Cultivating Care

Those of us who lead countries either as President, Prime Minister or by another title have a unique challenge. We are compelled to establish a military command presence in order to protect the citizens of our country, yet we are forboden lest we create in our military personnel hearts of stone, when God commands that our hearts should be full of love and compassion. So, how is it possible to train someone to destroy militarily, for purposes of protecting the citizens of the country, yet protect their hearts from becoming calloused? They need to perform every military action they undertake in the name of Christ, and in order to facilitate the purposes of his kingdom.

​This may sound insincere to those of us who have witnessed or have endured past religious abuses, as well as the misquotes of Scripture for perverse motives. The main difference is that when you contemplate military action with the purest of spiritual motives, you always question whether you would want the other party to do the same to you, under similar circumstances, to do the same for you, under similar circumstances, or to do the same with you, under similar circumstances. If the answer is yes, you should proceed with the precise military action contemplated, but if the answer is no, military action should not be commenced or continued.

When training our military personnel, we must train them to ask the same or similar questions every time they take individual action against an enemy force. In that way, they will take only the actions necessary for self-preservation and for protecting the citizens of the country. Every order or command they receive always will have attached to it a guiding principle. Every order or command always will have an outer limit, a circumference. When one operates by the principle of doing to others only what you would want them to do to you under similar circumstances, there never will be gross abuses of power, there never will be accusations of torture, and there never will be hearts of stone profaning our military presence. God Almighty reigns eternally.

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