaking” doesn’t make it holy; it simply takes the name of the Prince of Peace in vain to justify a policy of blood.
KP Gillan
Centralia
