They Shall Beat Their Warplanes Into Blue Angels
May 5th, 2010The Blue Angels, America’s ridiculously talented aerial acrobatics squadron, performed in Charleston last weekend. This is not something that usually appeals to me, especially since their practices in the days before the show was held in what felt like the immediate airspace above my office, drowning out phone conversations and rattling 100-year-old windows. If I hadn’t known better, I’d think the Russians and Chinese we’re jointly invading.
But my folks were visiting that weekend, and with my father being something of history buff, we decided to take the ferry Fort Sumter—where that great American institution called the Civil War kicked off with a four thousand-shell salute. As providence would have it, we somehow managed to get on the ferry that would take across the harbor at the exact time the Blue Angels would be performing, this time literally over our heads.
Now, I’ve heard the complaint in more liberal circles that events like the Blue Angels aerial shows are part of the military-industrial complex and a celebration of American imperialism. By showcasing our advanced war machines in our culture and entertainment, it is subtly reinforced in the American psyche that our military might is inherently good, if not glorious. I’m intrigued by this argument, but regardless of its legitimacy, I don’t feel that the Blue Angels should be included in this context. In fact, as these fighter jets screeched over my head in near-impossible formations, it occurred to me they represent the very radical vision of Isaiah and the Kingdom of God.
The prophet Isaiah tells us that the fulfillment of the God’s reign on earth will signal the end of global conflict. Militaries, pacified in the glorious presence of Christ, will find themselves completely obsolete. But Isaiah has an environmentalist streak to his prophecy, and he predicts that the military hardware that once harvested lives will be recycled into tools for the harvesting of crops. Isaiah 2:4 reads, “He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” This is the ancient rendering. I believe the Blue Angels are the modern-day equivalent to Isaiah.
If the Second Coming of Christ were to occur tomorrow, America’s vast armed forces wouldn’t have much do anymore. Stopping genocides? None to stop. Protecting strategic resources? We’re all sharing them now. Pre-emptive strikes? Heavens, no. So what would we do with all our military hardware? Well, I don’t think we throw it all in the junkyard. We would have to convert our war machines for peacetime. And not for a peacetime that exists at the interstices of conflict, but a divine perpetual peace that renders weapons useless.
So what would we do with that killing stuff? We’d recycle it of course. Tanks could make great new bulldozers. Nuclear submarines would be fantastic research vessels. And jet fighters, well, I would love to see them do cool tricks—just like the Blue Angels.
Stripped of their weapons systems, the Blue Angels are denuded F/A-18 Hornets converted for our entertainment. We won’t see these guys dropping 500-pound bombs in Afghanistan. They are permanent planes of peace, perhaps a glimmer of what the Kingdom of God would mean for modern America.
So floating out in the Charleston harbor as the blue and gold painted aircraft roared over us in ear-deafening unison, I thought to myself, “They shall beat their warplanes into Blue Angels.” Lord, haste the day.
