What Does the Christian Do About War?

"Got your draft notice yet?"
"No, but it's due any day now."
"Going into service right away?"
"Natch. What else is there to do?"

This kind of situation confronts almost every boy in America today. When he is eighteen, he will face a period of military service. He will be given intensive training in the most up-todate methods of killing his fellow men; he may even be sent into battle to put his training into practice. Everybody in his society (and that means all of us) is morally involved in the fact that he must do this.

There is a problem here for the Christian, since war -- particularly modern atomic war -- seems to be a complete violation of the Christian ethic of love. It is hard to reconcile the command to love our enemies with the command to drop atomic bombs on them or kill them with flame throwers. What does the Christian do in this situation?

A Caution

Text-juggling here is no help. Particularly during wartime, militarists produce verses showing God's support of bloodthirsty Israelite wars, while nonmilitarists isolate sayings like "Love your enemies." Anyone can find what he wants in the Bible by stressing the things that agree with his position and ignoring the things that do not. It is particularly easy to lift statements out of context in playing this fruitless game. When Jesus said, "I bring not peace but a sword," for example, he was not talking about the problem of participation in war.

On the contrary, we must try to discover the total Biblical view on this question, and then work out an answer to the question, What shall I do?

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