Leveling the Field

Seminary professor Glen Stassen writes in Kingdom Ethics, "All members of an enemy nation retain the sanctity of their lives, for they were created in the image of God."

Leaning on Michael Walzer's work, Just and Unjust Wars, Stassen writes: "Bombing a military target like a tank or a weapons factory may have the indirect effect of killing some civilians. That is a realistic and allowable consequence of war (though nonetheless horrible), so long as it truly is unintentional and indirect, and its cost in lives is proportional to the gain."

The Baptist ethicist goes on to explain, "This is the principle of double effect--that is, the primary effect of the war is to kill soldiers and destroy military targets, but the secondary effect is some spillover death (to civilians) and destruction (to nonmilitary targets)."

However, Stassen points out that civilian right to life means that "extra care" must be taken to avoid killing civilians....

He writes, "It is easy to see how stringent application of just war theory places severe limits on war-making, in both senses—whether or not to fight a war, and how a war is fought."

Just war theory tells us that Israel's missiles and shells are no more just than Hezbollah's rockets.

[via Ethics Daily, HT: Jesus Politics]