I said earlier that Christian war imagery was valuable, but I said that after going off on how it normally lends itself to getting people (namely me) all hyped up with nowhere to go. Naturally, my earlier post seemed to contradict itself horribly. The end result of said contradiction was widespread confusion, rampant panic, and mild indigestion. In an attempt to remedy the problem, I've written what's below. In other words, I wrote this post-thing to explain myself to the one person who reads this site. This is for you, Chuck.
When I said that war imagery was valuable, I meant it for the following reason: we're part of a war between Good and Evil, but since the war doesn't have a running death toll on TV every night, it's easy to get complacent. The fact that this complacency is actually more deadly in this war as compared to others (losing your soul is worse than dying) is strikingly easy to overlook. There are days when I wake up to a beautiful day, and it's very hard to convince myself that there's anything wrong with the world, let alone a battle between God and Satan over the fate of eternity. Days like that are why we need to be reminded about all that stuff we'd rather not think about. Frankly, I'd rather not think about demons or Satan or hell. But ignoring them won't make them go away, and it certainly won't help those around you.
Here's what I don't like: To avoid complacency, we get people riled up, all pumped and ready to crack heads. Then we ship them out the door where they won't get to crack any heads because, quite frankly, gratuitously cracking heads isn't a very Christian thing to do. This is the bit in the other post where I talked about wanting to storm recklessly into hordes of demons and pound them into submission with nothing but raw determination and a mannequin leg wielded like a cudgel. I may not have used those exact words, but the thought was the same.
This kind of hype is counter-productive, not because the world is in danger of me bludgeoning people with mannequin legs, but rather because the hype doesn't actually help me fight like I should fight. After a good chest-thumping war hype sermon, I'm full of righteous indignation fueled by zeal and fervor and many other things that are scary when not properly directed. The last thing I want to do when I'm in that mood is to sit down and pray or to talk to anyone about the love of Christ. Honestly, would you want a crazed man wielding a mannequin leg to talk to you about love?
And, of course, there's the inevitable let down at the end. All that energy to spend, and I can't spend it where I want. So it fizzles and fades, and I'm left sitting on the couch eating Cheatos and grunting at people who try to talk to me. The real work seems too dull, too mundane compared to the imagined glory of great spiritual battles. I always get reduced to a sort of mopey depression, the spiritual equivalent of the slump after a caffeine high.
The obvious question is: Can something be good, valuable even, if it can be misused so horribly? The answer is yes, and you know that even if you won't say it. Cars kill people, but most people won't argue that cars, in and of themselves, are intrinsically evil. They're useful, they just need to be used correctly.
And there you have it, the answer you've all been looking for: Christian war imagery is useful, even necessary, but can be easily misused and misunderstood. Which makes it complicated, just like everything else in this world.
When I said that war imagery was valuable, I meant it for the following reason: we're part of a war between Good and Evil, but since the war doesn't have a running death toll on TV every night, it's easy to get complacent. The fact that this complacency is actually more deadly in this war as compared to others (losing your soul is worse than dying) is strikingly easy to overlook. There are days when I wake up to a beautiful day, and it's very hard to convince myself that there's anything wrong with the world, let alone a battle between God and Satan over the fate of eternity. Days like that are why we need to be reminded about all that stuff we'd rather not think about. Frankly, I'd rather not think about demons or Satan or hell. But ignoring them won't make them go away, and it certainly won't help those around you.
Here's what I don't like: To avoid complacency, we get people riled up, all pumped and ready to crack heads. Then we ship them out the door where they won't get to crack any heads because, quite frankly, gratuitously cracking heads isn't a very Christian thing to do. This is the bit in the other post where I talked about wanting to storm recklessly into hordes of demons and pound them into submission with nothing but raw determination and a mannequin leg wielded like a cudgel. I may not have used those exact words, but the thought was the same.
This kind of hype is counter-productive, not because the world is in danger of me bludgeoning people with mannequin legs, but rather because the hype doesn't actually help me fight like I should fight. After a good chest-thumping war hype sermon, I'm full of righteous indignation fueled by zeal and fervor and many other things that are scary when not properly directed. The last thing I want to do when I'm in that mood is to sit down and pray or to talk to anyone about the love of Christ. Honestly, would you want a crazed man wielding a mannequin leg to talk to you about love?
And, of course, there's the inevitable let down at the end. All that energy to spend, and I can't spend it where I want. So it fizzles and fades, and I'm left sitting on the couch eating Cheatos and grunting at people who try to talk to me. The real work seems too dull, too mundane compared to the imagined glory of great spiritual battles. I always get reduced to a sort of mopey depression, the spiritual equivalent of the slump after a caffeine high.
The obvious question is: Can something be good, valuable even, if it can be misused so horribly? The answer is yes, and you know that even if you won't say it. Cars kill people, but most people won't argue that cars, in and of themselves, are intrinsically evil. They're useful, they just need to be used correctly.
And there you have it, the answer you've all been looking for: Christian war imagery is useful, even necessary, but can be easily misused and misunderstood. Which makes it complicated, just like everything else in this world.
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Is nothing sacred in this world?