Kill the Bad Guys

by Dan Bouchelle

A few weeks ago while the women were retreating from the front lines, I experienced the war zone of child care up close and personal. After a long campaign, I managed to detain two little hostiles and hold them captive using the weapon of modern baby-sitting—the television.

I wanted to watch the Penn State/Michigan game, but the kids wanted to watch anything else. We compromised. On most of the screen they watched Jeremiah Johnson (a “Mountain Man” western), while I watched the ball game on the microscopic smart window. We dog-piled onto the couch and played “Twenty Questions” while watching our respective entertainment options.

At one point my five-year-old daughter and three-year-old son attempted to determine who among the characters loved God and who did not by who was winning the fights. Every time Jeremiah (the bearded hero) killed a Crow Indian, my junior theologians would say of the Crow, “He didn’t love Jesus.” They were convinced that Mr. Johnson loved Jesus because he was winning. Don’t good guys always win? Aren’t the good guys the ones who love Jesus?

I vainly attempted to explain to my budding cherubs that just because the Mountain Man had a beard and fought well did not mean he loved Jesus. Jesus told us to “turn the other cheek.” Jesus did not resist the bad guys; he prayed for them as he died. Anna informed me that Jesus wants us to “kill the bad guys.” No proof-texting from Scripture could convince her otherwise. Seth just returned to watching the show. Theology is lost on him.

Anna, whose innate sense of justice is strong, had a hard time understanding that God would forbid us to take revenge. When the Crows kill your family because you trespassed on their sacred burial ground, you retaliate by killing them. When they retaliate for your retaliation, you kill them in righteous self-defense. If you win after all the battles are over, it means you love Jesus.

I can’t blame Anna. The message of the cross bewilders those far older. Leaving vengeance to God, praying for enemies instead of killing them, absorbing wrong to stop the endless cycle of retaliation—it just doesn’t make sense. We prefer the model of Rambo, the Terminator, and Dirty Harry who have taught us to take vengeance on those who need killin’.

Two thousand years old, the message of the cross is still a stumbling block. God’s Son lets the bad guys kill him without resistance or retaliation, and we are called to believe somehow that in doing this we are the ones who triumph. Somehow it makes more sense to us to “kill the bad guys.”