Tread lightly on the things of earth

I like Vaughn’s entry, “In the end, was it worth it?,” in which he weighs costs against benefits of the Iraq adventure so far.

Iraqis can vote!

To which I further the observation that to get to this point, we’ve

• elevated the U.S. flag from symbol to idol (why, God bless America — look how many church altars it’s next to, how many bumper Ichthii it’s bigger than)
• used God’s name in vain (that is, made war in his name, vainly)
• lied about our rationale (imminent threat, then WMD — it’s a certainty! there’s no doubt! — then freedom, now democracy/voting)
• borne false witness against persons and nations (invading a country under false pretenses is “false witness” writ large)
• tortured the innocent (Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib)
• killed people en masse with bombs (17,000—-100,000 dead in Iraq, 33%+ of whom were children under 15)
• coveted our neighbors’ oil (willingness to invade and kill to gain control over anything implies covet)
• squandered our good name (our actions have led to fear and loathing, which means we’ve dishonored our forefathers’ and foremothers’ effort and sacrifice in laying a foundation of U.S. trustworthiness)
• squandered our children’s lives and well-being (1,438 U.S. military fatalities, 10,000+ wounded in action)
• squandered our treasure ($152 billion spent in Iraq and counting)
• mortgaged our children’s future ($7.6 trillion U.S. national debt and counting)
• not only not cared for our own poor, widows, and orphans, but instead enthusiastically created more elsewhere

No rainbow of virtue, this, even if we quibble about degree. More like a smorgasbord of sin, hamartia, of missing the mark.

But look! — as a result, Iraqis can vote!

Assuming that’s an actual outcome, an actual success, an actual instance of grace — a stretch, I think, given the circumstances, but I’ll assume it anyway in praise of the courage shown by the voters — I find myself asking the same question Paul asks:

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

Paul’s answer is

God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

I infer that our answer, in contrast to Paul’s, as made visible in our actions independent of our words, is —

Hell, yes, we shall continue in sin. It gets us what we want, lets us avoid that whole responsibility and repentance thing, and when grace occasionally abounds, we can spin it as our doing, not God’s.

Iraqis voted!

But the consequences of our actions — our sin — haven’t magically vanished; they still inexorably roll, now and into the next generations. The wages of sin is still … anyone, anyone?

The boat is so beautiful, the boat we’ve so missed.

(The good news is, we could still catch it. The bad news is, we’re headed inland.)