a christian response to war

with the war with iraq coming down to the wire, one might ask 'what is a christian to think about this situation?'

the most important fact is that nobody, absolutely nobody, should be for war. war kills people, not only soldiers, but also innocent civilians; it is inevitable. it also brings destruction and chaos. whether one is a christian or not, one should never be so eager for war. however, there is a widely held belief among christians that there comes a time when war can be justified. it is called the 'just war doctrine' and was first championed by st. augustine of hippo. just war doctrine holds that war may be justified when certain criterias are met. here are the major criterias:

1. proper authority. augustine proposed that there must be proper authority, i.e. the government by elected officials, that carries out the war. the reason is because Scripture tells us that government authorities are ultimately ordained by God to carry out justice (Ro 13:1-7).

2. proper cause. the reason and motive for war must be deemed appropriate. from this, augustine automatically ruled out reasons such as revenge, desire to bring harm, revolt, or domination.

3. proportionality. when waging a war, the leaders must make sure that the harm caused should not exceed the harm caused by the aggression itself. along with this, civilians must be protected and not harmed.

so, applied to this situation, we see that the confrontation with iraq is part of the larger context of america's war on terror. iraq is known to have weapons of mass destruction, and these weapons are known to be most commonly used by terrorist organizations. not only that, but more importantly, iraq has repeatedly broken u.n mandates since the first gulf war. he repeatedly thwarted weapons inspectors' efforts, who where there to eliminate dangerous weapons of mass destruction and thus prevent iraq from performing further aggression (as in the case of invading kuwait in the 1990s and gasing northern kurds in the 1980s). furthermore, iraq has most recently violated the u.n. resolution 1441, drafted in october of 2002. in this resolution, iraq was supposed to coopereate with weapons inspectors and disarm their arsenal or face 'serious consequences.' the fact that iraq has violated this u.n. resolution alone should justify confrontation with iraq.

and president bush has followed the proper channels thus far. he went through the channels of weapons of inspectors to disarm iraq's weapons of mass destruction. that didn't work as iraq failed ot cooperate. president bush also brought it up to the u.n. to find support for confronting iraq, by military force if necessary. that did not work either. that is why, a final ultimatum was given. all other options have been exhausted. tony blair said something interesting today. he said that even though other nations are known to have similar weapons of mass destruction, if the world backs down from confronting iraq now, there will only be more confrontations that the world will have to face in the future.

so, how should we respond as christians? once again, nobody should be for war. war should be the last option, and right now, that's what it has come down to. first, we need to pray for our leaders. paul says that we should be praying and interceding for our government officials (1 ti 2:1-3). our leaders need wisdom and discernment to make decisions that serve the interest of world peace. secondly, we should also pray for the military. they are on the front lines and are most in need of God's mercy and protection. third, chuck colson says that we should pray for a miraculous intervention that will prompt saddam hussein and his sons to leave. and if that doesn't happen, we should pray that this war will be swift and minimal in the loss of lives.

finally, what we need most is to come before the Lord in weeping and mourning in our hearts over this situation. as we fast and pray and seek his face, may the Lord come and heal our land.