War and Peace: Part 1

Instructions

We live in a fallen world, where sometimes the only time to attain peace is to fight for it in war. However, does this make it right? The two major groups for this is the Just War and Pacifist group. They will be examined via a Graded Absolutism ethical approach and through this approach the best way to live this ethical dilemma of War and Peace out Throughout history there has been a massive question over should Christians be involved with war? Ideally, if the world were perfect, then this would not be an issue, but because we live in a fallen world full of sin, we as Christians have to figure this question out. Throughout history there have been two major stances of this question, the Pacifist group and the Just War group, both of which have biblical evidence to stand upon and both deliver some great arguments of why they are right. However, which one is right? Which one brings the lesser of two evils? A pacifist is a person who just thinks that war is just wrong and unjust altogether. However, in today's age, they can be described as peacemakers.1 However, under pacifism, there are many varieties in this group such as the Non-violence & Non-Participation group 2 Or the Self-Défense group.3 The problem with the non-Participation group is that you can't participate in it all, even if you work for a company that makes water bottles and one of the places you sell things to is the military. This here can be seen as a massive restriction to people's work lives and welfare. Non-Violence group is better in the way that someone's work life and welfare don't get affected, but the problem with this group is if someone attacks you cannot attack back to defend yourself from greater harm. That is when the self-defence group comes in. They believe it is okay to work for companies that indirectly help the military and they believe it is right to defend yourself from greater harm. With these three major varieties in the pacifism group they all stand on the same biblical evidence, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:38-42, 43-48)4 And what Jesus did on the cross.5 Jesus throughout his crucifixion did not retaliate when he was beaten and when he hung on that cross or even when he was questioned. This is the true basis of the non Participation and Non-Violence group. Gandhi says “Violence is wrong because it effects the condition of the soul”6 To further back up Gandhi's claim every person is made in the Image of God so killing someone is an attack on God's image. Therefore, it effects our soul because we have attacked God himself.7 Not only that death is not natural for a human being,8 in other words murdering someone isn’t the natural part of life but cutting someone short. Pacifist all agree that war is based on greed – other nations trying to be bigger, more powerful and wealthier and war just breeds more wars.9 To back up their claim that war breeds more war is the example of World War 1. This war was known as the war to end all wars10 however about 21 years later World War 2 started this time more lives were lost, and the war lasted even longer. Pacifist believe in certain criteria for Christians when it comes to war, they are that Christians peacemakers must recover their morale, they must pray, must set an example as a community of peace, must contribute to confidence building and must promote public debate.11 Pacifists believe if Christians did the above things that others will follow their example and war can be avoided. However, the Pacifist approach is also one of, ‘if we don’t get involved, wars will just cease.’ This is a nice thought. However, we live in a fallen world where people are greedy and want more, and that is why they set Jesus as the moral standard because wars can be avoided if people follow in the footsteps of Jesus, however not everyone has Jesus as their morale compass and that is when the Just War group comes in the navigate this problem with sin.