The Goodness of Evil

by Joseph Wakelee-Lynch

Not long ago The San Francisco Chronicle published an opinion from an engineer stationed in Iraq with the U.S. army. The piece first appeared as an open letter to a Lutheran congregation of which he was a member. He wrote to his fellow Christians that nothing they see in the U.S. media about Iraq should be trusted. He, in contrast, presented a litany of industrial resurrection that is taking place in oil production, water purification, electrical power production - all at the instigation of the United States and its altruistic ideals. The source of Iraq's problems, he observed, is Iraq itself - the Baath Party, the Iraqi army, or Iraqi civilian looters. Moreover, any destruction that Iraqis didn't cause themselves was due to the war they brought on themselves.

"There is no Christian way to say they must be eliminated," he wrote, "and we are doing so with all the efficiency we can muster... The United States and Britain are doing a very noble thing here. We stuck our necks out on the world chopping block to free a people."

One should be cautious, of course, when ascribing the views of one person to groups. But an unshakeable belief in the essential goodness of the United States, in the country, that is and not just its people, has long been a trait of Americans.

The sentiments of the opinion writer reveal not only a faith in the state that appears stronger than faith in the gospel but also a profound belief in our own fundamental goodness. One should be cautious, of course, when ascribing the views of one person to groups. But an unshakeable belief in the essential goodness of the United States, in the country, that is and not just its people, has long been a trait of Americans.

Most American Christians, it seems safe to say, accept no responsibility, for example, for the widespread destruction inflicted upon the Iraqi society by more than a decade of U.S. economic sanctions. In our eyes, Hussein's response to sanctions was to impoverish his people, and he, therefore, is entirely responsible. Hussein did, indeed, impoverish and persecute his people. Yet, for years Americans, including those in the churches, watched as a policy that we claimed would weaken a despot was transformed in Iraq to a policy that increased Hussein's control, squashed dissent, and ruined the lives of the great majority of the Iraqi people. As U.S. policy continued to fail to bring about the result the government claimed it desired, our rulers' response was not to alter the policy but prolong it. Our nation refuses to take responsibility for its actions, and most American Christians deny it as well.

We may rest reassured, because America's purpose in Iraq, once we have, in effect, denied that the Fall applies to us, is redemptive. Ours is a punishing altruism.

If we reject our responsibility for Iraq's destitution, then we can assert our altruism while rebuilding Iraq. We can assert our sinlessness. God's saving vision for world, according to this view, is in the hands - not of outcasts, fishers, a small handful of marginal and scared followers, as in Jesus' day - of the largest, mightiest, best-armed and most sacrificial military machine. And, according to this upside-down theological perspective, if that mission brings it into conflict with religions of non-Western unbelievers, who have little value because they do not believe what we believe, then so be it. We may rest reassured, because America's purpose in Iraq, once we have, in effect, denied that the Fall applies to us, is redemptive. Ours is a punishing altruism.

This view brings to mind one of Graham Greene's most perceptive novels, The Quiet American . Set in the early stages of the Vietnam War, when the United States was taking its first steps into that quagmire, Greene depicts an American agent who purposely sets a bomb in a public market. He aims to build support for an American-blessed political movement in that country. But the intended target escapes, while mothers and babies are killed. Pyle, the "quiet" American agent himself, muses to the book's English narrator that at least they had the good fortune of dying for a good cause. In his compressed, charged novel, Greene portrayed the goodness of evil in the contrast between the motivations and the tactics of an individual.

The U.S. war on Iraq has brought into a clearer light the profound belief in our own goodness that is held by most American Christians, and most Americans. It is a faith that superimposes God's imprimatur upon the national security goals of the American state. The church's view over the centuries of the state's relationship to God has indeed been that of a close relationship: For centuries, governments were seen as ordained by God to provide a social order necessary to human society. But, in America's civil religion, God confers a twisted legitimacy on an international order necessary to the U.S. state.

Joseph Wakelee-Lynch is a Witness contributing editor, and his regular website column is The View from Sardis. He lives in Berkeley, California, and may be reached by email at wakeleelynch@earthlink.net