Just War Theory: Morality and Warfare in Christianity

The whole question of the legitimacy of warfare is rooted in some other questions. First of all, the original function and purpose of civil government. That’s one aspect in which the question has to be addressed. Also we have to raise the question of the legitimacy or illegitimacy of capital punishment because in the final analysis what warfare involves is capital punishment on a grand scale. [00:02:25]

And the third moral issue that we have to consider in discussing the question of whether warfare is ever just is the whole principle of the right of self-defense. I remember when I began my teaching career thirty some years ago, we had a young daughter, who was only at the time four or five years old. [00:03:07]

And we lived next door to a family that had a son the same age, and this son used to come over and play in the back yard in the sand box with our daughter, but he was a little bit belligerent and something of a bully. And several days in succession, our daughter came in crying and sniffling and sobbing because the little boy next door had punched her. [00:03:32]

And we had tried to instruct our daughter not to retaliate in kind and not to return evil for evil, but this was becoming such a problem that it was getting out of hand. Even when we talked to the parents who sought to restrain their child from this act of bullying other children, it was to no avail. [00:04:00]

And so I had a conversation with my daughter, and I said, “Honey, the next time he hits you try to think of something that might stop him from doing it again.” I didn’t have… I didn’t want to come right out and say, “Hit him back.” But I said, “You try to think of something.” [00:04:38]

So the very next day, I hear my daughter wailing and crying and coming in the back door, and I said, “What’s the matter, honey?” And she said, “He hit me again.” I said, “Well, did… what did you do?” And she said, “I couldn’t think of anything to do.” So I said, “Well, let me give you a suggestion.” [00:04:59]

I said, “The next time he begins to attack you and starts to hit you, hit him back.” And so the very next day, I was in the kitchen, and all of a sudden I heard this ungodly scream, this wailing coming from the back yard, like… sounding like the squealing of a stuck pig. [00:05:20]

And I rushed to the back door and opened it, and I looked out and I saw my daughter, four or five year old daughter, on top of this guy with her fists clenched, and she looks up at me, and she said, “Should I hit him again, Daddy?” She learned the principle of self-defense in this little encounter, and actually it was the end of the bullying. [00:05:30]

And of course, in this kind of act of self-defense there was the use of violence, there was the use of force. But the question is, was it justified? When we began Ligonier Ministries in 1971 in western Pennsylvania, we were still deeply involved in the Vietnamese war, and there were many young people that would come to our campus who were objecting to the United States involvement in that war. [00:06:00]

And you will remember if you were alive at that time, that there’s never been a conflict in which our country has been engaged in which there was so much dissent as there was during that time. And the nation was divided between two groups who were defined as the hawks and the doves. [00:06:34]

And I would listen to some of the slogans and some of the arguments that came from both sides on that occasion, where the hawks were favoring increased military engagement in Vietnam, where the doves were calling for our withdrawing from Vietnam and not continuing our involvement in this conflict. [00:06:58]

Now, against this backdrop of questions and controversy, I want to mention first of all that historically the majority position within Christianity has been the position endorsing the so-called just war theory—the just war theory. Now, there have been those who have rejected the just war theory and who have adopted a position of pacifism, saying that since the gospel does not operate with the sword, and the particular ethic that is given to us in the New Testament, particularly in the Sermon on the Mount we are told not to return evil with evil, and if someone smites thee on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well. [00:08:14]