by Nadine Drayton-Keen

Created on: July 07, 2008   Last Updated: July 08, 2008

The Friendly Fire Oxymoron

In many Sunday sermons, preachers have told us that we are not fighting against flesh and bone humans, but rather we are fighting against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world: against the mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against the wicked spirits in the heavenly realm (cf. Ephesians 6:12). This spiritual warfare is why preachers also have told us to put on the whole armor of the Lord so that we will be knowledgeable about and, therefore, able to stand firm against the Devil's strategies and tricks (cf. Ephesians 6:11).

Unfortunately, many Christian soldiers have misunderstood their preachers and the Apostle Paul's words to be a literal battle cry and, thus, have chosen to engage in a natural, physical war (one in which they use their spiritual weapons to punish or teach others). They fight "their" war mostly with the sword of the Spirit (preaching and teaching the Word of God with their viperous tongues), or with vindictive prayers, and sometimes with fisticuffs.

Consequently, when Christians verbally or physically clash, the black eyes that their brothers and sisters in Christ receive often will come under the heading of "friendly fire." Indeed, friendly-fire casualties (fatal, critical, or detrimental) happen on a daily basis within the Body of Christ.

The phrase "friendly fire" (or non-hostile fire) generally is associated with soldiers in war who have died, who were critically wounded, or who were hurt in some way. These killed or wounded individuals, however, did not receive their battle injuries at the hands of their enemy, but rather their deadly or harmful blows were because of their own comrades' intentional or accidental attacks.

Even when the collateral damage is accidental, there, of course, still can be nothing "friendly" about being killed or wounded by fellow soldiers. For this reason, Christian believers also have come to see this "friendly fire" phrase as being the biggest unfavorable oxymoron since the "Christian soldiers" phrase. Most Christians see the phrase "friendly fire" as an unfavorable oxymoron, because the unflattering distinguishable aspect about Christian soldiers' friendly-fire incidents is that believers are using their Christian "spiritual" weapons for the sole purpose of deliberately wounding or killing members in the Lord's Army.

Unlike the United States military's most recent friendly-fire incidents in Iraq, which tend to be more accidental, many of the friendly-fire

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