A Complicated Issue
The election news brings up some very complicated issues that we, as a people and that we, as a Christian people, really need to look at. Chief among those issues is the idea of interventionism versus isolationism.
This debate has been brought out in sharp contrast by Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. Really, it’s between Ron Paul and just about any other Republican candidate. Ron Paul is a strict isolationist. He’s been quoted several times on several different issues as saying that the United States has no business being involved in the affairs of other nations. For this stance he is belittled. Sometimes the criticism is fair.
Ron Paul seems to have a very strange and distorted view of history in some circumstances. He also seems to believe that if you leave folks alone they won’t try to harm you. That’s simply unrealistic. Yet, there is a point to not being involved in other nations’ affairs that remains true.
If you don’t have your fingers in other people’s pies, when they accuse you of being a thief, the evidence is clearly on your side. By keeping out of other nations’ business, you set up a circumstance where any nation who accuses you of being interventionist hasn’t a leg to stand on. The excuses of Muslims who proclaim the reason for their violence is because of our involvement in the world will simply dry up. The violence they do will then be properly attributed to their own penchant for violence. They will no longer be able to blame us for their own stupidity.
However, withdrawing from the world also means withdrawing from our allies. No nation can have an “us against them all” mentality. That’s just insanity. We should support our allies as long as they choose to be allies, and revile our enemies as long as they choose to be our enemies. This is where another piece of the complication comes into play.
For some time now we, as a nation, have engaged in the concept of spreading democracy throughout the world. This is a terrible policy that has found itself promoting the idea that the United States has the rightful place of policing the world. This is nothing more than a global “manifest destiny” policy. It is the spread of one world ideology in a subtle and sinister way. You cannot spread American democracy throughout the world unless you first spread those things which underpin the American society.
Democracy is nothing more than a means of electing officials to government posts. The Soviet Union was technically a democratic state. Socialism uses a democratic process to elect leadership. The idea that spreading democracy is a good idea is a bumper-sticker slogan. It has no real relevance to what is actually going on in the world.
To keep this thing in perspective we can look to Israel. Israel, as a nation, is our ally. They have been since their founding. Israel has worked closely with us in many different areas and have, for the most part, been a steady defender of our interests in the Middle East. However, Israel itself is not in any way special, except for that one distinction.
Some people seem to think that God has established Israel and that the Israelites are still God’s people. No one is God’s people unless they submit themselves to the Christ. There is no other way to God. No nation will ever receive God’s blessings unless it proclaims the Christ. There is no other way to grace. Israel, as a nation, is not pro-Christ, though it may be pro-Christianity. In some sense Israel must support Christianity because this nation, the United States, has historically been a Christian nation. It is only polite to support those who support you. But, make no mistake, Israel is not a Christian nation, nor do they support Christian ideals.
Thus, in some small way Ron Paul is right. There is no special dispensation given to Israel that makes her a sacred nation, nor is there a special dispensation that puts a demand on us, the United States, to keep her and protect her. The only thing that makes that happen is our promise, as a Christian nation, to be her ally… so long as she is ours. However, Ron Paul is gravely mistaken in his interpretation of the intent of Muslim nations. If he, for one small moment, thinks that Iran will not attempt to use a nuclear weapon if they manage to manufacture one, he is a fool.
Thus we see the complications that arise out of having to deal with other nations; complications that come from an unclear vision of purpose. Once upon a time we were very clear on our role in the world. Social influence came through the exportation of missionaries to foreign lands. National defense came when we were encroached upon. The might of this nation came from the march into Europe, in defending the world against a group of evil men who sought to carve the world up into their own empires. That march took American men into Europe, but that march brought American men out of Europe as soon as the conflict had ended.
Yet, with that exit a few men remained. The world had become unbalanced and American troops had to remain in order to keep Germany stable against a new enemy, a new encroachment. That put us into a new realm, an unfamiliar and strange realm. A realm of uncertainty. It brings to mind the story of the Israelites and their journey into the promised land. God told them to wipe out all of the people, to leave no one behind. The Israelites refused that order. Sooner, rather than later, they found themselves embroiled in battles within their own boundaries, and outside of their boundaries, with people who resented their presence.
As we read through the books of the Kings we can see what happens as a nation begins to loose clarity of it’s true divine mandate. We can see how complicated things can get when we fail to follow some simple, direct rules of engagement.
In our individual battles against complicated issues, the stakes are no less grand than those of the world theatre. Our very souls hang in the balance. More importantly, unless individuals can keep a solid vision of what they need to do to be strong this nation, no nation, will ever become strong. It all starts with one person. It grows from within us, but the strength does not come from within us. Neither does the instruction we need to know clarity. There is only one place these things come from; the Holy Spirit.
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