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The Anglican Church in Tasmania Search |
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a healthy church...transformingLIFE |
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Book review
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Dr Tom Frame is the Anglican Bishop to the Australian Defence force and the Preface to his book tells something of his life experiences of, and ideas about war and especially armed conflict and the concept of 'the just war.' Usefully an historical account of the Christian debate before and after 450AD, the book moves from the pacificism of the early church living under Roman hegemony until the present day when Christians face a world of international co-operation and weapons of mass destruction. In applying the generally accepted 'just war' criteria to the Gulf Wars he finds for the 1991 War but not for the 2003 one. The United States, he decided, had a special interest and at least three of the nine generally accepted criteria were absent. Great damage' The War was more expedient that just; alternatives to force had not been exhausted; and the cost may prove over the next decade to have been out of proportion to the outcome.' As for liberating the Iraqi people from a cruel tyrant he points to other tyrants at least as bad, who are not being challenged by the US - and Australia. There was only a suspicion of WMD and there was no immediate threat to neighbouring nations. Besided, the War is seen as having done great damage to collective security, embodied in the United Nations Organisation. The just war debate is applied to armed interventions into sovereign states to offer humanitarian aid. Some Australians readily accepted this in neighbouring East Timor, but wondered about the suffering in Bosnia and Rwanda - and today probably he would add Sudan. But of course agape is not limited by distance. However, he sees little justification for intervention in Vietnam and Chile when the USA wished to prevent Communist rule threatening US trade and investment. ImpossibleConscientious objection to nation-sanctioned war is considered, especially when against a particular war which has questionable justification. The Defence Department dismisses this because they say they would never sanction an unjust war. (?) Australia may be expected to contribute to military action in a territory which has nothing to do with this country, but this conscientious objection may be morally impossible in such situations. An excellent book to stimulate thinking about major problems facing Christians in the modern world. One can follow up by using the excellent bibliography provided. |
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