I love old movies, especially black and white films from the 1940s—before my time I must add quickly in case you may think it is a sentiment from my childhood. They were filmed before ratings but a pretty strict code of decency controlled the industry, much more so than today. Isn’t it amazing that you can make fabulous films without sexually explicit scenes and profanity.
My recent view was Watch on the Rhine, starring Bette Davis and Paul Lukas, an Academy Award winning WWII propaganda classic written by Lillian Hellman and Dashell Hammett. A line from the film caught my attention. Lucile Watson playing the role of Fanny says, “We’ve been shaken out of the magnolias,” when she learns of the evil political plot against her son-in-law and realizes the reality of war. I had a mental image of sitting in a magnolia tree and suddenly being shaken out by an unknown force.
I think we have all been shaken out of the magnolias this past week with news of the carnage in Paris. No words are adequate to express the horror as I watched the events unfold on news channels. It was not a movie where I remind myself that the killings are not real. It was not a military battle where I can somehow justify death by war if so inclined. People were simply going about their lives—having dinner, watching a sporting event, attending a concert, when they became the target of evil.
The coordinated assault on Paris is not about deranged gunmen or workplace violence. It’s a scenario that takes place over and over in the Middle East where war is not between armies, but between ideologies and belief systems in the midst of ordinary people going about their lives. The struggle for political power, societal control, economic dominance, and religious extremism all wrapped in one word—jihad—is a global threat that reaches beyond imaginary or porous borders. This is not simply somebody else’s issue in a far away land. Paris has shown that it is everybody’s issue.
How do we make sense out of it and how do we respond? Where do we stand firm and what are we willing to compromise for resolution? I vividly remember the many months of daily deaths in Vietnam listed on the news while politicians argued over the shape of the table for peace negotiations to everyone’s frustrations. Identifying the warring sides was much more apparent then. Now, who are the players? How do you war against an ideology when the leaders and groups are not discernable? Three years ago ISIS was not in the news. It was a group embedded in other groups. Suddenly they are in the forefront. Who else is in the wings waiting for recognition?
Ephesians 6:12 (NASB) states, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” I think these words best describe the source of this struggle, yet flesh and blood are used by evil to wreak havoc on the world. Most assuredly, the Western world has been shaken out of the magnolias. Our response as Christians who have been profoundly affected by this latest abomination should not be one of reaction, but rather one of response. It has to be one where we engage the warfare with spiritual weapons—the Word of God and prayer bountifully wrapped in love for God’s creation (yes, love even for our enemies).
When I speak of love, I’m not thinking “ushey-gushey” roses and candy. Love in this context to me means prayer for combatants to come to a saving knowledge of God and truth. It is only when the love of God in a personal encounter grips hearts that swords are made into plowshares. I’m not a pacifist and I do believe that governments should have effective military to protect its citizens, and that sometimes war is justifiable. I am also a staunch patriot when it comes to loving this country. That does not change how I view the Christian response to pray and love.
“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing” (1 Cor. 12:1-3, NASB).
I believe God’s word that says love never fails (1 Cor. 12:8a). Love means to pray for the presence of God to prevail in the lives of our enemies; that they come to the knowledge of truth and the goodness of God; that they lay down their hate and receive the blessings of the eternal good God so that all may live in peace. I think this is what Jesus had in mind when He said to love your enemies so we all can enjoy the magnolias.