(Part 1 of 2)
From my perspective, Barack Obama’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech was masterful. He confounded his critics and exasperated the Nobel Institute, which clearly prefers that recipients focus exclusively on peace. And while Mr. Obama certainly spoke of peace, he actually delivered an apology for war.
(If you haven’t heard or read the speech, I recommend you review the full text)
Ideas Rooted in Religion
Not surprisingly, ever since Mr. Obama’s Oslo appearance, analysts have been dissecting his message. Some perceive a striking alignment with Reinhold Niebuhr – a Lutheran theologian and advocate of America’s involvement in World War II. Prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Niebuhr wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt, urging the U.S. to join Allied forces in defeating Nazism.
The most obvious Obama/Niebuhr parallel recognizes that the human condition is inherently tainted by evil – and suggests that violence is “sometimes necessary” to contain this evil. Some call this perspective “Christian realism.” It stems from Christian theology that dates back to the earliest New Testament writings by St. Peter and St. Paul, which suggest that the Roman government existed to punish those who committed evil deeds. Peter and Paul urged Christians to maintain peace with others by obeying Roman law, practicing righteousness and remaining blameless.
Unfortunately, despite good behavior by Christians, Roman emperors such as Nero eventually felt threatened by this new religion, and violently repressed it. Persecution and martyrdom followed. As a result, Christians became among the first to practice non-violent opposition in response to oppressive rulers.
Soul-Searching Questions
Naturally, Mr. Obama’s speech leads us to ask key questions: Was Reinhold Niebuhr right? Are we inherently evil? And if so, is force necessary to contain it?
To answer these questions, Mr. Obama appealed to human history – including the era of Nazi aggression. While he seems to be dovetailing with Niebuhr’s worldview, he could just as easily be inspired by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran pastor whom the Nazis executed for treason. Bonhoeffer was part of a German group that tried to assassinate Adolph Hitler – believing it was necessary to prevent further evil. He justified this plot by saying, “There is no way to peace along the way to safety. For peace must be dared. It is the great venture.”
Good, Evil & Real-World Policy
As a political leader, Mr. Obama correctly notes that he doesn’t deal with abstract theory when he defines policies. Rather, he must deal with the world “as it is.” However, that forces the same question theologians have asked for thousands of years: Is violence evil when it’s used to fight a commonly recognized evil?
To find insight, let’s turn back the page once more to St. Peter and St. Paul. Both urged Christians not to resist Roman persecution. In fact, they encouraged believers to “overcome evil with good.”
However, the apostles weren’t striving to save the Church from its demise. They believed in Jesus’ imminent return to earth, which would initiate a new Kingdom of God. They weren’t concerned with life or death, because they believed God would defeat all evil in the world and create a whole new world order. Since they saw this world as temporary, even martyrdom was considered a “momentary light affliction,” unworthy of comparison with the glory of God’s Kingdom.
But so what? While these moral prescriptions are essential to Christians, they’re of limited value to those in political power. However, in Mr. Obama’s view, the philosophical tension between good and evil seems worthy of closer inspection.
So, what other connective tissue fundamentally links the emerging “Obama Doctrine” with historical theology? And how does it justify continued military action in Afghanistan? I examine this further in my next post (Nobel Theology – The Afghan Imperative).
Jeff
(To discover what it’s like for U.S. troops to offer protection and aid to desperately poor, oppressed Afghan people, I invite you to read my book, “AFGHAN JOURNAL: A Soldier’s Year in Afghanistan.” Learn more at the Afghan Journal website. Or order it at Amazon.com.)
