27 Mar
2010

Posted in: Nonviolence
By Eddie    2 Comments

Failings of Just War

As I continue to read and think about the so called Just War theory, I more often question how many Christians who advocate for war actually believe in the Just War theory. Do we see the theory being applied? Are wars being tested by it’s requirements? If a war doesn’t meet a requirement, are Just War theory holders taking a stand against that war?

I’m not seeing it.

And again, Yoder already tackled these thoughts and questions. Toward the end of the essay (chapter 8 of The War of the Lamb), he wrote:

If most past wars have not met the just war requirements, that is not a condemnation of just war tradition as an ideal system. It is, however, an indictment of the political and military decision makers who failed to make it work, and thereby of their moral teachers, and therefore of their right to call on their citizens to make sacrifices.

Yoder then finished off the short piece by making it clear he was not interested in rehashing both sides of the argument, yet again.

I know from having tested it for thirty years from inside that the just war tradition is not credible. I don’t dialogue with the just war tradition because I think it is credible, but because it is the language that people, who I believe bear the image of God, abuse to authorize themselves to destroy other bearers of that image.

Tags: yoder, nonviolence, war of the lamb, just war, war

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