It has been said (and I'm not sure who said this) that religion comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.

Working as I do, teaching delinquent and dependent boys, I am often reminded of the great redemptive power of religion; many of the boys I work with turn to religion, Christianity and Islam primarily, to help them grapple with the great questions they must face as they negotiate the path toward health, forgiveness and reconciliation.

In our comfort, we often miss great opportunities for healing, forgiveness, reconciliation and our own redemption.

It is one reason I love my job. My students often lead me into affliction.

I was presented with just such an opportunity recently when I was leading a discussion on figurative language with a group of my students as we analyzed a novel by Mary Downing Hahn, "December Stillness." The story, the tale of a teenage girl who attempts to befriend a homeless Vietnam veteran, presents the reader with its own version of comfort and affliction, but that wasn't where I was going.

I wanted to discuss metaphor. However, one of my students asked a question: "Is it right to kill innocent people for their own good?"

A lively debate ensued, and the question's profundity escaped me even as it left me feeling uncomfortable and I quickly steered the conversation back to metaphor - to safer ground.

Like I often do, I avoided the scary but, like most things scary, it lurked even though it was avoided.

It was still out there waiting to haunt me.

Several days later, as I was driving home from a pleasant weekend with my parents and siblings, I passed a car with a bumper sticker that read, "Who Would Jesus Bomb?" and my student's question came rushing back. Who, indeed?

Much has been done in the name of God in this so-called war on terror. On one side, we have a jihad, a holy war. On the other, we have a crusade, as when President George W. Bush said during his second inaugural address, "From the day of our founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of Heaven and Earth . . . so it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world."

One estimate says between 17,000 and 19,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq as a direct result of military action. More than 1,500 U. S. troops have been killed, and in excess of 11,000, wounded.

Many thousands more have died: Iraqi soldiers, soldiers from our coalition partners, those who have died from causes other than direct military action, and others.

"Is it right to kill innocent people for their own good?" My student's question echoed in my head.

What would Jesus do?

My mind turned to Scripture to illuminate. I wondered, if God, in all His wisdom, would save an entire city although only 10 people were righteous, shouldn't we, who profess to be a nation "under God" and a "light on the hill," operate under a similar principle?

Even if we assume that only a tiny percentage of those 17,000 to 19,000 civilians killed in military action were righteous, didn't we owe them prudent action? Didn't our soldiers, noble and righteous, deserve considered thought?

Saddam Hussein was an evil man and knocking him out of power was a good and noble thing. What I wonder about was the cost.

I hope Bush considered all options before turning to war. I fear that he did not.

I wonder if we, during this Easter season, can remember all the innocents who have died, those who have been maimed physically and emotionally, and those who will yet be injured and die, because we, the living, could find no better solution than war?