Stanley Hauerwas and the Abolition of War

For those of you about to Podcast, I salute you! At least to check out this podcast from Stanley Hauerwas on his article on the Abolition of War. To listen to it, you'll need the latest version of iTunes. Go to the iTunes Store, and then to iTunes U. At Duke University, his two-part broadcast is located under "Our Daily Bread." There is about 2 minutes of dead space at the beginning, but it is well worth listening to - unless you are pro-war.

And I hope that the vast majority of people are against going to war. One point that Dr. Hauerwas makes is that it isn't middle-aged people like myself that go to war, it is our kids that are put on the sacrificial table to kill or be killed for certain beliefs that are not always spelled out. He, a pacifist (or in his preferred lingo, a peace-maker), wrote the article with a person who is a just-war advocate.

It doesn't matter who you are, war should be an evil thing. In the case of just-war advocates, it is a method of last resort and only under certain conditions. Part 2 is particularly fascinating because he talks about how hard it is to speak against war, even though war is about killing other human beings, no matter how we justify it, because it creates its own justification by our relations with people involved in it. Think about how hard it is to say something negative against the war in Iraq. If you say it is an unjustified war, then there is the perception that you are belittling the people who lost their lives in the war, rather than saying something about the people who made the decision to put these kids lives on the line for a particular reason.

This is one post that I would probably prefer that people not respond, because print is such a hard medium to have a conversation. But I do believe that conversations should be had. Are there alternative possible decisions, other than violence, for those that claim to follow Christ when it comes to making peace?