"Love Your Enemies" - Jesus Said What?

"Jesus didn't say to love your enemies", said young Catholic I met at the army showroom in Dalston, "he only said to love your neighbour, didn't he?". That was his response, after I quoted Matthew 5:44 as the reason for my reservations about joining the army. But the teachings of Jesus aren't the only thing new recruits are ill-informed about. A recent independent report found that career information provided to potential recruits and their parents is "selective and often misleading", and that recruitment literature obscures, or even neglects to mention "...[the] ethical issues involved with killing, risks to physical and mental health, the legal obligations of enlistment, the state's legal and moral obligations to its armed force personnel and the right to conscientious objection". Given that the army targets teenagers, especially those who have done badly at school, I have no doubt that these practises are deceitful and wrong.


Of course, you may be wondering why I was at an army showroom in the first place. This summer, I'm spending a month with the 'London Catholic Worker', a group committed to non-violent resistance, to living in community, and to doing the 'works of mercy' (i.e. feeding the hungry, healing the sick, etc - see Matthew 25) - as well as being committed to pacifism. Though I abhor the fact that it sounds so much like 'being passive (rather than actively risking even your life for peace), I am a pacifist. I believe that the command to 'love your enemy' cannot be obeyed without rejecting war, and all other forms of violent homicide. I also believe that, using non-violence, as taught by Jesus, we can not only resist evil, but overcome it forever (see Romans 12).

It hurts every time I meet another kind, honest young person thinking of joining up, to be taught how to kill. Their youth and vigour could do so much to heal the broken world in which we live, but instead they will be sent to a foreign country, to fight in another unjust war, from which they may come back limbless, even lifeless. So, I joined the Catholic Workers vigil-ing in Dalston - to oppose the recruitment of teenagers to the army, to oppose the wars this country is currently fighting, and to bear witness to the fact that another world is possible. A world where no-one's children are sent to fight and die in other countries, and where "Nation will not take up sword against nation, they will never again be trained for war" (Micah 4:3). This is a world we could have, if only we had the courage to seek it.



Websites worth checking out:
Forces Watch
Informed choice? Armed forces recruitment practises in the UK
London Catholic Worker
Article on Indymedia