I Don't Recognize Your Jesus

Sir,
I don't recognize your Jesus. That is the simplest way for me to say this. You say that God has given the leader of our country the authority to wipe another person off the earth by whatever means necessary. You acknowledge that this includes means that would annihilate millions of lives. Eliminating exponential scores of people alongside the man who has cruelly punished them is no sort of justice. It surely isn't in the realm of anything one would call pro-life. The act is evil, pure and simple and you are saying that God is blessing this: a means of death and destruction, tools full of utter disregard for humanity, and weapons that could wipe life from the face of God's good creation.

I do not recognize your Jesus. I don't hear your Jesus blessing peacemakers or loving his enemies. I don't see him offering forgiveness or weeping over the lost. I don't see him laying down his life for others. And I'm sure you might point out that Jesus once said that he would bring a sword. But this, nuclear destruction, is not what he was talking about and let's not pretend you think that was what he was talking about either.

Your Jesus is not the Prince of Peace and Son of God I see in the Bible. He is a cartoon cowboy riding a weapon of mass devastation in a Kubrickian farce. Your Jesus screams "MAGA!" and reigns over the Kingdom of the U.S.A. rather than the borderless Kingdom of God. Your Jesus blesses excruciating death rather than being the one who overcame it.

Do you recognize that your Jesus is different? Is this the Son of God you saw in children's Bible illustrations? Is this the savior you imagined when you sang "Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World"? What happened that made you see the cross in a color palette of red, white, and blue? And can you possibly find your way back?

I will admit that there is no way that I could sit here and tell you everything that Jesus is. I am not near smart enough for that. But I can tell you with confidence that this Jesus of yours is not the true Jesus. He would not laud death nor want to see millions of souls extinguished in nuclear holocaust. He does not hold one country above the other. He does not support devastation and fear. That is not the Jesus who implored his followers to love their neighbors and turn the other cheek. Sir, and I try to say this with all due respect, it seems that your savior is wrapped in a flag that didn't even exist when he walked the earth and that flag is suffocating his words.

I know this entire issue of war, peace, and nuclear disarmament is complicated, but I pray that you would reconsider your reckless words. I hope that the supposed blessing that you've blared in the president's ear does not lead to millions of lost lives; including yours and mine.

But even if one digit of the nuclear code isn't pressed, you've already done massive damage. As your words have spread across the world, so does your lie about God. You have lied about God's dream for this world. You have lied about how peace and justice are to be spread. I know that you have lied and Christians from all kinds of traditions, backgrounds, and beliefs know that you have lied. Yet I fear for those who think that you may be revealing something about God. I fear for those who think that God gives approval to nuclear devastation and cares about America before all others.

I fear for people that think your Jesus is the genuine article. He is not. I am wrong about many things in life including matters of faith, but I do not recognize your Jesus. I don't see him in scripture. I don't see him in the sprawling, beautiful, and sometimes messy story of the church. That's really why I write this. I doubt you'll ever see this, but I hope that someone who may wonder about your lie will read this and hear someone say that the Jesus that blesses nuclear war is not the true Jesus.

I do not bid you farewell, but I do implore you to find Jesus--the true Jesus--and stop following this fake. You have such a big platform right now. Find the real Jesus. For your sake and the sake of many others.

Grace and peace,
Chris