Just a post before I go

I was with a group of guys on our way to a church men's retreat when I first heard about the assassination of Qasem Soleimani. Since I had never heard of the guy, I didn't realize what a big deal it was (not that state-sponsored assassinations are ever NOT a big deal). Little did I know that he was, you know, the focal point of all evil in the Middle East, yadda yadda yadda.

Anyway, there was some worry in our vehicle (on our 3-hour drive to the retreat) about the potential for war. One of our guys was in the Reserves, so he was keenly interested in a way that was quite personal. He was not filled with patriotic fervor about the possibility of deployment to the Middle East.

A side-point: it has always seemed remarkable to me how much party-affiliation correlates with one's response to our foreign "interventions" and war-making. If our party is in power, we're very willing to credit the action as necessary. The government explanations are all immediately plausible (even in the absence of justifying evidence). If our party is out of power, on the other hand, we become quite skeptical about such things. That skepticism is the healthy response, it seems to me. We should just be consistent about it.

The political analysis that posits a "deep state" agenda that remains entrenched no matter who is in power would seem to encourage such skepticism, but strangely enough, the purveyors of the "deep state" analysis (at least its Trumpian form) seem to have suspended all skepticism where the military is concerned. An alternative analysis would be that the "deep state" is manipulating Trump to get what they want, but the only scenario Trump's supporters can abide is Trump as hero, no matter how things shake out in the Middle East. If he makes war, he's the hero. If he steps back from the brink, yeah, he's a hero for that too.

All this seems like it should be quite foreign to the Christian mindset. Let the world argue about the pros and cons of war or of war-like gestures, for the Christian is walking down a very different road. War is the world's way. It is the peacemaker who is blessed, according to Jesus, not the warmaker.

Ah well. Life goes on. I'm going on another trip today and will not be posting for the coming week. After that, I'm all-in on the blogging thing.