Michael Milton

Michael Milton and Faith for Living, Inc.

This Attack on Just War is Not Just: Atheists Fiddling with Western Civilization While Nation is at War

London is burning. The international markets are spinning. Congress is leaving. The president is on a bus tour—or on vacation, I am not sure. A war is being fought across the seas so one is not fought here, with courageous Navy Seals, most recently, giving their lives for the freedom I have to express my thoughts. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Western Civilization is taking a hit that can eventually make all the rest of our problems seem ridiculously unimportant. What happened?

Well, you heard about it or read it: attorney Mikey Weinstein, who heads Military Religious Freedom Foundation, called on the United States Air Force to shut down a course on ethics that teaches the “Christian Just War Theory.” It wasn’t just a helpful suggestion that Mr. Weinstein gave. He declared that he would file “an immediate class action lawsuit”[1] unless they relented. The reason? The ethics course, taught by chaplains to officers engaged in strategic operations to defend America, contained—hide the kids—Bible verses. Well, naturally.

The Bible is a major element in the bedrock of our civilization. And the Bible’s ethical system shapes, safeguards and informs the ethical standards of our way of life. As we must face the inevitability of war and seek meaningful debate about what constitutes taking military action or not, the biblical-Judeao-Christian ethic guides us with clear and cogent reasoning from the same truth that shaped the founding of our nation, the establishment of our laws, and, by the way, provided wisdom to our leaders in our previous decisions about whether it was right or not to fight Nazi Germany or for that matter take out Osama Bin Laden.

A Stanford University publication defined Just War most concisely:

“The Just War theory is probably the most influential perspective on the ethics of war and peace.”[2]

The theory is so influential that the United Nations, certainly no bastion of biblical apologetics, has used Just War. The Hague as well as the Geneva Convention also depends upon this ethical application of the Bible (as well as Greco-Roman philosophical foundations in the theory).

The Just War Theory simply provides ethical standards drawn from the Bible, adopted and long practiced (and, yes, debated and refined) in Western Civilization, that aid our leaders in framing the salient issues. The Just War Theory and its biblical moorings not only guide us in when or when not to go to war, but also give direction to police and National Guard for legitimate responses to domestic aggression.  Equally important is the soldier on the ground making split-second ethical decisions, in the fog of war, is guided by the Western values drawn from Just War. Even if he doesn’t even know about Augustine or the Bible, he unknowingly draws from the spiritual and intellectual capital that remains, for now, at least, in our culture.

Quite simply, Just War proposes three major concerns about war: (1) jus ad bellum, or the rationale for going to war; (2) jus in bello, or right conduct during conflict; and (3) jus post bellum, or the application of justice and mercy to the defeated at the conclusion of hostilities. Just War proposes, in jus ad bellum, of justice before ever going to war, thinking through “just cause,” “right intention,” “proper authority and public declaration,” “last resort,” “probability of success,” and “proportionality.” Augustine and others required the strictest application of the theory by insisting that all six requirements must be met to create a “just war” that can have biblical warrant.

Fox News reported that the group charged that the Air Force’s teaching was a violation of church and state,[3] there is nothing in the theory as it is taught and applied that even comes close to a violation of establishing a national church in America. The claim is not only ridiculous but also one more chip in the solid rock of our foundation as a free people.

As Brian Orend, Director of International Studies at the University of Waterloo, has written for The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,

“…just war theory offers rules to guide decision-makers on the appropriateness of their conduct during the resort to war, conduct during war and the termination phase of the conflict.”[4]

So if we scrap Just War because it contains biblical revelation, then what ethic will we use? Who will decide? How will we counsel an Air Force colonel who must make a decision to obey the president to launch a missile to defend the United States against an evil aggressor? How can we speak to young men to become Navy Seals or Army Rangers? Who would then inform the president in matters of national defense? How will Congress declare war if there is no ethical ground on which to stand? Shall we appeal to some new ethical system that we can all agree upon? Will this new ethic guide us in the same way as thousands of years of wisdom and application of philosophical and biblical reflection and consensus has guided us?

When we apply Just War, and other principles of Western Civilization, built upon not only Judaeo-Christian thought in the Bible, but also upon the democratic ideals of the great Western philosophers before them, we are standing on the shoulders of giants. Those giants have included theologians like St. Augustine (354-430 A.D.) and St. Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) (whose question 40 in The Summa Theogica applies specific Biblical passages to the question). When we foolishly ignore the wisdom of the ages, we begin a slide from their shoulders to an uncertain ground. The landing could be harder than we ever imagined.

This foolishness has gone far enough. As important as the economic situation is in the country, our 401Ks mean little if a rogue state is launching a missile at Manhattan. It is time for right-headed thinking to overwhelm the absurd claims of apparently spotlight-hungry leftist lawyers with the truth that built an entire civilization—and the truth that protects our families. Yes, London burns. Markets teeter. Wars rage. And the time-tested institutions of our nation are under assault. This new cultural war against our own military—indeed, against our own security—is most certainly not just.

 

[1] David French, Angry Atheists Strike Again, National Review Online, August 11, 2011 (http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/273597/angry-atheists-strike-again-david-french#), accessed August 11, 2011.

[2] Brian Orend, “War”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.) (http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/war/), accessed August 11, 2011.

[3] Todd Starnes, Air Force Suspends Christian-Themed Ethics Training Program Over Bible Passages, Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/03/air-forces-suspends-christian-themed-ethics-training-program-over-bible/), accessed August 11, 2011.

 

[4] Brian Orend, “War”, Ibid.

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