Keep Out of Ukraine

When we list the various ways we sin, “thought, word and deed” we might make the mistake of seeing this as a list like this one, “grape, watermelon, apple.” They all fall under the category of fruit, but that is the extent of their relationship. Not so with thought, word and deed. Thought, word and deed is more like acorn, sapling, oak tree. No one would mistake an acorn for a tree, but leave it alone long enough, in ordinary circumstances trees happen.

We have become such a virtual culture that we think it possible to separate our thoughts and words from our deeds. We enter into cyberspace to debate ideologies and policy perspectives. Things might get heated but it’s not like anything ever comes of it. Everyone just shuts down their windows, turns out the light, and goes to bed. Except things do come of it. Terrible things.

One of strongest cases one could make for the influence of “Christian nationalism,” not that there is much of a case, is found in how conservative evangelicals tend to view foreign policy. We are hawks. We see those dove Democrats as the party of Neville Chamberlain. (Of course, the truth is that Democrats are at least as war hungry as their Republican counterparts.) When we embrace American exceptionalism it is one small step to embracing American empire. Sure, we’ll cast it as something humanitarian. But just as Democrats think that whenever there’s a hardship within our borders the feds need to come up with a new program to spend it away, so too many Christian conservatives think that whenever there’s a hardship outside our borders the feds need to send in the troops. In the former instance real people with real hardships are put deeper into hardship, and more people not in hardship are dragged there by the bloat of government. In the latter, our emotive, unbiblical, grabbing the ears of a passing dog response results in wives weeping over graves, mothers clutching folded flags, little girls growing up without their daddies.

Russia has invaded Ukraine. Putin is a bad and dangerous man. People are dying and global balances are teetering. As we debate what ought to be done can we please start with this question- does the US government have any jurisdiction there? Does NATO? Does, absent Security Council approval, the UN? Does real calamity grant the US government jurisdiction? The true, historical conservative position on this is the same as it is on vax mandates. No. The US government doesn’t have the authority to require anyone to get a vaccine, much less an experimental one, much less an experimental one that doesn’t work like vaccines once did. Nor does it have the authority to join Ukraine in removing Russia.

If you feel strongly about the vax, by all means, get one. If you feel strongly about freeing Ukraine, by all means go there and fight for it. No one is stopping you. Those beating the drums of war in this country, however, are not the ones who will go, fight and die. Governments run up debts in the tens of trillions because every spending opportunity looks important when you’re spending someone else’s money. Governments wage wars because opportunities look too inviting when you’re spilling someone else’s blood, including that of your own soldiers.

American empire isn’t so dangerous in the abstract, when it’s just an idea. It’s only slightly more dangerous when it’s something we talk about. These, however, are just the first two steps to flag draped coffins. Ukrainians fighting to the death against the invading Russians are heroes to be honored. American soldiers dying in the same war would be pawns, victims of the same overreach by their own leaders as the Russians dying in the war. Neither country has any reason to be there. May the Russians go home, and may the Americans stay home.