I gave the class a biblical definition of justice in four parts: Deliverance of the oppressed into freedom. Deliverance of outcasts into community. Deliverance of the poor into enough. And… “The fourth would open up a can of worms I can’t put back together in one class,” I said. “But… Read More
It happened a few months after 9/11. A friend, assuming I would agree, complained that Christians in America were overwhelmingly in support of going to war with whoever was responsible. He was a Southern Baptist. He didn’t sew his own clothes out of hemp, live in a commune, grow a… Read More
Fifty years ago this week, Martin Luther King Jr bellowed a dream from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. His was a voice between that still guides mine. The White Racist Voice All Martin’s life he’d been told he was worthless. Worth less. Unworthy to drink from their fountains, sit… Read More
There’s a tug-o-war between theology and pragmatism going on inside every Christian in every nation. American Christ followers are no different. Never have been. The American Revolutionary War was not a “just war” – not the way Aquinas or Augustine defined “just.” More importantly, it wouldn’t begin to meet the… Read More
Neither America’s nor Britain’s population protested on a large scale Allied bombing campaigns during World War II. Many historians say that a sort of holy war mentality had taken over, overriding any moral outrage the population would have ordinarily expressed. Americans and Brits are said to have “feared the consequence… Read More
There are no more prominent theologians left in our history of Just War thinking. From here on out the leaders of government and military will steer the Just War tradition to the present. Beginning with Giulio Douhet. Italian Brigadier General Douhet (1869-1930) presented his revisions to Just War doctrine in… Read More
Shaun Groves