Can Christians Go to War?
An interesting question, as there are those who
imagine that Christians cannot advocate war. This is quite untrue. Here is a
page that
has a great discussion of Just War Theory. It describes the theological
underpinnings of war from a Christian
perspective.I have to add that there
has been opposition to this war from various religious sources. The Pope has
been opposed, as has the presiding Bishop of the ECUSA (my particular branch of
the Church). Neither of them have argued that war is ever not justified, they
simply feel we moved too soon. I disagree with that assessment, but they are,
in my estimation, reasonable positions to hold. Perhaps we could have brought
about the disarmament of Iraq without military action. I agree with Condoleezza
Rice that Iraq was certainly not acting like they were going to
disarm, but certainly it was a possibility. For my part, a substantial concern
is that if we had left a "disarmed" Saddam in power, would he stay disarmed, and
would he have stopped torturing and killing his people? I'm not sure that he
would have. In fact, I'm convinced that more death and suffering was in store
for many people around the world.
Posted: Monday - March 31, 2003 at 10:51 AM
