Lamenting the Cruelties of War in the Modern Age

This month, my blogposts have focused on the topic of generosity. However, in light of the horror occurring as we speak in the Middle East, I am moved to write about it.

My life has been heavily influenced by war. My grandparents were merely children when World War I broke out. My parents experienced this same phenomenon as children living in a war-torn Germany during World War II.

Had it not been for the war, it is doubtful that my parents would have ever met. But, because they were forced to flee their homes as children, they wound up in the same part of Germany. I think that the aftermath of the War is what fueled my Dad’s desire to come to America.

I grew up amid the Cold War. I was a child when the Vietnam War was going on and there were protests against it. Two Gulf Wars, September 11, the Troubles (the Long War between the IRA and Great Britain), and numerous battles in the Middle East are just a few conflicts that have influenced my life.

Truth be told, just as I can measure my life due to the conflict I’ve endured, you probably can, too.

Earlier today, I felt convicted by the Substack post penned by Irish poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama. Titled “On language during a time of horror,” Ó Tuama laments how the battle embroiling Israel and Gaza are ripping him to shreds at his very core. It was something so shocking and gruesome that he simply could not write about it.

Ó Tuama observes that “Poets aren’t positioning themselves as generals or politicians; they are positioning themselves as poets, which is always to pay attention to the made-ness of art, or the possibility that art can make something out of nothing, the strange beginning that might be worthwhile trying.”

I’ve had enough of war.

At this moment, I wonder how the ongoing cruelties of war will impact my visual art. No doubt it will as it seems to be already be influencing my written art.

It’s far easier to declare war than it is to fight it.

There’s nothing beautiful about war. People lose while only politicians win. War is driven by ego and pride more than what is morally right versus morally wrong. There’s nothing right about children losing their parents or parents losing their children. There’s nothing good about warriors losing limbs for a cause those calling the shots aren’t willing to risk putting themselves in danger to advance.

War—regardless of the side you’re fighting on—is a horrific upheaval that vomits up all sorts of cruelties from the dark bellies of Evil.

Let us pray that God’s Divine wisdom would intervene supernaturally and usher in peace. Innocent people—men, women, and children—are being slaughtered on both sides of this conflict.

I pray that God would intervene as only He can divinely intervene. I pray that something supernatural would sweep over the nations and revival would burst out from beyond its seams. I pray that God’s wisdom would prevail over the hearts of men presently filled with rage and hate.

I pray that all the violence would stop.

Convicted and conflicted,

The Devotional Guy™

Rainer Bantau