Just War And Pacifism Essay

Christian pacifism demonstrates how Jesus indicates rejection of all violence. This is demonstrated in 1 Peter 3:9 “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing….” This is further evidenced with a Christian denomination known as the Society of Friends, or Quakers, who have a main focus on pacifism, which is to accomplish personal peace. This is indicated through their thoughtful ways of ritual worship. Quakers believe that war and conflict are against God's desires, thus, they are committed to pacifism and actively refuse to fight in war, but instead contributed doing nonviolent

Dr. King, Walter Benjamin, and Hannah Arendt all speak of violence in terms of gaining social and political change, Dr. King preaches non violence and loving your enemy

According to our text there are in fact two types of pacifists. Those who feel that violence is never the answer and those who feel that violence can be justified. On pacifism, Lackey (2014) explained that some pacifists are willing to resort to violence in certain acceptable situations. Those situations are vague but a few examples are

St. Augustine provided comments on morality of war from the Christian point of view (railing against the love of violence that war can engender) as did several critics in the intellectual flourishing from the 9th to 12th centuries. Just war theorists remind warriors and politicians alike that the principles of justice following war should be universalizable and morally ordered and that winning should not provide a license for imposing unduly harsh or punitive measures or that state or commercial interests should not dictate the form of new peace. “The attraction for jus post bellum thinkers is to return to the initial justice of the war”. This means that war is considered as self-defense.

Pacifism can be defined as people who believe in resolving conflicts without the use of violence. Many folks believe that pacifism is a moral ideal and many oppose of pacifism. Despite, that many people hold that pacifism is righteous, the truth is that pacifism is immoral and it is affecting and harming our society. Michael Kelly, the author of “The Negative Impact on Pacifism” believes that “pacifism is, inescapably and profoundly, immoral… pacifism is on the side if the murderers, and it is on the side of letting them murder again.” Kelly observes that without action within a time where an attack has occurred more people are going to be injured or killed.

To them, there was not a valid and justified point in joining the war. Some of these pacifists thought that the first world war was not America’s war to fight. The pacifist belief was that America should focus on its own economy and stop prying into European affairs. Along with the thought that the war was not our own, many believed, and continue to believe, that World War I was a major factor contributing cause toin the Great Depression. Even though that is a possibility, it does not justify as World War I being unjust for

Would a peaceful pacifist support the American Revolution? Although many would believe it would impossible for a pacifist to support the American Revolution since it involved violence, it is possible because Americans used other methods besides violence to revolt against the British government. After studying “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau and the American Revolution, I learned that although Thoreau was a pacifist, he would still support the American Revolution.

Pacifism covers an array of views and there are many subcategories of pacifism, some of which I will cover, but the main definition of the word pacifism is the opposition to war and/or violence. Perhaps the most famous use of the word pacifism is found in the “Sermon on the Mount”, where Jesus claims the “peacemakers” are blessed. In this passage, the Greek word eirenopoios is translated into Latin as pacifici, which means those who work for peace. One common and simple argument for pacifism among religious groups or god fearing people is the argument that god’s revealed words says, through the bible, “Thou shalt not kill.”

The contemporary scholar of political perspective on passive protest Gene Sharp views that nonviolent struggle may reflect a moral commitment to pacifism by leaders or activists in a movement such as Martin Luther King Jr and Mohandas Gandhi.

The Just War Theory is a doctrine founded by Saint Augustine which has helped bring much discussion and debate to wars and the morality to fight in them. Wars and fights between people have gone on forever and are not perceived to stop anytime soon so it is important that some people thought about when and why they should ever fight. For many years Christians never part toke in this fighting due to teachings of the Bible and Jesus' teaching on 'turning the other cheek' and 'live by the sword, die by the sword'. Saint Augustine would be one of the first to talk about how a Christian could be a soldier and serve God at the same time. Through this thought we would receive the Just War Theory which gave a set of requirements for someone to partake

The theory is not intended to justify wars but to prevent them, by showing that going to war except in certain limited circumstances is wrong, and thus motivate states to find other ways of resolving conflicts. A war is only a Just War if it is both justified, and carried out in the right way. The circumstances of Just-War Theory must be of: Last Resort, Legitimate Authority, Just Cause, Probability of Success, Right Intention, Proportionality, and Civilian Casualties.

The just war theory had been a fundamental principle of the Catholic Church for several decades at this point. Merton believed that this theory had been part of Catholic tradition for so long that it was not possible to set aside when thinking of plans of attack. Not only did just war theory not give much leeway for acceptable fighting, but Jesus also would not agree with the fighting (239). Shannon describes Merton’s argument that non-violence was a necessity since the heart of non-violence is love. When Jesus spoke of love, he preached that his followers should love their enemies and those who oppress them in addition to their neighbors. In this sense, although the world may be being persecuted by Hitler and his army of Nazi’s, it is necessary for us as Christians to not fight back but lead a peaceful rebellion. Merton believed that in order to live a life of non-violence one must be capable of suffering violence without inflicting violence in return or unto others

Many of the core beliefs of conscientious objection derive from the teachings or beliefs of pacifism. Pacifism has been a system of thinking and living for hundreds of years, and, in the 20th century many objection and pacifistic movements have sprung up all around the nation, more so than in any other time. Pacifism and conscientious objection in the United States have been moral issues that have fallen under question due to the belief of the participants that killing, war, and the act of violence is wrong and immoral.

There are, however, various categories of ‘pacifist’. A ‘total pacifist’ is someone who completely avoids violence and believes it can never be justified, not even in self-defence or to protect others – this they see as the only morally correct view of war. A relative pacifist is someone who may use violence in certain situations but who supports disarmament. They are discriminating about WW1 but agree that WW2 had to be fought. Nuclear pacifists believe that conventional weapons are acceptable as a last resort if war is inevitable, as it is, but nuclear

Russell began to develop a pacifist attitude. Pacifism is a movement against war, violence, or militarism. During the war Russell stated “When the war came I felt as if I heard the voice of God. I knew that it was my business to protest, however futile protest might be. My whole nature was involved.” (F-8) He used this as a sort of calling to bring forth his beliefs and gain followers to resist the war. He suggested that the Great Powers of Europe were blind by their government and Russell said “he was quite unable to accept the superficial melodramatic explanations of the catastrophe which were promulgated by all the belligerent governments.”(F-6) Russell was a major peace activist who added on to the era of modernism. After the war he was disliked by the church because he stated that “if God exists, it was surely impossible that an all powerful, all knowing, being would be so vain as to be offended by those who doubt his existence.” (M-3) In this statement Russell questioned the will of God and this made it very hard for him to attract followers outside of his own group. Russell had a meaningful cause but he did not have enough followers to make an impact as the church had done for so many years. Although Russell was completely against warfare and violence he knew that war among humans was inevitable as he concluded that “fighting and killing are among the natural