Nevertheless...

Now Reading: Nevertheless: The Varieties and Shortcomings of Religious Pacifism, by John Howard Yoder (Scottdale, Penn.: Herald Press, 1992).

Ch. 2: The Pacifism of the Honest Study of Cases

("Just-War Pacifism")

"A second difficulty is that in many cases, having stated such a doctrine seems to have had the effect of excusing people from applying it carefully. They think the fact that there exists a doctrine of the just war constitutes a justification of war in general. However, it actually constitutes a denial that war can ever be generally justified. The amassing of armament for the potentially justified case of war is not matched by creating institutions or techniques for the control of the use of arms in the other cases.

"Thus the existence of the doctrine has tended to be taken as a proof, when as a matter of fact it should have been meant as a question. Hence, great numbers of Christians in the mainstream denominations assume that the theologians have given them grounds for a good conscience in preparing for war and waging it. Yet this is not at all the case. They feel that the recent groundswell of selective objection to war is revolutionary, when in fact it is a retrieval of traditional commitments." (p. 25)

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"He Himself is our Peace." (Eph 2)