Former Green Beret Ian Minielly joins us in this episode to talk about Christians and the military. Ian joined the army after college because he didn’t have a better direction for his life. After many years, he became a Christian and chose not to reenlist. Ian now serves as a Southern Baptist Pastor and has written several books about different issues, and encourages young Southern Baptist church kids not to join the military.
As Christians, we are called to love, not kill. Ian has seen firsthand how the work our military does is not accomplishing any good; it is harming innocent people -- both the foreign nationals and the US soldiers. He is a Southern Baptist pastor now and works to change people’s perspective on the state and how it relates to Jesus and the church.
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Timestamps:
2:50 How Ian got here
Didn’t like the life timeline presented to him
Career, 2 marriages, retirement, pain, death
So, he joined the army
Infantry → Green Beret
Found Jesus
Told Him, “If my unit doesn’t kill a soul this deployment, I will not re-enlist.”
They didn’t kill a soul.
Went to seminary (for free)
Now in full-time ministry
8:50 War
“What we're doing has nothing to do with what Jesus asked us to do… He didn't ask us, he commanded us to love our neighbor. That includes not killing them, I would suppose, right?” -Craig
What the military does overseas has nothing to do with Jesus
In fact, they command you to not share Him with anyone while you’re deployed
So, Ian left a box of sermon tapes with a local contact at the end of one deployment
15:42 Guns
Passivism
Craig bought a gun to shoot intruders, but now, only shoots recreationally
“That’s not an invitation for anybody to come and give me any trouble. I’ll give you a hug. I’m not gonna shoot you, but I’ll give you a hug.” - Craig
Ian is a militant pacifist
“I'm not going to kick in your door and shoot you, but I might shoot you if you kick mine in.” - Ian
Unless you’re just stealing
Argument: I’m being violent toward my family members if I let someone else attack them
“If somebody comes to try and mess with my cats, we're going to have a problem. I'm not gonna shoot you, but we're gonna wrestle.” - Craig
You can harm someone without killing them
Martial arts
Break their arm
Stop them from harming others, but do not kill
21:03 The Violence of Government
Love your neighbor
It’s not loving to put somebody bad in charge of them
US government is repeatedly guilty of mass murderer
Everyone thinks their side is the lesser of two evils
They’re both evil.
22:27 Jesus is the Epitome of Everything a Bad Roman Wants to Be
“When the Messiah shows up and he is nothing like what they are looking for, they totally miss him because they’re looking for majesty and a big white horse and a crown and a sword. And he shows up wearing flip flops and a robe and saying, ‘Love your neighbor.’” -Ian
5 Controversies
22:45 1. Jesus forgives and heals a lame man (Mark 2:1-12)
Only God has the authority to forgive sins
He proved He had the authority by healing
If Jesus is God, that means He’s the Messiah
If He’s the Messiah, that means He wasn’t there to conquer and give the Jews power
He was giving the Kingdom to the lowly
His goal was not to glorify the religious leaders
American Christians would gladly crucify Him today, just as the Jews did then
26:43 Sidetrack: Do we love our neighbors?
We hear that preached all the time, but has it actually clicked?
Do even love Jesus?
We love Jesus as if he in the state are equal partners
We've lost our first love
Church attendance and baptism numbers are low
Most pastors are thrilled to have our troops deployed
Ian is a unicorn
28:13 2. Jesus associates with sinners (Mark 2:13-17)
Pharisees wonder if a righteous man can do that because he’d get soiled
Christians today act the same way
Churches rejecting gay people
Jesus hung out with
Gay people
Prostitutes
Druggies
Where can we hear the Word of God preached without hate?
What people do is none of my business. I've been instructed to love
Much of the church outside the Jewish community started out practicing homosexuality as part of their religious life
If the church had always blocked out gay people from entering, there would not be a church today
Southern Baptist churches would not perform a gay wedding, but they welcome anyone of any lifestyle in the door
If they're not allowed in the church to hear the Word, how are they going to find Jesus?
The Pharisees kept those people away
Their power depended on division
They had to make the distinction that they were better than others
Very little faith involved
Jesus ate with them
They heard His message because He saw them
Another example: Woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11)
Pharisees test Jesus
The Law says to stone her to death
Jesus asks whoever has never sinned to throw the first stone
They all walk away
He tells the lady she’s forgiven and to stop sinning
Clean slate
Even when we do it again, we get another clean slate and encouragement to try again
He forgives every single type of sin
Other people’s sins are none of our business
37:30 3. Jesus’ disciples aren’t fasting (Mark 2:18-22)
Pharisees point it out so people will see Him as a bad Jew
Fasting was a very visible practice
Makes one look righteous
Jesus says they’re not fasting because He is with them
They’ll fast when He leaves
We’re in a fast from Jesus, waiting for His return
40:00 4. Keeping the Sabbath (Mark 2:23-28)
Pharisees tried to make Jesus look unworthy because He and His followers weren't keeping the Sabbath rules
Jesus showed them at the Sabbath is a gift to man, not about rule-following
They had taken God's rules and elevated them above God
The Sabbath is meant to help us grow closer to God
41:25 5. Doing good on the Sabbath (Mark 3:1-6)
Jesus healed the man with the crippled hand
Violated the regulations
It's always the right time to do good
You don't take a Sabbath from doing good
It's never time to do wrong
Making the world a better place is simple: just love each other
43:27 Churches are empty because we’ve made the state the highest god
God gets relegated to Sundays and maybe Wednesdays
Nobody wants to believe in Somebody that we don’t actually believe in
Faithfulness to God almost always means we won't be faithful to the government
We essentially have a national church because we back up everything the United States government does
People can't see (or won't admit) that everything it does is evil
They support the troops
The five controversies basically boil down to this: Where do you put the state/your governing authority and where do you put God?
45:53 Connection between church and military
Southern Baptist churches are the number one biggest supporter of the military
They believe it honorable to send their kids to fight overseas
Why are they the strongest supporters?
What are they hearing in Sunday School?
What is going wrong with the way we pray and preach?
Why do they want to send their kids over to fight people who don't even want to fight us?
If only Air Force planes dropped Bibles instead of bombs
Helping kids decide not to join the military
Only one Ian talked to still signed up
Telling them the statistics of divorces, alcoholism, and infidelity among military spouses
Proving that our governments never been right about anything, and killing the people they tell you to won't accomplish anything
Where did we get the right to go into another country and kill people?
51:01 Who are we fighting?
Afghani villagers came across American troops and thought they must be Russian. They didn't know anything about 9-11 or even where New York was
Do the Christians supporting these wars understand that the people in these countries have nothing to do with what we’re supposedly fighting about?
We're destroying their land, and they've never even heard of us
Our troops traveled around and millions of dollars of equipment with guns pointing in all directions from their tanks
The only people around were unarmed villagers wearing flip-flops and simple robes who just wanted to sit around and enjoy life
Many suicide bombers were coerced into doing it
Oftentimes, their families were tied up at gunpoint
OR They are angry because the Americans killed their family, so they are getting revenge
God is everywhere in Afghanistan
but will those people ever accept Jesus since He's associated with our country?
Will they ever listen to an evangelist?
57:35 DHS is a terrible part of the government
Carlos Morales used to work for CPS; now speaks against them
Ian’s book about his foster daughter
59:15 Ian’s other books
Story about fighting the government and winning
Story about people finding evidence for God in their DNA
Book on evangelism