After the loss of the World Trade Center, speaking of a war on terrorism, President Bush said, “We cannot know every turn this battle will take, yet we know our cause is just . . . .” In his State of the Union message earlier this year, referring to war against Iraq, the president said, “We will fight in a just cause and by just means.”

Just Cause? That was the name of the military operation that President Bush, the elder, authorized in 1989 to ‘liberate’ the people of Panama, an action that left thousands of unsuspecting civilians dead – and thousands more homeless – for the sake of arresting one man. Little more than a year later, the elder President Bush was talking about another military operation, this time to drive the Iraqi army out of Kuwait. He said, “The war in the Gulf is not a Christian war, a Jewish war, or a Muslim war – it is a Just war.”

Just War? The concept was described over 1,500 years ago by Saint Augustine. A pagan turned Christian, Augustine argued there was never any justification for one individual to kill another, not even in self defense. But this limitation did not apply to nations. The rulers of nations, he argued, have an obligation to their subjects to maintain peace. This obligation gives them the right to wage war, and their subjects have a responsibility to go when called. The just motive for war? Peace. Augustine wrote, “We go to war that we may have peace.” Isn’t it a violation of the teachings? Doesn’t it conflict with that commandment to “love your enemies?” According to Augustine, “War is the result of sin, and war is the remedy for sin.”

In Augustine’s time, pagans turned Christian were considered pacifists, unfit for warfare because of their peculiar religious beliefs. Many became martyrs in the cause of peace. There was Saint Maximilian, a young Christian who, in 295 AD, was executed for refusing to join the Roman army. He said, “I cannot serve in the military; I cannot do wrong; I am a Christian.” There was Saint Marcellus, a centurion who converted to Christianity. In 298 AD, he was executed after he said that he would serve only Jesus Christ, that he could no longer wage war. There was Saint Martin of Tours, an officer in the Roman army who converted to Christianity. On the eve of a battle around 340 AD, a battle to defend the empire against invading Teutons, he told the emperor that he could no longer fight; it went against his religion. The emperor accused Martin of cowardice, and so Martin volunteered to face the enemy unarmed except for the sign of the cross. He was thrown into prison. The next day, the enemy gave up without a fight. Martin was released and excused from military service.

Halfway between our time and Augustine’s was the time of Saint Thomas Aquinas. In his Summa Theologica, Aquinas detailed three conditions for a just war: proper authority, just cause, and right intent. The proper authority was the head of state, responsible for the welfare of the citizens. Aquinas found justification in Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans, where Paul writes, “Obey the government, for God is the one who put it there. All governments have been placed in power by God.” Obey since, “Whoever opposes the existing authority opposes what God has ordered, and anyone who does so will bring judgement on himself.” If the government says go to war, you go to war. Aquinas also considered a just cause for going to war. He wrote, “Those who are attacked should be attacked because they deserve it on account of some fault.” As for right intent, Aquinas gave two possibilities: to further good, or to avoid evil.

Just War theory is based on a few lines from Paul’s letter to the Romans. It is based on his advice (in Romans 13) to the Christians in Rome that they should obey the authorities. Why? Because all governments, including that of Rome, are ordained by God; if you disobey the government, you disobey God. By extension, if the government sends you off to war, that is your duty.

Paul’s advice to obey the law was for the sake of the new religion he was establishing. Pagans turned Christian were pacifists who refused to fight. Like the Hippies of the 1960s who refused to fight in Vietnam, they believed Christ’s teachings prohibited them from waging war. Refusing to fight was bad enough, but when Christians went out of their way to insult the state religion and to disrupt official religious ceremonies, that was it. Romes’s royalty could spend an afternoon watching hungry lions kill brash pacifists. Paul’s advice was to conform. If the Christians didn’t cool it, the Romans would wipe them out, and it would be pretty hard for Paul to establish much of a church and attract converts.

Augustine and Aquinas welded the sword of a fallen empire to the philosophy of a prophet. Now, the church in Rome says this war against Iraq is not a just war. The pope predicted the war would be another “tragedy for mankind.” Just weeks before the war began, he called for Christians to observe Ash Wednesday as a day of fasting and praying for peace. He sent an envoy to meet with the president on Ash Wednesday and to deliver a letter pleading against war. Ari Fleischer, the president’s spokesman, said the president would not be influenced. Condoleezza Rice, the president’s national security adviser, said she cannot understand how anyone could consider this war immoral.

The pope wasn’t alone. Many church leaders opposed the war. The president’s church opposed it. United Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert, appearing in a television commercial, said attacking Iraq, “violates God’s law and the teachings of Jesus Christ.” The General Secretary of the United Methodist Church said, “It is inconceivable that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior and the Prince of Peace, would support this attack.”

Of course, others saw it differently. In a letter to the president supporting war against Iraq, a group of conservative Christians including James Kennedy and Charles Colson, wrote, “We believe that your policies are both right and just . . . are prudent and fall well within the time-honored criteria of just war theory . . . .” Before the earlier war against Iraq, Billy Graham said, “There comes a time when we must fight for peace.”

There were Sunday morning, TV evangelists who read Paul’s letter and said it means, “When the nation calls you to military service, it’s your duty to fight for your country.” They read the Gospels and said Jesus didn’t oppose war; peace justifies violence. A month before the war, TV evangelist Charles Stanley sermonized with passion. He challenged those who believe war is wrong, always wrong. “When someone says to you, ‘God is against all war,’ ask them, ‘where is that in the Bible?’ It is not in the scriptures. God approves of war,” he said triumphantly. “And he hates peace protestors.”

How far from those pacifists the Romans fed the lions. How far from Maximilian who said, “I am a Christian and cannot fight.” Or from Martin who said, “I am a soldier of Christ; it is not lawful for me to fight.” Or from Tertullian who said, “When Christ disarmed Peter in the garden, he disarmed all Christians.” Or from Lactantius who said, “It can never be lawful for a righteous man to go to war, since his warfare is in righteousness itself.” Or from Cyprian who said, “Christians are not allowed to kill, but they must be willing to be put to death.” These were men who – unlike our president – chose their religion. Pagans turned Christian, they consciously chose to heed the teachings, even to sacrifice their lives for their religion.

There’s an old saying: there are no atheists in foxholes. The idea is that – once the shooting starts – everyone is ready to turn to God. Whoever started this saying didn’t appreciate that – once the shooting starts – it is the desire for survival that consumes a soldier. There is no time for pondering theology, or the meaning of Romans 13, or whether the gods give one hoot about people in foxholes or their causes.

About the Author: Mister Thorne is a mathematics editor living in San Francisco. To contact him, send e-mail to lyricalreckoner@yahoo.com.

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