Again we find ourselves, America, at war in the Middle East. And we can’t seem to keep religion out of it. 

White Christian Nationalists claim the conflict was inevitable, sanctioned by God. Paving the path for Christ with the bodies of Iranian schoolgirls? With drones and bombs? I have concerns. 

God, Pete Hegseth claims, is on our side. Justifying the violence of war with Christian-extremist rhetoric, framing our military action as biblically sanctioned. This is what those of us who have spent our lives studying sacred texts in the academy, working for religious institutions and serving our communities call “bad theology.” Theology that contorts God and the Bible to fit a story of winners (“us”) and losers (“them”). That twists words to affirm the goodness of some at the expense of others. 

I lead a religious community where Jews, Muslims, Christians, atheists, Buddhists and pagans worship together. And here is what I have learned about God: God sides with love. In sacred texts, across traditions, time and again, we see the holy up close and proximate to human suffering. God sides with the oppressed, the outcast, never the wager of war.

Hell is not a place some go after death, but what we create here on Earth when we treat whole peoples as disposable, when we bring about the end times. And heaven? It can be built here, too. With our own hands, policies, voices and choices. 

Which shall we choose?

Rev. Tara Humphries
South Portland