A quick web search for ‘psalms of war’ uncovers some fairly disturbing material. Reader comments on Psalms of War: Prayers that Literally Kick Ass1 take you down a rabbit hole into the minds of those who attacked the White House, actively pray for Israel to bring on Armageddon, and see America as the righteous nation. And yet, those of us in Europe who’ve lived our lives in the bubble of post-war peace have been made to rethink as we’ve seen injustices and atrocities in Ukraine, and the bravery of ordinary people taking up arms to defend their freedom.
The uncomfortable fact is that the Bible is full of war and violence, with multiple imprecatory psalms calling down divine vengeance on enemies, and the New Testament urging us to put on the full armour of God as we face a spiritual battle. Elsewhere in this issue we’ll wrestle with the wider issues, but here I want to consider the relationship between war and environment.
Several months into the invasion of Ukraine, I was asked to take part in a webinar on ‘creation care in a war zone.’ To some the very subject may seem strange. Surely, it’s argued, the suffering of people comes first in wartime? Isn’t looking after nature a peacetime luxury? Pragmatically, that is exactly how governments have reacted, channelling funding away from nature protection and into producing weapons (armaments not aardvarks) and increasing fossil fuel production despite the climate crisis.
Yet the request for the webinar came from Ukrainian Christians, horrified at the destruction of forests, the polluting of rivers, and the suffering of domestic and wild animals. Amongst the speakers was a Congolese pastor, seeking to protect uniquely valuable wildlife habitats amidst decades of civil war and repeated invasions. Currently A Rocha is in conversation with multiple groups in war-torn DRC seeking to affiliate to our Friends of A Rocha scheme.
The reality is that it is false and unbiblical to think we can protect people without protecting God’s creation. In Deuteronomy 20, amidst deeply uncomfortable instructions on how to wage war, God tells his people not to destroy fruit frees, asking rhetorically, ‘Are the trees people, that you should besiege them?’ (verse 19).
