WWW.JESUSRADICALS.COM
  • About
  • Rock! Paper! Scissors!
    • What's in a Name?
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Call for Content
    • Past Issues >
      • Blog Archives (2005 - 2017)
      • Liberation for Every Body
      • The Movement Makes Us Human
      • Truth, Trust, and Power
      • Art Against Empire
      • Earth, Ecology, and the End of the Age
      • Decolonization, Incarnation, and Liberation
  • Library
    • Add an entry
    • Letter A >
      • Abelism
      • Accountability
      • Ally
      • Anarchism
      • Animal Liberation
      • Anthropocentrism
      • Assimilation
    • Letter B >
      • Base Communities
      • Biblical Exegisis
    • Letter C >
      • Capitalism
      • Catholic Worker
      • Civilization
    • Letter D >
      • Decolonization
      • Direct Action
    • Letter F >
      • Factory Farming
      • Feminism
      • Foraging
    • Letter G >
      • Genocide
      • Globalization
    • Letter H >
      • Heteropatriarchy
      • Humane Killing
    • Letter I >
      • Internalized Oppression
      • Intersectionality
    • Letter L >
      • Liberation Theology
    • Letter M >
      • Marginal Voices
      • Mass Media
    • Letter N >
      • Nonviolence
    • Letter O >
      • Othering
    • Letter P >
      • Pedagogies of Liberation
      • Police
      • Privilege
    • Letter Q >
      • Queer
    • Letter R >
      • Racism
      • Resurrection
    • Letter S >
      • Speceisism
      • Spiritual/Cultural Appropriation
      • State
    • Letter T >
      • Technology
      • Theopolitics
    • Letter V >
      • Voting
    • Letter W >
      • War
      • White Supremacy
  • Iconocast
    • Collective
    • Canvas
  • Donate
  • Contact
  • Join Us
  • About
  • Rock! Paper! Scissors!
    • What's in a Name?
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Call for Content
    • Past Issues >
      • Blog Archives (2005 - 2017)
      • Liberation for Every Body
      • The Movement Makes Us Human
      • Truth, Trust, and Power
      • Art Against Empire
      • Earth, Ecology, and the End of the Age
      • Decolonization, Incarnation, and Liberation
  • Library
    • Add an entry
    • Letter A >
      • Abelism
      • Accountability
      • Ally
      • Anarchism
      • Animal Liberation
      • Anthropocentrism
      • Assimilation
    • Letter B >
      • Base Communities
      • Biblical Exegisis
    • Letter C >
      • Capitalism
      • Catholic Worker
      • Civilization
    • Letter D >
      • Decolonization
      • Direct Action
    • Letter F >
      • Factory Farming
      • Feminism
      • Foraging
    • Letter G >
      • Genocide
      • Globalization
    • Letter H >
      • Heteropatriarchy
      • Humane Killing
    • Letter I >
      • Internalized Oppression
      • Intersectionality
    • Letter L >
      • Liberation Theology
    • Letter M >
      • Marginal Voices
      • Mass Media
    • Letter N >
      • Nonviolence
    • Letter O >
      • Othering
    • Letter P >
      • Pedagogies of Liberation
      • Police
      • Privilege
    • Letter Q >
      • Queer
    • Letter R >
      • Racism
      • Resurrection
    • Letter S >
      • Speceisism
      • Spiritual/Cultural Appropriation
      • State
    • Letter T >
      • Technology
      • Theopolitics
    • Letter V >
      • Voting
    • Letter W >
      • War
      • White Supremacy
  • Iconocast
    • Collective
    • Canvas
  • Donate
  • Contact
  • Join Us
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

  Archives

      Jesus Radicals Blog 2005-2017

6/24/2015 Comments

Yellow Ribbons

By: Jarrod Cochran
Picture
Being a resident of the State of Georgia, where the School of Americas is located and Lockheed builds its warplanes, I am daily bombarded with buzzwords and catch phrases that demand my knee-jerk, unwavering support of the military industrial complex and the desires/whims of my government. The slogan that is most-often repeated phrase I find on bumper stickers and emblazoned upon business vehicles is “Support Our Troops”. 

“Support our troops.” What does that mean? How are we supporting our troops? What are we doing to actually provide support? If it is merely a bumper sticker, nice words, or a yellow sticker, that is not true support.

If you’re speaking of supporting the troops by expanding medical care for soldiers suffering from physical injuries and mental wounds, then I support the troops.

If supporting the troops means getting these men and women off the streets to where they are housed, fed, and cared for then yes, I support the troops.

If supporting the troops stands for working to create a more just society where we cease our imperialist reaches and learn to work out our differences through dialogue. If it means that instead of sending out “disposable soldiers” to fight and die for causes of greed, we work to live peaceably with one another, then I support the troops.

However, if you’re asking me to “support the troops” in order to turn a blind eye to abuses, murder, torture, and the whims of our governments, I cannot support it.

If you’re asking me to “support the troops” so that I choose a side in a war —a place where the extinguishment of the lives of innocents, “our soldiers”, and “the enemy” occur—then I cannot support it. I cannot comply.

Sometimes I feel that those bumper stickers and yellow ribbons are there to make me feel guilt about questioning war. Sometimes I think that the blanket statement of “support the troops” is really meant to silence dissent. As a child of God and a follower of Jesus, I must lend my support, love, and forgiveness to all people, whether they be considered my ally or my enemy. I cannot condone the machinations of war—things that I know to be against my conscience and against all that Jesus taught us.

Asking me to close my eyes, place a hand over my heart (with the other hand over my mouth), and blindly support support the killing of others—on all sides of a conflict—is asking me to betray myself and those that I have been called to serve.

Jesus was once attributed to have told a Roman Governor who was planning his execution: “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the mob. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here” (Jn. 18:36).

My kingdom is not from this world.


So, wear your yellow ribbon proudly and display your bumper stickers with pride. But ask yourself what it truly means to “support the troops”. If it is merely a sticker, then what you are truly supporting is blind allegiance to a temporal nation that has demanded the sacrifice of our daughters and sons to be slaughtered on a battlefield created through greed. How can you support something that demands all but gives nothing in return?

However, if you mean to “support the troops” by caring for those that have fought. If “supporting the troops” means that you work to educate the current and future generations against the trappings of war and valor. If “supporting the troops” signifies that you will speak against the military conquests of nations (and corporations). If this is what “supporting the troops” means to you, then you have helped this world come one step closer to fulfilling the Prophet Isaiah’s words:

“they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Is. 2:4).

Picture
Jarrod Cochran is an ordained priest within the Progressive Episcopal Church and serving as Priest at Church in the Wild in Canton, Georgia. You can find Jarrod online at www.jarrodcochran.com.
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

    RSS Feed

    Disclaimer
    The viewpoints expressed in each reader-submitted article are the authors own, and not an “official Jesus Radicals” position. For more on our editorial policies, visit our submissions page. If you want to contact an author or you have questions, suggestions, or concerns, please contact us.

    Categories

    All Accountability Advent Anarchism Animal Liberation Anthropocentrism Appropriation Biblical Exegesis Book Reviews Bread Capitalism Catholic Worker Christmas Civilization Community Complicity Confessing Cultural Hegemony Decolonization Direct Action Easter Economics Feminism Heteropatriarchy Immigration Imperialism Intersectionality Jesus Justice Lent Liberation Theology Love Mutual Liberation Nation-state Nonviolence Occupy Othering Pacifisim Peace Pedagogies Of Liberation Police Privilege Property Queer Racism Resistance Resurrection Sexuality Solidarity Speciesism Spiritual Practices Technology Temptation Veganism Violence War What We're Reading On . . . White Supremacy Zionism


    Contributors

    Nekeisha  Alayna Alexis
    Amaryah Armstrong
    Autumn Brown
    HH Brownsmith
    Jarrod Cochran 

    Chelsea Collonge
    Keith Hebden
    Ric Hudgens

    Liza Minno Bloom
    Jocelyn Perry
    Eda Ruhiye Uca
    Joanna Shenk

    Nichola Torbett
    Mark VanSteenwyk
    Gregory Williams

    Archives

    October 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    November 2013
    July 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    June 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    October 2008
    August 2008

Home  |  About  |  Blog  |  Iconocast  |  Library  |  Gatherings  |  Donate  |  Contact  |  Comrades