Is it a “Just” War, or Just War?

St Porphyrius Church (oldest active church in Gaza)

 

   St Porphyrius Church partially destroyed by Israeli bombs (ibcgroup.tv)

 

Destroyed church in the Donetsk region of Ukraine (Roman Pilipey/Getty Images)

 

Just War Theory

“They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”  (Is 2:4) This promise from God given to his faithful prophet has one important condition: every nation must affirm His sovereignty, and go to Him with their disputes rather than go to war with each other.

Isaiah lived seven centuries before Christ during a time of war in the Middle East, involving the two kingdoms of what we call Israel, Syria, and Iraq.

• Ancient Israel was often at war, seeing it as God’s will against evildoers who rejected his reign.
• And here we are again: war in Israel. Is it Just? As always, we have to define our terms.
• We’ll take it from Israel’s perspective, because they made a formal declaration and because we help finance it.
• “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling that thinks nothing is worth war is much worse.” John Stuart Mill
• “War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector achieves the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.” JFK

Just War Theory (JWT: essentially, a system of military ethics)

• We risk Communal Sin in war, especially a religious war since both combatants believe in God
• Romans 13:3-4 (“but if you do evil, in war, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword without purpose; it is the servant of God to inflict wrath on the evildoer”) Does that remind you of the sniper in “Saving Private Ryan”, who quoted the first two verses of Psalm 144 each time he fired on German soldiers:
  • “Blessed be the Lord my strength who teaches my hands to war and my fingers to fight.”
  • “My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdue my people under me.”

But it seems to get a little harder once one focuses on the New Testament

• Long tradition of Christian pacifism, with its roots, not surprisingly, in the Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures): Exodus 15:3, Exodus 14:13 and Deuteronomy 1:30 as just a few examples in which God promises to do Israel’s fighting.

• Mt 5:38-39: “You have heard it said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.”

• 1 Peter 2:23: “When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten; instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly.”

• In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus blesses peacemakers and warns that “All who take up the sword will die by the sword”

• Forgive 77 x 7!

 

• Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you!

• So, should those of us who are true disciples of Christ stand by and allow our families, church, or country to suffer by the “evildoers”?

• In Matthew, Jesus also warns, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

• The Church holds that nations have defense of others in their care: family, common good of the state

• Defense of the innocent

• Just (good) War

• In his great work, City of God, St Augustine claimed that war was a tragic necessity in a sinful world. And he lived through the barbarian invasion of Rome and the eventual sacking of the Eternal City.

• But as with most history, it’s complicated:

1. Vast numbers of those barbarians became Christians. So, did the fall of Rome make that war Just? The JWT does not discuss retrospective.
2. The vast majority of those pouring through our southern border are Christian. They are, after all, replacing our too-low-for-replacement birth rate.
3. Or should we do what Western Europe has done, and bring in VAST numbers of muslims and then bend over backwards to destroy our own culture in order to accommodate vastly different cultures from Northern Africa and the Middle East?

• This theory does not justify war but rejects waging war unless certain criteria are met.

1. Just cause. Defending the innocent, protecting basic human rights
2. Waged by a competent and lawful authority with responsibility for the common good
3. Have exhausted all peaceful options to resolve the conflict
4. Right intentions, such as restoration of Justice and order, and NOT hatred or vengeance (Pearl Harbor, 9-11)
5. Reasonable probability of success. Compare WWII with WWI, Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan. Were they worth it?
6. What degree of force to what goals. Waging war cannot do more harm than good.
7. Principle of discrimination, between combatants and noncombatants (restating the 5th Commandment). Directly taking innocent life is wrong (Think of the massacre at My Lai, Vietnam, one that included many rapes of children as young as 12!). This is tough to say and hear

• WWI—Christians slaughtering Christians. Mustard gas!

• WWII: Pope Pius XII condemned the modern theory of total warfare (by any means necessary)

• Think of Dresden (destroyed 2,500 acres in the city center with 25k civilians killed—in two days of bombing

• Tokyo (destroyed 16 sq miles of land, 80,000–100,000 civilians dead and over 1 million homeless—in two days. It was the single most destructive bombing in history.

• The Blitz (German blitzkrieg “lightning war”) of London—45,000 civilians killed (change of heart in Churchill)

• Germany suffered nearly 8 million fatalities (5.5 million being civilians) compared with 360,000 British. Japan suffered more than 2 million civilian deaths

• Did the U.S. military brass read some of Generals Grant and, especially, Sherman, and realize that only pulverizing the enemy into submission would secure victory?

• Catholic theologians and clergy condemned the bombings, just as they did the atomic bombing because of the slaughter of innocent.

• Second Vatican Council

• It was formed largely because of WWII and the holocaust.

• “Gaudium et Spes” or Church in the modern world, one of the four Constitutions of the Council, urged a total reappraisal of war.

• VCII reaffirmed principle of Discrimination: combatants but not civilians

• War is a crime against God and Man

• In his encyclical Pacem in Terris, (“Peace on Earth”) Pope John XXIII said “In the context of nuclear weaponry, it is irrational to think that war is a proper way to obtain Justice for violated rights.” Only the defense of the innocent from direct attack by an aggressor may constitute a clear “just cause” for going to war.

Pope Francis 7/1/22:

• If weapons were not manufactured then there would be no hunger in the world.

• During the commemoration of the landing at the Normandy beaches, the pope thought of the 30,000 boys left dead on the beach. He said that the leaders knew they were sending those soldiers to their deaths because they knew the Nazis were waiting for them. Is that justified?”

• “You can rest assured that God always forgives, and we, men, forgive every now and then. But Nature never forgives. It pays us back.” (P Francis)

• The Church objected to the Cold War policy of MAD on two grounds:

1. Such a balance is only theoretical and therefore precarious, and could start the devastation it tries to prevent.
2. The huge resources required for these armaments starves humanitarian and constructive projects that could become the foundation for genuine peace.

• War as entertainment! On the night of January 16, 1991, I sat comfortably at the bar in Maria’s restaurant in Manasquan enjoying a drink, when I looked up at the cursed TV to see the dramatic fireworks that announced Operation Desert Storm.

• The Arts dramatically portray war and make boatloads of money. “Gone With The Wind”, “Saving Private Ryan”, etc. How much money do you think Hitler and the Nazi’s have earned generations of authors, playwrights, movie producers, etc?

• I have a shotgun, one that I purchased ten years ago but only just fired it a few weeks ago. Wow! Such power! If I ever had to use it, I would have to be certain that I did so for a just cause. Similar criteria as for a Just War.

• For a course in high school, I worked a few months in the local  VA hospital in Orange, NJ. Upon seeing my first badly maimed soldier my head began to swim. A powerful and humbling lesson.

“And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” (by Eric Bogle 1971)

When I was a young man I carried me pack
And I lived the free life of the rover
From the Murray’s green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over

Then in 1915 my country said: “Son
It’s time to stop rambling, there’s work to be done”
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they sent me away to the war

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As the ship pulled away from the quay
And amid all the tears, flag waving and cheers
We sailed off for Gallipoli

Well I remember that terrible day
When our blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter

Johnny Turkey, he was ready, oh he primed himself well
He rained us with bullets, and he showered us with shell
And in five minutes flat, we were all blown to hell
Nearly blew us back home to Australia

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
When we stopped to bury our slain
And we buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then it started all over againYou

Oh those that were living just tried to survive
In that mad world of blood, death, and fire
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
While around me the corpses piled higher

Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head
And when I awoke in me hospital bed
And saw what it had done, I wished I were dead
Never knew there was worse things than dying

For no more I’ll go Waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and near
For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs both legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me

They collected the wounded, the crippled, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The armless, the legless, the blind and the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla

And when the ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where me legs used to be
And thanked Christ there was no one there waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity

And the Band played Waltzing Matilda
When they carried us down the gangway
Oh nobody cheered, they just stood there and stared
Then they turned all their faces away

So now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
I see my old comrades, how proudly they march
Renewing their dreams of past glories

I see the old men all tired, stiff and sore
Those weary old heroes of a forgotten war
And the young people ask “What are they marching for?”
And I ask myself the same question

And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men still answer the call
But year after year, their numbers get fewer
Someday, no one will march there at all.

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda

Who’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda with me?

And their ghosts may be heard as they march by the billabong

So who’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda with me?