Jesus is returning to earth… for the second time… in the last six months. Something about this war on Iran rubs me the wrong way, though I haven’t quite placed my finger on it. Maybe it is the war crimes that the United States has committed since day one, when they bombed a girls’ school. Maybe it’s the fact that the U.S. is officially involved in another war after a campaign run on the promise of keeping this nation out of them. Maybe it’s those darned rising gas prices that are now pinching Americans’ pockets just a little tighter. No, wait, I know what it is, it’s the fact that the Secretary of War is telling the U.S. military that bombing Iran will invoke Jesus’ second coming as was prophesied in the book of Revelation.

This is not the Christianity that I wish to be associated with, nor the kind of national action I wish to be associated with my American identity. Don’t get me wrong, I love this country. I love the United States in a redwood forest, Gulf Stream waters, endless skyway, and golden valley kind of way. I do not love it in this God’s chosen nation, holy war on Islam, and anointed by Jesus way, as Pete Hegseth seems to think I should. I am not willing to die for this country, though I am also not willing to fight for it, as is informed by my pacifist Anabaptist convictions. Let the record show that I have had my Conscientious Objector forms filled out since my sophomore year of high school, dated April 12, 2021.

There have been rumors floating around that we are going to see the reinstatement of the draft before the end of this war, and at this point, I would not be surprised if that comes to fruition. I wonder, do people currently serving in the military even know what they are fighting for? Is it for oil? The second coming of Jesus? Is it for Israel? It is hard for me to comprehend what could possibly motivate people to conduct a triple-tap missile strike on a primary school for girls. At least with the Venezuelan cartel boats, they were only using double-tap strikes, am I right?  This war has already dragged on longer than was initially anticipated; it seems to be that Iran is not the weak nation as described before entering the conflict. The ongoing attempts to clear the Strait of Hormuz have been headlining the news since the start of the conflict, with no clear signs of progress to show for it. Two billion dollars per day in missiles is in no way setting the U.S. up for success in the long-term unless we become more self-reliant, which we are currently not. That is a whole lot of money that would be far better used for taking care of our neighbors here at home rather than attempting to cripple millions of livelihoods in the Middle East on behalf of another nation to whom we are not beholden. How many more resources – and lives of U.S. servicemen – are this nation’s leaders willing to sacrifice to accomplish whatever their mission in Iran is?