I Don't Want to Watch the War
Saturday, March 5, 2011 at 1:36PM As i was listening to my iPod, a song came on that I had forgotten about. And since it has come back into the forefront, I thought it would be okay for you to hear it.
It has been some years since the war on Iraq began. I remember thinking to myself as a high school kid that mine was the first generation to not have a substantial war. That ended.
I don't like war. I don't like that we have learned a hierarchy of evil that allows us to justify certain kinds of violence. I also don't like the amount of empty rhetoric that fills the conversations about why we go to war.
I am by no means unopen to the reasons we fight. I do think there are situations where it becomes necessary to prevent the massacre of the innocent. Interestingly, we historically have failed to come to the timely aid of those suffering the pain and horror of genocide. For example, Rwanda, Sudan, Zimbabwe. I appreciate levels of Patriotism. I honor the soldiers that sacrifice so much. I am willing to have the conversation.
While on a trip to New Zealand, I found a children's book called, "The Enemy." It is a story about two soldiers stuck in foxholes. Each one contemplating the moves of the other. Each one envisioning the inhumane character of the other. One would assume the other is only a savage without a moral compass. The other would believe that the other is simply obsessing about the cruelest form of torture and murder.
They eventually sneak past each other and end up in the others foxhole only to realize they are not that different, and the arguments they were basing their aggressive stance upon were as false as the others.
It is not difficult to find that we, in a marketing driven culture, are continually presented with motivating ideas about how to live, what to eat, what to be scared of, and who the enemy is.
The way war reduces humanity to a series of conflicting social or religious differences or even an economic forecast or resource transaction has been a hard pill for me to swallow. It gives license to too many atrocities. For me, the reasons for engaging in war can never decisively win the argument of justification when they are held up to the aftermath of war and we view the clear picture of the byproducts of violence.
I know people who work in war torn parts of the world. I have been to places where the vile smell of bodies still mingles with the scent of cooking fires and diesel fuel.
I have seen bullet holes in school classroom walls that only tell the story of the bullets that missed. I know that many bullets didn't miss. And I have heard the stories of children who lived through the massacres as they describe what it was like to watch their friends die.
I remember reading the stories of concentration camps and seeing the images of post torture refugees.
I have been a part of relief work in camps where displaced people flock to die differently than at the hand of a military aggressor. They huddle in places where water is scarce and disease and hopelessness shroud the make-shift tents and crude latrines. These are not living conditions.
And so, it was problematic when I became aware of a religious and political cocktail that was being shaken during the Bush presidency. I remember listening to the news broadcasters as they painted a picture of the threat of Muslim faith against the American Christian culture. I remember the broad brush strokes that were used to vaguely describe people and contrary religious ideas that we should have all been afraid of. It was a very well designed pitch. It was enough to get us actively wishing for war.
It was like an episode of Glee. It always seems like I catch myself at some point in the show hoping the character makes the wrong moral choice. And it takes me a while to recognize the manipulation that is taking place.
It made me realize that the use of "Christian" ideas was a primary stage prop in the act of convincing people we needed to go to war. It was a line clearly drawn.. If you are a conservative faithful person, than you must be pro-war. How could that be true? It was palpable enough as a thread in the media and presidential narrative of the moment that many bought into it.
And that is where the song came into being. Jars was wrestling with the idea of war. We were struggling to see how it fit in with our Christian worldviews. We also had our eye on Africa, and the needs for medicine and education and good and water. We were trying to make sense of the whole mess. And found in the end, that the worst part was that we felt like the war was financed and promoted as a religious war. It was a manipulation of the power afforded the leaders of our nation. The church had been taken advantage of. We had been told that it was right to fear and right to act on that fear.
We wrote a song called, Hero43. It was a commentary on the misuse of power and faith skewed language that helped stir a nation into war.
By far it was our most political song. It pointed a finger in a way we felt was honest and appropriate. It would have made it on the record had we come to the agreement that we didn't mind it eclipsing the rest of the record. The record was Good Monsters. The entire project was about the duality of the heart. It was a look at the inner conflict between the good and evil under our skin. And we wanted people to care about the songs on the record. We wanted people to hear the entire project and we didn't want the media to make the story of the record center upon this one song. We made the decision to leave it off the project. And so it found it's way upon the shelves layered in dust as it's message became less relevant until we ourselves forgot about it.
But many people have asked if they could hear the song. So... The answer is finally "yes."
The song was never properly mixed or mastered... but here it is in its raw glory.
I will put the song on this blog for 24hrs. Consider it a chance to go back in history.
References (1)
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Response: Fighting for World Peace
Reader Comments (19)
Very well said Dan. Love the song. Thanks for letting us hear it...
dan, thank you so much for allowing us to see the unseedy side of your lfie as a 'rock star'. it's so difficult to imagine someone like yourself, someone so giving and talented and gifted, sitting on a makeshift toilet or enduring an unwelcome stench in some foreign country, yet you paint us a picture of a world far worse. i've always been jealous of others' abilities to travel to far away places and make a difference, instead of just sitting in front of a computer or tv and viewing the images. i've always been jealous that God seemed to have given that role to someone else, but now i see why.
thank you for taking the immobile there. -- renee
Dan, I've been wanting to hear this song ever since the day I learned it existed almost exactly 4 years ago. I am not disappointed - thanks for letting us finally hear it. I think it particularly appropriate that this blog post follows closely behind your entry on the need for the prophetic. Thanks for this window on the world - and keep it coming!
I am not in front of a computer to download the song, but I have long desired to listen to it. Despite I have not heard the melody, the story behind it already moved me. Listening to this song later will be a whole new experience.
Renee, thanks for your honest comment. It is hard to admit we are jealous of others and not in terms with God sometimes.
Dan,
I've had similar struggles about war. In fact, after returning home from a trip to Washington DC with my family, I was struggling with the reality of all the lives that had been sacrificed for our freedom and wrote a blog post that I didn't have the guts to publish.
After visiting many war memorials, I began to feel very sad for the families of lost soldiers thinking "what if the freedom they died for was the wrong freedom" and they died in vain? I was also saddened because they died for a freedom that gives millions of people permission to care about no one but themselves.
Maybe it's simplistic and ignorant to think this, but I just didn't see war in any way part of Jesus' ministry or message.
thanks for posting! love it... you made me re-think (or actually start to think) about war. it is such a complex issue.
Dan- I am consistently humbled by both the depth of perspective that you and the rest of the band have, and by your maturity as you decide what to make your albums and public life about.
Thanks for sharing both.
You contribute so much by sharing your struggles with others, and your ability to communicate makes your efforts well worthwhile. I thank God for the songs like Oh My God, Light Gives Heat, Shelter, Revolution, No Greater Love (and now this one) that bring the struggle to the foreground. We really need to hear these songs. Don't stop writing them.
Thanks for the song. I'll give it some listens
Thank you : )
On Syfy’s show “Being Human”, a group of vampires (who hide behind regular jobs and personas) have taken a local priest and turned him into a vampire also. Their reasoning was the usefulness of gaining religious influence in the community within the context of conquest, and they noted George W. as an example.
I’m also reminded of Bush’s interview with Time Magazine (good article, by the way), where he candidly states:
“I regret the fact that Saddam didn't have weapons of mass destruction that we thought.”
The merging of politics and religion should only flow one-way. To take the truths of Jesus and apply them to politics would be great… but to take a politician’s ideas and apply them to your Christianity is… well… no one expects the Spanish Inquisition!
I like Hero43 I think it sounds better than some of the other tracks on Good Monsters. From what I have learned about the world is that Satan is indeed as real as it gets and he is in control of the powers that be. They have highjacked the country in an attempt to make a one world government. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VebOTc-7shU there is a full documentary "Fall of the Republic" I have researched and found everything to be true. Hope you watch.
Awesome! It's nice to get to hear this song after a few years of wondering what it was like. I can understand why you didn't release it before. Think of what would have been lost if Good Monsters got blacklisted cause of this one track. Good choice.
~Derek
My grandfather was a young man during WWII, and he spoke of the horrors that he saw while living in the middle of war-torn Manila. It makes me appreciate that I haven't experienced war like he has, yet it saddens be because there still is war going on in other parts of the world today. It's like in order to have peace, we should have war. It's scary. Yet I continue to feel hopeful that we'll achieve that without having to shed blood or kill.
Thank you for sharing this Dan.
As always, excellently written. Reading this blog has given me such anguish. There are many complex issues here and many have no resolution. I have been on many marches in my student days demanding justice for whatever cause, but as I get older I have come to the realisation that life isn't fair - that is the default - but through prayer God intervenes in the world. I congratulate you on your perception, your humanitarian efforts and your humbleness. May God bless now and forever.
I just want to let everyone know that if you agree with this post, do something about it. Call your congressman, write a blog yourself, ANYTHING to help those become aware. Through prayer and action you would be surprised at what can be accomplished. God didn't just give Noah an ark, he had to build it. Same with us we can't sit and do nothing and expect our "boat" to float us out of war.
Thanks Chris, I agree with you and I hope you don't mind if I add to that "please be informed, get informed, ask to be informed about ALL issues we can vote on and go out and vote". I know some may be discouraged by the outcomes but believe in the process of democracy and don't just sit around and watch the numbers on the screen change without having had the opportunity to add your voice.
When I was 6 years old my parents immigrated to the US escaping a civil war that was tearing my country apart. I can tell you first hand that war is terrifying and the nightmares and the anger never really go away.
Thank you for this post. I have been told many time by my conservative Christian friends that I cannot be a Christian and be against war, but I have witnessed and experienced enough pain and violence in the world that I cannot see another way. It is true that when you see the things that you describe, you can never leave them behind, they shape every thought and idea. I so often want to cry out that this is not "justice." I hope and pray that I never become indifferent to the things that I have seen and accept the messages that I hear, however false they may be.
I wish I could have heard the song. I was away from the internet for a few days, hanging out with a friend on an organic farm/Christian community. Maybe in its own way, that was a bit of peace.
K. 3 weeks later. It got its listens and time. I like it. I don't get why it's controversial, but then I don't live in your world either.
First let me state my respect and admiration for Dan Haseltine and Jars of Clay. As a committed Christian who, nevertheless, often has scorn for the institutional church and how we engage ourselves and those outside the church, I relate with much of Dan’s commentary over the years. That said, I think it was probably wise not to release Hero43 for public consumption since many would see it as an attack on the former president (I’m certain this wasn’t Jars of Clay’s intention). I’ll be first to admit my own disappointments with Bush 43, though the Iraq War wasn’t really one of them. I don’t like war either (as I am sure most people, including Bush, do not). I don’t know for certain if the Iraq War was the right decision or not. Even after 8 long years, I still believe many more years may pass before we really know. Like Dan, I have heard a multitude of rhetoric on the war over the years, but the only thing I seem to have missed was Iraq being framed as a “holy war” or a battle of Christians against Muslims. No doubt there were some people out there who framed the war in this context, but I can recall no time Bush or his administration ever made this argument. I would definitely be interested in more clarification on this point. Depending upon how one defines WMD’s, the premise of the war may not have been incorrect after all. I think we also cannot discount the humanitarian aspect of the war in preventing further genocide and violence. Now we are in Libya which could have a silver lining if a humanitarian victory is realized (I’ll admit being surprised Obama got us involved there considering his views on Iraq). I’d love to know Dan’s thoughts on this most recent conflict. Peace and blessings.