On a recent Facebook post questioning U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, a commenter said there’s nothing a few well-placed bombs can’t solve. He then posted a picture of a mushroom cloud.

I don’t know how to deal with that kind of mentality. How do you get through to somebody who has such little regard for human life?

But as I thought about this man’s comment, it occurred to me that he probably doesn’t really conceptualize the true ramifications of his words.

Most of us hold a sanitized view of war. We fail to recognize that real men, women and children suffer and die in wars. Of course, we understand the horror of war on a cognitive level. We know “war is hell.” We know people die. But we have no capacity to personalize it. It never seems to really connect that mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters die when the bombs fall.

In war, people become abstractions. Killing devolves into a policy discussion. When a high ranking government official says the death of 500,000 children was “worth it,” to remove a political enemy from power, and people accept this as a rational statement, we’ve lost some aspect of our humanity.

In every drone strike, missile launch and bombing run, people die. Real people. People like you and me. Many of these people have nothing to do with the political actors driving the conflict. Some might truly be enemies of the Unites States. Some might “deserve it,” at least from our point of view. But that doesn’t make a bit of difference to the grieving widow or orphaned child.

Shouldn’t the death of human beings matter?

The nature of modern warfare makes it easier to dismiss death and suffering. We watch it from a distance through camera lenses. We don’t see the human beings under those flashes of light and clouds of smoke. They called the first Gulf War a “video game war.” No wonder we’ve become so blasé. Reporters talk about surgical strikes and precision munitions. We marvel at military technology. We cheer with pride as fighter jets scream over football stadiums. Meanwhile bombs shred flesh and rip families apart. The distance shields us from the emotional consequences. It protects us from the reality.

Out of sight; out of mind.

As Christians, we believe in the sanctity of human life. We believe in the inherent value of every human being. We believe God loves each and every person. Christians often turn to Psalm 139 to affirm the value of each human life from the moment of conception.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Why does that reverence for humanity seem to end at the womb for so many believers?

The fact that people live on the other side of an imaginary line drawn in the sand and some politicians label them an “enemy” does not change their standing in the eyes of God.

Every person matters.

Every individual has value in God’s economy.

Every person has a right to life.

So, how can we as believers in Jesus Christ so casually embrace war? How can we claim the mantel of pro life while remaining pro-war?