The conflict in Iraq continues to dominate the news and none of that news is good. American soldiers and Iraqi civilians continue to die in large numbers. The American government remains upbeat about the prospects for democracy taking hold in Iraq but a memo leaked this week (written by US intelligence officials) raised the real possibility that civil war will soon tear the country apart.
Theologians debated in 2003 (and no one really listened) the question of whether or not invading Iraq would be in Christian terms a “just war.” The concept is ancient and revolves around principles such as stating that preemptive wars cannot be just and that civilian lives have to be protected in any conflict. Most Christian theologians came to the conclusion George W. Bush’s planned invasion of Iraq did not reach the just war threshold. The National Council of Churches USA opposed the war and so did most mainline Christian denominations. The only major Christian denomination to offer support for Bush’s war was the Southern Baptists Convention.
The message could not have been more different from the mainline churches and the Southern Baptists. The Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite President, Chicago Theological Seminary, spoke on behalf of many mainline Christians when she preached:
For Augustine, the intent of both the nation and the individuals in war have much to do with evaluating whether a war can be justified. “[F]or it makes a great difference by which causes and under which authorities men undertake the wars that must be waged.” (Against Faustus the Manichean, 222) “The real evils in war are love of violence, revengeful cruelty, fierce and implacable enmity, wild resistance, and the lust of power, and such like” (City of God, book 22) for “the natural order which seeks peace” (Ibid) to be upset, it must be that the reason for undertaking war is to restore human affairs to peace. (Ibid). “For peace is not sought in order to kindle war, but war is waged in order that peace may be obtained.” (Letter 189) Even in war, soldiers must conduct themselves as peacemakers, targeting the enemy and not engaging in wholesale slaughter. The innocent must be protected, not killed as combatants.The virulent, revengeful cruelty and the lust for power that Augustine so feared as the worst moral evils in war are our biggest risk. Are we just lashing out in emotional desire for revenge and to just get out from under this anxiety? For even more dispassion and reason in considering the use of violence, look at the development of Just War theory in the work of Thomas Aquinas in the 13th to 14th centuries.
Aquinas’ time was far different from the cosmic struggles of Augustine’s. In the high Middle Ages the divinely run society seemed finally to have arrived, at least for the elites. Influenced by the reintroduction of Aristotle’s writings into the West via the Muslim world, Aquinas posited a seamless, great chain of being from God as first cause to the last spec of secondary causality in the material world. Whereas Augustine was preoccupied with intentionality and the corruptions of the lust for power, Aquinas, as a rationally deductive thinker, took Augustine’s question “What is the moral evil in war?” (Book 22) and sanitized it to the question “When is a war just?” His answer is not an exploration of the corruptions of the will to power, but a straightforward list: “For a war to be just three conditions are necessary.” (Summa Theologiae, 2a2ae.23-46) The list is not unhelpful. There needs to be a right authority to declare war, a just cause and finally a right intention on the part of the belligerents, i.e. achieving some good or avoiding some evil. This list is subsequently expanded to eight.
So, it all really comes down to whether we have a Just Cause or not. Are we defending ourselves from attack (and that only came in with Aquinas; Augustine didn’t include self-defense in his original writings on Just War), are we defending someone else from attack? No and no. We are proposing to act pre-emptively; to strike first because some suppose this will prevent a future attack. 100 Christian Ethicists this fall published a rejection of a pre-emptive war with Iraq based on Just War criteria. The major protestant denominations, the American Catholic church and the National Council of Churches all have issued statements questioning the proposed war with Iraq and have often referred to Just War theory. To have a just cause, you have to be defending yourself (or defending someone else from attack).
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, was a strong advocate for the war. He conducted numerous appearances before the media to offer Bush theological cover for his policies. Baptist Press news covered his pre-invasion views:
DALLAS (BP)--In refusing to rule out military force against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, President Bush has an ally in Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land -- and that has the talking heads talking."I have stirred up a hornet's nest," Richard Land said Oct. 12 on his weekly talk show, "Richard Land Live!"
"It seems that I have surprised many Americans, at least those in the media, with my views about 'just war' theory and how it applies to the unfolding situation in Iraq," said Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission….
Land was the lead signatory on an Oct. 3 letter to President George W. Bush that affirmed the president's policies concerning Hussein's Iraqi regime were "right and just." Prison Fellowship's Chuck Colson and Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, were among others who signed the letter that said the administration's efforts were "within the time-honored criteria" of just war theory…..
Just war theory, Land explained, was constructed by St. Augustine and other early church fathers in the late 4th and early 5th century A.D. as a tool to determine when military action could be justified within a Christian framework.
"We cannot give blind allegiance to the government; we can't give over control of our conscience to the government," Land noted. "Jesus made clear that ultimate allegiance must always be to God, not Caesar. We cannot allow the government to take control of our ethical and moral decision-making process."
Land said Jesus made clear individuals are not to seek private retribution for wrongs done against them. "Romans 13 tells us God ordained the civil magistrate to punish evildoers and reward those who do right and that the state bears not the sword in vain," he said, noting the Greek word the apostle Paul used for sword in this instance was the lethal instrument used to decapitate those found guilty of capital crimes.
"We do not have the right to take the law into our own hands. Only the government is authorized to use lethal force," said Land, explaining the foundation of just war theory.
"Sometimes war is necessary; sometimes war is permissible under certain criteria," he continued, noting the theory requires a "just cause" be in place. "Only defensive war is defensible," he said.
Lethal military action must have a just intent; the motive must not be revenge, conquest or economic benefit, Land said. And such action must be a last resort, he said, noting that Saddam Hussein has had 11 years to comply with U.N. sanctions and resolutions.
The issue of legitimate authority was settled when Congress gave Bush authority to use force against Hussein, Land added.
The end result of the war in Iraq is from nearly all independent observers considered a disaster. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found and a new US government report confirms that none may have existed. The Bush Administration also called the invasion a response to 9/11 by claiming a link between Iraq and the terrorists. It turns out there was no link. Large numbers of civilians have been killed. American troops have even tortured Iraqi prisoners. Bush walked into Iraq without just cause and now we are stuck there with an even further diminished moral authority.
Bush claims at nearly every opportunity that God guides his foreign policy. During his acceptance speech before the Republic National Convention he talked about Iraq and America’s role there:
"Freedom is not America's gift to the world, it is the Almighty God's gift to every man and woman in this world."
Bush apparently sees his role as God’s instrument for freeing oppressed people (though this doctrine only seems to apply to oppressed people with large oil reserves).
The president is right on one thing: God does not want God’s people to be oppressed.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free- Luke 4:18. (NRSV)
Yet neither Jesus or God asked nations to raise armies in their service. Jesus’ weapon in the pursuit of God’s goals was the weapon of love. Jesus did not kill for his ministry.
Voters should consider the record of George W. Bush and his actions in Iraq before casting their votes. I’m confident that John Kerry would not have brought us into this disaster.
Bush misunderstood the concept of just war and only listened to those who would agree with him. The president refused to meet with the United Methodist Bishops (Bush is a United Methodist) because of their opposition to the Iraqi conflict. In the end, he dishonored God by waging an unjust war, killing large numbers of civilians and soldiers, and creating a climate where more terrorists attacks are likely. No one should call his actions the Christian position. Most of all him.
