I have really been wrestling with this idea of just-war and if it is something that I should align myself with or not. I have done some research and found some of the “rules” for a just war. My experience has been that in the church we have shied away from this subject and silenced our voices. Unfortunately I believe that in some churches and among some circles of Evangelicals we have looked down upon someone for questioning our current government and their decisions. I am also sometimes confused on who we are aligning ourselves with: is it Jesus or the Republican Party? As a Christian I have to ask myself some tough questions. As followers of Jesus are we to agree with this war? Is this how Jesus would deal with this issue? Here are the rules by which a war is considered just:
A just war can only be waged as a last resort. All non-violent options must be exhausted before the use of force can be justified.
A war is just only if it is waged by a legitimate authority. Even just causes cannot be served by actions taken by individuals or groups who do not constitute an authority sanctioned by whatever the society and outsiders to the society deem legitimate.
A just war can only be fought to redress a wrong suffered. For example, self-defense against an armed attack is always considered to be a just cause (although the justice of the cause is not sufficient–see point #4). Further, a just war can only be fought with “right” intentions: the only permissible objective of a just war is to redress the injury.
A war can only be just if it is fought with a reasonable chance of success. Deaths and injury incurred in a hopeless cause are not morally justifiable.
The ultimate goal of a just war is to re-establish peace. More specifically, the peace established after the war must be preferable to the peace that would have prevailed if the war had not been fought.
The violence used in the war must be proportional to the injury suffered. States are prohibited from using force not necessary to attain the limited objective of addressing the injury suffered.
The weapons used in war must discriminate between combatants and non-combatants. Civilians are never permissible targets of war, and every effort must be taken to avoid killing civilians. The deaths of civilians are justified only if they are unavoidable victims of a deliberate attack on a military target.
I would like to start a dialogue regarding this idea. I am not saying that I am right or have everything nailed down when it comes to these ideas.
However, I do believe that as a Christian I am supposed to follow Jesus’ lead. I do believe that Jesus was a creative guy and if He were here today He would have some creative ways when it comes to dealing with these issues.
What are your thoughts?
3 comments
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May 31, 2008 at 3:30 am
paarsurrey
Hi
The Church has been propagating that its teachings are peaceful but when confronted with a rational situation then they would leave the Bible aside and follow Just-war Doctrine enacted later and which is extra-biblical.
Kinldy visit my blogiste and read two posts
“Would Jesus Support War?”
and “A peaceful man that Muhammad was”
You may if you like give your peaceful comments and or have a peaceful discussion if you so choose.
You are welcome.
Thanks
I am an Ahmadi peaceful Muslim
May 28, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Todd Thompson
Been looking this over and want to read more of your thoughts on this. As to this point…
“A war can only be just if it is fought with a reasonable chance of success. Deaths and injury incurred in a hopeless cause are not morally justifiable.”
I don’t think that’s true. The American Revolution, as an example, wasn’t started with a reasonable chance of success. The British were considerably more prepared for victory. One could argue that the Axis powers in WWII had a decided advantage until the U.S. stepped in. And even if we hadn’t, which is unthinkable today, would not the deaths of Brits and Poles and Frenchman and Russians been morally justifiable in defending freedom and liberty?
To say “if we can’t win, then it’s not morally justifiable” is to say there aren’t causes worth dying for. In today’s political arena, the Iraq war in some minds isn’t justifiable. Yet when it’s all sifted out, usually it’s a case of political positioning instead of logic equally applied. If a political group hates a certain President then it’s somehow ok for them to ignore decades of torture and deaths of innocent Iraqi men, women and children. And it’s not ok to talk about anything positive that comes from freeing them from their dictator. (As proved every minute of everyday by our pathetic excuse for a news media)
When you talk with soldiers who have served in such causes (including Vietnam and the Korean Conflict) they will tell you that fighting to liberate others from oppression and tyranny was worth dying for, regardless of what our moronic politicians have to say about it.
Honestly, if we turned Washington DC into a giant toilet and flushed all the politicians and bureaucrats out to sea and have the void replaced with common sense, the world would be a better place. Infinitely so.
May 28, 2009 at 11:14 pm
joshbarton21
interesting thoughts Todd.
First, the causes that I got for the just war are not mine, but are what our government came up with as what is just-war. (you probably realize that, but just making sure that I clarify)
As for war, I have a really hard time justifying anything that we have done in Iraq. That particular war was started on non-sense. Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11, but we insisted that we were going to “fight the war on terror” in a place that now has much more terrorism because of our presence. But that is besides the point.
I do agree that Washington is full of people that have learned to play a game that has very little to do with serving the people of this nation. They have made our political arena into a joke. If I were the rest of the world I would be laughing at our pathetic excuse of a government. (dang, i didn’t realize I had such strong feelings towards our gov. )
So, all that to say, what do we do as followers of a Christ who came to usher in the New Kingdom, one that has another way, a new way, a better way to handle things like war. May we follow Him.