The 'Just War' Doctrine; Part 1

I intended for this post to be titled ‘Why Are We Here?’, but obviously got sidetracked. While researching something else, I had to refer to Darrell Cole’s excellent book, 'When God Says War is Right' which reminded me I’d been meaning for some time to jot down some thoughts on the Just War Doctrine (JWD).

Every time we go to war, or think about going to war (and the reality is, this country hasn’t been to war since 1945), there’s much talk about making changes to the JWD to reflect our new ‘enlightened’ (read: secular humanist) version of morality. Invariably, it seems the agenda that underlies these discussions is really to develop a JWD that effectively prohibits any nation from going to war because, after all, war is immoral, so by definition, Wrong.

First, scripturally, that understanding about war is incorrect and represents just another effort by the World to soften God’s word. If War is Wrong, then God is a hypocrite.

Second, such a doctrine would be suicidal and, therefore, a violation of the commandment against murder.

Based on a dangerous naiveté, it would prove no obstacle at all to any of the many states that have no such concerns about the morality of their actions. Can Israel count on Iran abiding by such a JWD once they have the bomb?

A pastor recently told me of a seminar entitled ‘The Abolition of War’ he attended at Duke University’s Divinity School. The premise was that war should be abolished because ‘they don’t work’. I don’t know the particulars of this talk, but usually, our war in Viet Nam is held up as one example of why wars fail. Well, by definition they DO fail for the losers, but someone may want to clue these people in on the fact that, for the North Vietnamese, war worked out very nicely as a way to achieve their political goals.

Having said all that in apparent defense of the current JWD, there are aspects of it that I find morally questionable. So, what I propose to do is take another look at the JWD, adhering to the early church fathers’ understanding of God’s take on war, but apply to it our Founding Father’s scripture-based understanding of the rights of the individual.

Next: A synopsis of the current Just War Doctrine with one modern interpretation.

Until then,
Strength and Courage.
Steve