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<\/a>Well, I\u2019ve committed to writing something about war and peace. And I\u2019m deeply regretting that I did. I was inspired by liberal theologian Paul Rasor\u2019s essay \u201cBeyond Just War and Pacifism: Toward a Unitarian Universalist Theology of Prophetic Nonviolence.\u201d<\/a> It addresses many, although it turns out as I sit with it, not all, by a long shot, of my concerns about the issue of how or when or if ever war can be justified.<\/p>\nThe horns of the delemma upon which I sit are:<\/p>\n
Horn one: Violence is always evil, the product of grasping, hatred and cascading certainties. The only certainty following acts of violence is a flood of unintended consequences, nearly always more evil. And when it rises to war he flood becomes a tsunami.<\/p>\n
Horn two: We have a right to self-defense. And, beyond that, I believe we have an obligation to protect family and neighbor.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m having a hard time squaring this circle. It seems both are axiomatic truth statements. And they\u2019re in conflict.<\/p>\n
So, what to do?<\/p>\n
I want to say war is wrong. Our invasion of Iraq is an interesting example of how a state abuses traditional just war theories to unleash the dogs of war, the unintended consequences of which will be playing out for a very long time.<\/p>\n
The invasion of Afghanistan raises more complicated questions. When that invasion was building up I didn\u2019t join in protest against it. I didn\u2019t publicly support it, either. Although my strongest concern at the time was that I thought the idiots in charge would blow it\u2026<\/p>\n
And into the mix, what are the similarities and the differences in stance for us as individuals and for us as communities? And which communities have the strongest claims?<\/p>\n
Oh, I wish I\u2019d decided to write a sermon about remodeling kitchens\u2026<\/p>\n
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