The Justness of Gulf War

I would like to comment on Colman McCarthy’s thought-provoking column on the war, Billy Graham and the National Assn. of Religious Broadcasters (“Asking God to Bless War Is Blasphemy,” Column Left, Commentary, Feb. 5).

I am an evangelical Christian and am a member of an independent Protestant church. In my years of attending church, I have never been asked to check my brains or my conscience at the front door, nor would I ever do so. There are a lot of us out there who may not be as newsworthy as Billy Graham or the NRB convention, who do not equate Christianity with nationalism. We need to remind ourselves that God is not an American and there is a great gulf (no pun intended) between the cross and the flag.

Unlike my Mennonite brethren, I am not an absolute pacifist. I would personally have gone to war against Hitler. Would McCarthy like to be living under the Third Reich today? As for his reference to early Christians, they weren’t pacifists, they were outlaws! To be a Christian was a crime punishable by a ghastly death. If that were so today, we would at least be spared the spectacle of “Christian celebrities” falling into step with the flag-wavers. But as for President Bush’s dirty, not-so-little war, it isn’t just, and I wish he’d found another way to get reelected. I have two teen-age stepchildren and am acquainted with a great many other teen-agers. If Bush’s war drags on, I will use my utmost powers of persuasion to keep them out of it. And if a war tax is imposed, I guess I’ll just have to go to prison. I would at least hope to be in good company.

BARBARA EDSALL, Frazier Park