What propels us toward war? Why do we rush toward battle in the belief that combat and killing will make us safe? We could talk about the economic and military and cultural roots of the conflict—and that is important to understand. But tonight I want to talk about belief. Again Habakkuk, this time in chapter one, gives us insight.

Speaking of the Chaldean armies of his time, Habakkuk complains:

"Dread and fearsome are they;
their justice and dignity proceed from themselves" (Habk 1: 7)

In verse 1: 11 "..Their own might is their god."

And verses 1: 15-16, ". . .He (the Chaldeans) brings all of them (the people) up with a hook; he drags them out with his net. He gathers them in his seine. Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his seine, for by them his portion is lavish and his food is rich."

Habakkuk complains that the Chaldeans have come to worship themselves, their own power, and their weapons of war, allegorically described as hook, seine, and net.

I believe this is what we face. We also live in a time when the nations and those in positions of privilege have come to worship their own power and the military forces which they use to "…claim dwellings not their own."

Walter Wink, a theologian and author, wrote a remarkable book— Engaging the Powers, which gives insight on the world around us and the role of active nonviolence. Wink points out that we all live in a culture, which for many centuries is founded in the belief in combat as the way that goodness overcomes evil. This belief, dating back at least to ancient Babylon, is the undercurrent of our myths. The ritual story is always the same. The hero is attacked by evil and almost overcome. But, in the end, good prevails through strength and skill in combat and slays the evil enemy.

This myth pervades our own culture in the West. Whether Gary Cooper in the western movie High Noon, or Superman, or with a darker veneer of the outlaw-heroes of current times, this myth of what Wink terms the belief in "redemption through violence" becomes the underlying structure of our culture and actions.

Make no mistake. This is a system of religious faith—often-blind faith—in the effectiveness of military force or the threat of force (which is sometimes mistaken for a peaceful alternative). So pervasive is this myth that we speak of military force as "the last resort" as if it would, though costly, be guaranteed to work. In reality, while one military force may defeat another, the war rarely achieves any other aims. Once a war starts, defeating the enemy becomes the only war aim, and the original goals are forgotten.