Derek Kreider: 00:27

Welcome back to the Fourth Way podcast. Today, November 11th, is a special day across much of the world. Many in the United States and across Europe and probably elsewhere as well celebrate today a holiday, which was originally deemed Armistice Day. It was named as such because it began as a celebration of the armistice, which ended World War 1, silencing the guns and bringing what seems to many like peace. Yet over the years, this Armistice Day celebration was not only drowned out by more thundering guns of war, it also transformed into its own antithesis.

Derek Kreider: 01:10

Not the celebration of peace, but the celebration of war. But I suppose such a transformation of the good shouldn't be a surprise to us as the co opting of the good is an age old strategy. At the beginning of the biblical narrative in Genesis, Satan co ops God's good garden to become an enticement unto death. Likewise, at the beginning of Jesus' ministry in the New Testament, Satan again co ops God's goodness and human needs, and he turns them into temptations by which Jesus is offered power. Like Satan, we humans, especially human institutions and governments, human abusers, we know how to co opt the good, how to weaponize peace.

Derek Kreider: 01:54

Today, as the world celebrates not armistice, but war, not those who brought peace, but those who brought death, I think it would be invaluable for us to explore how today, November 11th, has been co opted as a tool of propaganda. The first armistice celebration of swords was on November 11, 1919, as one might expect. It was actually celebrated much, much earlier, as earlier as the late 5th century, though. See, in 4 90 AD, the Bishop of Tours, France, recognizing an already long established feast day for Saint Martin of Tours, instituted a 40 day fast in preparation for Christmas. As this fast began on Saint Martin's Day, the day became known as Saint Martin's Fast or Saint Martin's Lent or Martin Mas.

Derek Kreider: 02:48

Today, we know this 40 day preparation as Advent. Saint Martin's Day became particularly popular in places like Germany over the years, with Saint Martin becoming actually the patron saint of both the poor and the harvest in Germany. And that's all well and good knowing that November 11th was formally celebrated across Christian Europe and the Christian world. What does that have to do with our November 11th celebrations? Well, let's begin by taking a look at the life of Saint Martin of Tours.

Derek Kreider: 03:22

Saint Martin was born in the mid 4th century. And while neither of Martin's parents were initially Christians, Martin was a seeker of Jesus from a pretty early age. Yet even in the adolescence, Martin never made it through to becoming, a pledged disciple of Christ. While Martin didn't officially join the ranks of the church, he was very committed to a Christlike lifestyle of love and mercy. That Christlikeness was severely put to the test, however, when Martin was conscripted into the Roman army because his father had a a high rank.

Derek Kreider: 03:57

And so, I guess, at that time, the the children were supposedly, kind of conscripted in automatically. Well, it was here in the military that Martin had the opportunity to see, the Christ's kingdom pitted against the kingdoms of the world. Now Martin distinguished himself from the other soldiers because he was he was trying to be a good Christian, and he he set himself apart in a number of ways. First, while his rank was entitled to having a servant, Martin actually served others, including his own servant. He took on the role of a servant himself and, you know, did the the menial tasks and and things with his servant or for his servant.

Derek Kreider: 04:41

Martin also served those outside of the army. One day, while Martin was riding through, means, Martin saw a haggard looking beggar. And Martin reached behind his back and and cut off the large, large part of his red cape, and he clothed the beggar with his own military uniform. Now it was this act which, Martin actually has become most remembered by and which has earned him the nickname, Martin the merciful, doing this thing, stooping to a an unworthy beggar and actually cutting off a part of his uniform to clothe him, like, unthinkable. But the act for which, Martin seems to be least remembered is actually an act that, I think is is the most important, but it it's an act that you have to dig really deeply to to find many accounts of.

Derek Kreider: 05:35

So one day, Martin became extremely convicted about the job that he was being called to do. Right? He was conscripted into the army, and and part of what they had to do sometimes was go kill people. Now the army was about to go out onto the battlefield and slaughter enemy forces, and Saint Martin just couldn't reconcile that with his Christian beliefs. So Saint Martin confronted his commander and told him, quote, I am a soldier of Christ, and it is not lawful for me to fight, end quote.

Derek Kreider: 06:07

Now wanting to convey his convictions as distinguished from cowardice, Saint Martin said that he would stand in the front of the army and and walk into the enemy lines just like everyone else, with one exception, of course, that he would be weaponless. The Saint Martin's peacemaking wasn't just exemplified here in the negative. It wasn't just in actions that Martin refused to participate in. Saint Mart Martin also sought active peace. He didn't just avoid the military.

Derek Kreider: 06:37

He he also sought ways to bring peace. You can see this, I think, really evidently later in Martin's life when he gets involved with this, this heretic, heretic named Priscillaian. And this guy was put on trial for some of his, heretical teachings. Well, while Martin firmly believed that Priscillaian was guilty, Martin was appalled at the way some of the church were seeking resolution here. Rather than, reprimands or excommunication, Priscillaian's, accusers were seeking for the government to actually execute Priscillaian.

Derek Kreider: 07:17

Now Saint Martin advocated all the way up to the top for the preservation of Priscillaian's life, but to no avail. Priscillaian, along with several several others, were executed by the state at the behest of the church. Now this took place in in 385. It was actually only 5 years earlier that, Theodosius, pronounced Christianity the state religion. So it was only 5 years in between Christianity becoming the favored religion of of Rome and, the 1st state execution at the behest of the church.

Derek Kreider: 07:51

It really didn't take long for the church to, to use that power. So, Priscillaian's execution is considered the first time that the state intervened in such manner on behalf of the church. But as we all know, it certainly was not the last. This marriage of church and state opened up a dark chapter in church history that is a really long chapter continuing to be written even to today. So rather than bringing peace and life, the church has often wrought death.

Derek Kreider: 08:25

And Saint Martin then is one who is set in opposition to this dark wayward church. This church separated from the teachings of Jesus. Saint Martin reminds us of the true ways of Jesus, the prince of peace. Christianity has had a long history since the establishment of Saint Martin's Day, more than 1500 years ago. Priscillaian's execution was just the first of many at the hands of Christians seeking power.

Derek Kreider: 08:56

And war, this act renounced by Martin as being unlawful for Christians, has become an act strongly supported by Christians. In fact, fueled by them, many times in the United States at least. Because not only do Christians support wars, but, it's an act that many Christians think one has to support in order to be a good Christian. Jesus flipped tables, but modern Christians have turned them. Rather than overturning justice, many Christians today seek to avoid injustices being done, being done against themselves by grasping at the levers of power, which end up actually creating injustice towards others.

Derek Kreider: 09:43

And the mercy that Martin doled out to beggars, that's something that we no longer do because our poor are supposedly of a different sort. They're undeserving poor. Considering our warmongering, wealth hoarding society, it really is amazing that Saint Martin's Day has not only been a prominent feast day for so many centuries, but that November 11th has come to be celebrated more globally. Now it's awesome that Saint Martin has a day to commemorate all of these things that we so badly need to remember as Christians. Mercy, peace, faithfulness.

Derek Kreider: 10:19

That's beautiful. Right? Unfortunately, Saint Martin's Day has been drowned out. It's been co opted. The celebrations in Germany and many other European countries, have been turned into celebrations that are kinda similar to Halloween with lights and candy and costumes and all that.

Derek Kreider: 10:41

Sometimes they'll commemorate more than this, but the most I could find is that sometimes, some places will have reenactments of Martin as a soldier cutting off his red cape. I just think about the imagery that that act conveys. Or you could see the mercy in it, and that would be beautiful that he's he's being merciful to a beggar. But really what I think people see is you have Martin portrayed as a beneficent and merciful soldier. Isn't that what protectors of the fatherland are?

Derek Kreider: 11:10

They're our heroes. They're instruments of peace and comfort for those within their borders. So Saint Martin, if he's remembered at all, he's remembered as a soldier, not represented or remembered as a peacemaker. Even the Wikipedia page at the time that I accessed it said nothing about Martin's larger story of peace. This type of reframing is something that we see so commonly.

Derek Kreider: 11:36

The co opting of a positive force in order to neuter it. I think it was Richard Rohr who I heard argue that the church essentially did this with Saint Francis. See, Saint Francis was all about throwing off riches, helping the poor, and bringing peace. He even made an excursion into the enemy territory of a Muslim that the Europeans were fighting. And he witnessed to this leader there.

Derek Kreider: 12:01

Like, he went over unarmed, I think, with one other guy, and they just went to to witness Christ to him. So Saint Francis, he he sought peace and mercy. But what did the church do? Well, they gave Francis a whole order. The Franciscans.

Derek Kreider: 12:17

That's great. Right? Just like any business will tell you though, after a large corporation absorbs them, being co opted doesn't allow you to disseminate your values, rather causes you to be conformed to the larger entity or institution. The Franciscans became like Saint Francis in name only because the church had largely co opted Saint Francis and transformed him into an entity that they could control. I mean, when I was in Italy, I saw some of the places used by the Franciscans, and they weren't at all the types of places that, look like accommodations Saint Francis would be setting up or approving of.

Derek Kreider: 12:56

Co opting is essentially the weaponization of peace. It's an institution or structure that feels threatened recognizing the threat and then bludgeoning that threat with peace. While the the church could have sought to destroy Saint Francis, that would have cost them greatly as he had garnered such a large following. He was popular. But if the church seemed to embrace him, they could not only appear to be on Francis's side, they could also profit off Francis's popularity and support.

Derek Kreider: 13:28

Institutions don't like loose canons, especially canons whose prophetic message is aimed back at one's own ranks. So if you commandeer the canon, you can aim it any which way you'd like. It's not just the church that does this kind of thing. Our society and government does the same thing with people like Martin Luther King Junior. We named roads after him and put up monuments while leaving King's broader, deeper teachings and legacy unspoken, and the problems that he identified unresolved.

Derek Kreider: 13:59

But you'd never know any of that because looking at any map of the Atlanta area where I'm from makes it seem as though King was far more influential than he ended up being. King King's name has been co opted so that our society can say that racism is gone and that we've made peace, when in reality, we've just silenced outcries with the invocation of a name. We've talked a bit about silencing in regard to monuments and such before. We've talked about how monuments like the apotheosis of Washington or the Lincoln Memorial can silence the bad by emphasizing and over exaggerating the good, particularly thinking about the, the episode that we did on Haiti here. As true, you can silence the bad in this way by overemphasizing the good, But you can also erect monuments and co opt good leaders to make it seem as though there is recognition for their ideas when it's actually a way of silencing them.

Derek Kreider: 14:57

Read the radical king, and you'll see that he was much more about poverty and war and and that many of his core ideas are not addressed today. He's he's overly simplified, in order to silence him today. And in light of all this co opting we humans like to do, it sure seems to me that Saint Martin's Day has been co opted and transformed. Yes. It was neutered a bit throughout Europe ages ago into the focusing on Saint Martin's Mercy apart from his peace.

Derek Kreider: 15:26

But, you know, there has been an even greater neutering and bastardization of Saint Martin's Day since then. On November 11, 1919, many nations in the Western world began the celebration of Armistice Day. It was a day intended to remember not only the military dead, but the war dead in general. In many places, this is actually it was called Remembrance Day rather than Armistice Day. I think it actually still is in Germany.

Derek Kreider: 15:53

It was a day intended to reflect on the havoc that war brings, and it was a day to celebrate the armistice, which ended the war that would end all wars. It was a holiday that remembered the horror of war and hope for a peaceful world without it. Of course, we have a century of hindsight, which enables us to see this notion of a peaceful and warless world as rather naive, but there were forebodings in the great war's final gasps, which indicated the type of world that would be birthed out of this new armistice, and it would not be a world of peace. For starters, there was the symbolic fact that Amines, the very city in which Saint Martin had given his cloak to a beggar in mercy, was the main location for which a counter offensive began to end the war only 3 months before the war's end. Where Martin had once warned a poor man with his red cloak, men and women were now made beggars by the tens of thousands and innumerable cloaks used to cover the countless dead.

Derek Kreider: 16:58

It was here that the Amin's gun was captured as well. One of the largest artillery pieces of the war used to deliver death from tens of kilometers away. In the main three days of the conflict here, forces incurred nearly 50,000 combined casualties. And all of this at the hands of Christians who worship the same God as Saint Martin, a God whose law, Saint Martin had said, made clear that it was unlawful to fight. Did an armistice soaked with the blood of enemies have any real chance of producing peace?

Derek Kreider: 17:36

Of course, symbolism and hypocrisy weren't the only foreshadowing of a failed peace because you see, for those who despise an enemy's life, it's only a small step to despise all human life, and nothing shows the despising of life more than the final hours of the great war. In the last 11 hours of the war between midnight and 11 AM, the war racked up more casualties than were experienced on d day of World War 2. But whereas d Day's casualties came as the result of a battle to gain the upper hand in a war that wasn't yet won, the November 11, 1918 casualties, which were incurred with the knowledge that the war was already over essentially, with the with very few exceptions, most leaders knew that an armistice was going to be signed on November 11th. And many leaders even knew that an armistice had been signed prior to delivering orders for assaulting the German positions. Orders for assault, which came all the way up to 10:30 AM, mere half hour before the war officially ended.

Derek Kreider: 18:40

Why waste close to 11,000 human lives in a war that was essentially over? The reasons abounded with some more conjectural than others. Some leaders were looking to make a name for themselves and saw these last moments as their final chance for glory and promotion. Some were cowards, and they dared not question the orders that they received. And they ordered their men forward out of fear or duty or cowardice.

Derek Kreider: 19:10

The British and Canadians seem to have pride bound up in their final sacrifice. The war for them had begun in Mons where they had re to retreat from the Germans. So it only seemed fitting to some of the the leadership that in the final hours, they take back Mons and make the Germans retreat. Some of the divisions sent to die were expendable in the eyes of leaders. The 92nd Black Division, for example.

Derek Kreider: 19:35

Why not sacrifice a few black lives if it meant killing some more Germans while it was still accepted? For others, like the US soldier to die, the last US soldier to die in the war, just a mere few seconds before the war ended, Henry Gunther, it was his last chance to redeem himself. He had told his friends, earlier in the war to avoid the war due to its horrors and the pointlessness of it. Well, army censors, of course, intercepted this letter and demoted Gunther to private. And he was from that point on viewed as a German sympathizer.

Derek Kreider: 20:10

So from then on, Gunther volunteered for dangerous missions, and he eventually charged some German machine gun nests at 10:59 and a bunch of seconds on November 11th in hopes that his name would be redeemed. And it was. You can now visit post 1858 in Maryland and find sergeant Henry Gunther VFW. That's right. And his rank was reinstated posthumously for his valiant sacrifice.

Derek Kreider: 20:39

Sacrifice for what? Many Americans had the same question that you probably have right now. Why was there all this waste of life when we knew that the war was over? In a congressional inquest, that question was posed to a number of leaders as well. While their answers were largely attempted avoidances, one of the questions asked to them was also how many generals died on the last day?

Derek Kreider: 21:05

Of course, the answer to that question was 0, and how many other high ranking officers died that day? The leaders said that they didn't know, but the assumption was 0. The lives of simple expendable men were thrown away by those with status and power who were unwilling to sacrifice their own lives. Speaking of power, the final foreshadowing of a tumultuous peace was the peace treaty that came out of the armistice. Now most people know that the terms of the peace treaty with Germany were so harsh and unjust that they led to World War 2, but the Germans were were not viewed as humans in this peace treaty.

Derek Kreider: 21:45

They were viewed instead as as enemies. President Harry Truman, who served in World War 1, and the president who would later decide to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he loved power. If you've seen the movie Oppenheimer, you'll catch a glimpse of Truman's dealings with the scientist and his disregard for warnings about the devastation to human life that the bomb brings and the blood that it brings onto one's conscience. Truman really doesn't wanna hear about consequences, though. He just wants the power to do what he thinks is best for him and his people despite that cost in human lives, especially the human lives of enemies.

Derek Kreider: 22:24

Truman gives us a glimpse of his disregard for this human life, including civilian lives, when he wrote a letter to his soon to be wife describing his hatred of the Germans. In this letter, which I'll link in the show notes, Truman said, quote, it's a shame we can't go in and devastate the, Germany and cut off a few of the Dutch kids' hands and feet and scalp a few of their old men, but I guess it will be better to make them work for France and Belgium for 50 years, end quote. Of course, Truman's hatred for the Germans and his specific methods of violence here are referencing the propaganda against Germany. This idea that the Germans had gone into Belgium and were chopping off the kids' hands and stuff. So Truman just wanted some revenge.

Derek Kreider: 23:11

It's a a sad sort of irony, though, that Belgium Belgium was the the country who had gone into the Congo and chopped off tens or hundreds of thousands of human hands in in in their, empire only a decade before. And, actually, with the tacit approval of the United States, who's the 1st country to recognize King Leopold the second sovereignty over the Congo. But that's a rabbit trail I'll save for a distant episode, that I'm I'm planning. Anyway, the point is that there was great animosity towards Germany, and that animosity was reflected in in this treaty that was called the Treaty of Peace, though it was anything but that. As a result of the so called peace treaty, Germany was economically neutered.

Derek Kreider: 24:04

They lost some of their most productive land, and 100 of 1,000, if not more than a 1000000 people starved to death as a result of these measures along with the blockade on Germany. While the armistice and the subsequent peace treaty may have silenced the guns for a time, the terms only made future conflict inevitable. A few decades later, war did come, and peace was silenced by the roar of the cannons once again. All naivete about the possibility of perpetual peace, about a war to end all wars, that was thrown off. The realization that war was a way of life became clear, especially after the final scene of the war, the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the atomic bomb.

Derek Kreider: 24:49

This dropping of the atomic bomb marked death in a number of ways, not merely a death of the possibility for peace. It also meant the death of Christianity in a sense. Consider that the Urakami district of Nagasaki was a historically Christian center of the country, home to an estimated 15,000 Christians who had avoided the government's ban on Christianity throughout the centuries. With one atomic bomb, 10,000 of the 15,000 Christians, 2 thirds of them were killed immediately. Christians killed by Christians.

Derek Kreider: 25:25

It is the Japanese Christians buried their dead, our dead, our Christian brothers and sisters. A new life seemed to spring up in American Christianity. President Truman, the destroyer of Christian lives in Japan and the one who wanted to scalp and maim Christian children and the aged in Germany, when he was introduced as the man who helped to create Israel, Truman replied, what do you mean helped to create? I am Cyrus. I am Cyrus.

Derek Kreider: 25:58

With enemies obliterated and a soon to be contested monopoly on nuclear weapons and with the power to resurrect whole nations from the dustbin of antiquity, Christian America was reinvigorated with a new zeal to grasp at the levers of power. The president who would immediately follow the great president Cyrus was a man of war as well, Dwight d Eisenhower. Eisenhower's America was now pitted against the communist threat, a threat not only to economic and political thought, but to theological thought as well. For communism was an ideology with godlessness at its core. And what could the world need more than Christian crusaders to take the helm of the most powerful nation on earth, commandeer its armed forces, and fight this godlessness.

Derek Kreider: 26:48

Eisenhower was aware of such symbolic force and the constituency that religious adherence promised. This is why I think, at least in part, Eisenhower became the 1st president to be baptized in office. He did this only 10 days into his presidency. It's only 4 days prior to the 1st national prayer breakfast. My, how he found God fast.

Derek Kreider: 27:11

Maybe you think that's a little bit unfair, but baptism is like a core component of what it means to be a Christian. And Eisenhower, all the way back in 1948, you know, half a decade before he became president, a reporter asked him about his infrequent worship in church. And Eisenhower replied, he said, quote, I am the most intensely religious man I know, end quote. Yet he didn't get baptized until he became president. So following the baptism and the national, prayer breakfast there in 1953, all within the first 3 weeks or so of his inauguration.

Derek Kreider: 27:56

Eisenhower, or at least his administration, the government that surrounded him, continued its symbolic push towards Christianity. Eisenhower helped to ensure that under God was inserted into the pledge of allegiance in June of 1954 and supported in God we trust being placed on all currency in 1955. And while all this blending of church and state was going on, this sacralizing of Christianity, Brown versus the Board of Education was decided, and racism raged on our home. Simultaneously, Eisenhower and the CIA entrenched and expanded the brutal politics of the US through assassinations and threats. I think a quote from the book, The Devil's Chessboard summarizes this era pretty succinctly.

Derek Kreider: 28:42

It says, quote, the Eisenhower Dulles era was a Pax Americana enforced by terror. The administration ensured US postwar global dominance by threatening enemies with nuclear annihilation or with coups and assassinations. It was empire on the cheap, the product of Ike's desire to avoid another large scale shooting war as well as the imperial burdens that had bankrupted Great Britain. By leveraging the US military's near monopoly on nuclear firepower, the president hoped to make war an unthinkable proposition for any and all American adversaries By utilizing the CIA's dark side of hand, the commander in chief aimed to render it unnecessary for the marines to go crashing ashore in far flung locals where unfriendly governments had taken office. End quote.

Derek Kreider: 29:30

But just as Cyrus had no problem nuking 2 thirds of Nagasaki's Christian population, neither did Eisenhower's military have a problem devastating many Christians across the globe. Because a lot of the violence occurred in in places like South and Central America, where so many coups and military operations took place, in primarily Christian areas. As Jesus Galindez summarized this period, quote, never before in the history of the world has one single government more effectively supported dictatorial powers and free nations, end quote. That was said shortly before the United States helped mister Glendes to disappear. Yes.

Derek Kreider: 30:19

America has known peace at home, and many an invader has been kept at bay knowing that the US army is ready to be the policeman of the world, wherever they deem the lives and oil are worth protecting. So, sure, there's been peace and stability to a certain extent on much the world stage, That peace is illusory in at least two ways. 1st, it's illusory because that peace comes at the end of a sword. It's a peace obtained by threat. Such a peace isn't true shalom, reconciliation, and a peace of fullness.

Derek Kreider: 30:52

It's artificial peace. But secondly, this peace is illusory because while middle class America and up might experience Pax Americana as comfortable security, This peace is built on the lives of so many slaughtered and threatened civilians in developing nations. Coups and overthrown democracies, military interventions for oil while refraining from non beneficial interventions and stopping genocides, strong arming the perpetuation of unjust labor practices and economic entrapment to feed Western materialism. Sure. We can call this peace because it feels peaceful to a minority percentage of Americans, but it's really a facade of peace, a facade that masks the house of terrors that lies behind it.

Derek Kreider: 31:41

The Bible calls this house of terrors Babylon, a false prophet who proclaims peace and co ops the church, embraces materialism and comfort, breeds idolatry and destruction. This is not Jesus' peace. Yet this is the peace that since World War 2, so many American Christians have been proclaiming and embracing. This is the peace that so many American Christians want the power to continue as they grasp at the levers of government and military. This new life that has been breathed into American Christianity has not only resurrected the ancient state of Israel, has resurrected the ancient city of Babylon, an idolatrous city masquerading as savior, masquerading as a prince of peace.

Derek Kreider: 32:27

It should be no surprise to us then that Babylon's peace has led to the transformation of today to the co opting of Saint Martin's Day. The armistice and subsequent peace treaty that ended World War 1 was a peace that, like the Pax Americana and the Pax Romana, relied on the power of armies and the threat of a sword. Alternative kingdoms to Christ's kingdom run on the blood of the oppressed and on the edge of the sword. Because Babylon needs this power to wage war, it has sacralized the military into a religious locus of worship. Now rather than celebrate Saint Martin's mercy and peace, or even the peace of an armistice, we celebrate today as Veterans Day.

Derek Kreider: 33:12

But why Veterans Day? When did this change take place? This co opting of a day of peace into a day to remember warriors and the battles they raged against their enemies? If you paid any attention at all this episode, I bet you can nail the dates to within a year or 2. That's right.

Derek Kreider: 33:32

1954. On June 1, 1954, in the middle or towards the beginning of Dwight d Eisenhower's presidency, only a little over a year after Eisenhower was baptized in office, a little over a year after the first prayer breakfast, and less than 2 weeks before In God We Trust was inserted into the pledge of allegiance, United States of America began to celebrate November 11th as Veterans Day. The US was clearly already waging an ideological war as evidenced by McCarthyism and all the religious posturing by the government. But the US was also gearing up for a physical altercation with communist countries. They didn't now know how long the Cold War was going to remain cold.

Derek Kreider: 34:14

They knew that to keep all their client states unleashes and any opportunists at bay, to keep this Pax Americana? They needed a strong military. How convenient it was then to teach the masses how to celebrate the God of war. God they were already making sacrifices to. With Veterans Day, sacrifice became sacralized in yet another act.

Derek Kreider: 34:41

While America and God were being fused together by the state, so too was military. This helps to explain the following years when we see terrible wars like the one in Vietnam or the second war with Iraq. 2 wars that were fueled strongly by conservative Christians despite a broader distaste in the rest of the public. How could Christians be fans of war at all, let alone unjust ones? Because the state had drained them well.

Derek Kreider: 35:07

It had drawn them in with the promise of power and prestige, something Reinhold Niebuhr saw and cautioned against as early as 1969 in his article, The King's Chapel and the King's Court. Thus, November 11th, Martin Maas, the first advent intended to usher in the Prince of Peace, became a day to commemorate war. Such a thing only makes sense though. I mean, those who have refused to fight have long been hated and condemned by their fellow countrymen. Why would we want to commemorate the silence of guns, this peace?

Derek Kreider: 35:45

It's only in the last 150 years that pacifists haven't been killed outright or sent to prison for their refusal to fight, and only the last 100 or so since they've been able to avoid prison or significant abuse in in certain countries during times of war. The Quakers were often hated and abused for their refusal to fight. Hitler blamed pacifists in part for their loss in World War 1. And you can see in Bonhoeffer's letters of advice to friends and students that he recognized that there was a price for his recommendation in avoiding war because it could mean the death of those who heeded such advice. George Patton on the American side felt similarly about pacifists.

Derek Kreider: 36:25

In a poem that Patton wrote on Armistice Day, November 11, 1918, we see a poem longing for the day when he can once again know, quote, the white hot joy of taking human life, end quote. Patton says, something about pacifists in this terrible poem. He says, quote, looking forward, I could see life like a festering sewer, full of the fecal pacifists, which peace makes us endure. Patton here is writing this terrible poem about how great it is to take human life and how he's gonna miss it and and all that stuff. And here, when he talks about the pacifist, he's saying that he's depressed that the war is over and that he and the rest of his society must now endure peace, which means that Patton must also put up with the pacifists until war comes around again and the pacifists can be despised.

Derek Kreider: 37:26

Other stories from World War 2 abound in regard to to a disdain for for pacifists and their brand of peace. Now Desmond Dawes, if you've ever seen the movie Hacksaw Ridge, which is a great movie, he comes to mind. As well as Franz, can't say his last name, Jagerstaetter. He's represented in the movie A Hidden Life. He's actually believe, canonized by the Catholic church.

Derek Kreider: 37:51

He became a saint, but he's this guy who just refuses to fight. And everybody's like, dude, just just do it. And then he's like, well, do I have to take an oath to Hitler? Like, I'm not gonna fight, but okay. I can I can join the army and, you know, I'll be in a medical brigade or whatever?

Derek Kreider: 38:10

Kinda like Desmond Dawes, but, I can't take an oath to Hitler. I'm like, dude, just just say say you will. You don't have to mean it. You can say whatever you want and not mean it. And everybody keeps counseling him in this consequentialist ethic of just, look.

Derek Kreider: 38:25

You're not doing your family any good. You're not doing anybody any good by just dying for nothing. But he sticks to his guns, and they end up executing him, just like Sophie Scholl, via guillotine. So, yeah, they don't like pacifists even even up to World War 2. They're killed for refusal to fight.

Derek Kreider: 38:49

History is just absolutely filled with disdain for those who denounce war and who refuse to, be propagandized into blinds allegiance to a nation. Peace at the edge of the sword is cherished and revered, while pacifists are hated. They're hated because they tear a hole in the fabric of the worship of the God of war. False gods and false worship require delusion and cohesiveness. If someone with withholds their worship, and even worse, if they uncover the object of worship as an imposter, they then deny the meaning that the acolytes wish to procure from their worship.

Derek Kreider: 39:28

They tear a hole in that fabric. They drain the meaning that society has fused into the altar. Or as Wilfred Owen put it, a World War 1 poet and and unfortunate casualty of the great war dying in its waning hours. Owen said, that this idea, that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. He says that this is an old lie.

Derek Kreider: 40:01

He saw right through it. That's amazing how someone like Owen and someone like Patton could see the exact same horror of war, yet they arrived at 2 completely different conclusions. I'm sure there are all kinds of motivations and reasons that go into shaping one's views about the glory or the the deprecation of war. Yet I think something else that Patton said, elsewhere to to in some of his speeches or some of his subordinates, I think this thing that he says highlights what might often be a significant difference between those who embrace war and those who denounce it. You can also see this if you watch the movie, Patton.

Derek Kreider: 40:40

It's in in the first, like, 5 minute speech. It's a the guy is a terrible guy, but, man, it's a it's a really good, speech that he just lays everything bare out in the open. Patton says, quote, no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making some other poor dumb bastard die for his country, end quote. Patton loved war because he never planned on being a sacrifice.

Derek Kreider: 41:07

He planned on sacrificing the enemy on the altar of Mars or Ares. This is, in my opinion, why we Americans love war. It doesn't ever really cost us anything. Does it? I mean, not really.

Derek Kreider: 41:23

When you compare American losses to the losses of those that we fight, our deaths are a pittance. And since Vietnam, we haven't faced any serious losses of life. We haven't made any serious sacrifices in terms of numbers killed, or even of of our own property destroyed. I mean, when when have we ever been threatened in the United States, you know, other than 911? We we haven't really experienced any losses, on the mainland.

Derek Kreider: 41:53

A 20 year war in Iraq and Afghanistan killed about 7000 Americans. But for the Iraqis and the Afghans, they lost 100 of 1,000, Many of those civilians. Who really was sacrificed on the altar? I mean, it makes sense, doesn't it? Patton's right, and I appreciate his candidness.

Derek Kreider: 42:16

War is intended to be a human sacrifice, but that sacrifice is intended to be the other person in order to benefit myself and my nation. It's only when you begin to see the other as human rather than enemy, and peace is reconciliation rather than threat, you can arrive at a place where Aries is no longer your God. But that's not the kind of peace that Babylon wants because Babylon fosters power and comfort. If you're the one in control and you can maintain your comfort, you do that at all costs, especially the cost of other. So today, November 11th, has long been a Christian holy day.

Derek Kreider: 43:01

In spite living in a secular age, it has not stopped being a holy day. This holy day, like other holidays, is a commemoration with purpose. It's a day when society and tradition tell us what and who to worship. Saint Martin pointed us to look outward towards loving God and others in mercy and peace, true peace. Our modern celebration on November 11th, however, points us inward to the love of self and one's own at the expense of other and at the denial of God's law.

Derek Kreider: 43:37

I think the date given for Saint Martin's commemoration is especially fitting then. See, the saints are usually not commemorated on the day that they're born, but rather on the day that they die. But Saint Martin isn't celebrated on either of those dates, actually, because, he died on November 8th. Instead, he celebrated on 11th because it was the day that he was buried, Where he requested? In a cemetery for the poor.

Derek Kreider: 44:06

I think this is fitting for the commemoration of St. Martin because what is peace and what is mercy other than a dying to self? A dying to selfishness, to greed, to gluttony, and to hatred, and a burying of our enmity and prejudice and judgment. This dying to self isn't some kind of masochistic endeavor with no hope, just being some doormat. Whether it's a dying to one's lesser self in anticipation of the promised resurrection unto our revealed selves in Christ.

Derek Kreider: 44:38

This is the very thing that baptism depicts, our having died with Christ and rising again as new men and women. That's what Christianity is all about. Not making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country, not sacrificing other, rather laying down our lives for our country, our true country, our kingdom, the kingdom of God. World War 1 was a terrible war filled with so much bloodshed and pain. Yet in the end, all that the weapons and the killing did was change the geography.

Derek Kreider: 45:14

When I was in Belgium, I actually had the opportunity to visit Ypres, a place where they had dug underground tunnels and set explosives under the enemy. Even today, a 100 years after the war, the geography has been clearly marked by the war, yet the hearts of humanity weren't changed. In fact, if anything, they were hardened with even more hatred, and it became the precursor to the next World War. Waging war against flesh and blood, against other humans, is a task unbefitting a Christian. Not only because, as Saint Martin said, it is against God's law, but also because it's stupid.

Derek Kreider: 45:55

It doesn't work. It has the opposite results. So today, as the world around you celebrates war and celebrates those who wage it, remember Saint Martin. A saint who is willing to put down a sword and die that others might live. That's all for now.

Derek Kreider: 46:15

So peace, And because I'm a pacifist, when I say it, I mean it. This podcast is a part of the Kingdom Outpost network. Please check out the links below to find other great podcasts and content related to nonviolence and Kingdom Living.