Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: rvp@softserver.canberra.edu.au (Rey Paulo) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Christianity and war Message-ID: Date: 19 Feb 91 06:27:22 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of Canberra Lines: 57 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article rahardj@clark.umanitoba.ca (Budi Rahardjo) writes: >I'd like to know how Christians feel about war ? >As I understand Christians do not believe in killing people, >but now with this war and lots of people are dying.... >Some of the troops in Saudi are Christians, what should they do >if they want to be true Christians ? > >-- budi > I believe that since war involves killing, it can not be justified from christianity's point of view. The "ten commandments", the commandments given by G-d unto Moses on Mt. Sinai clearly says "Thou shalt not kill." I believe that every christian believes in this. However, among western democracies, there is always what we call as separation between the church and state. The state does not interfere with the church's affairs and vice versa. This war therefore, is driven by the state and not the church. In short it is a political war. To directly answer your question, I would like to quote the view of the World Council of Churces now meeting here in Canberra, Australia. There is a general concensus that the church is against the present war. Note, however, that this is only the view as far as the church is concerned. The view of the politicians handling the war may be different and indeed it is. As regards to the christian soldiers in the gulf, it remains a matter of personal opinion and belief. Religion in most of christianity is a personal relationship between the person and his Creator and is not imposed by anybody nor the church. As a soldier however, each one of them knows very clearly that part of their job is to kill in times of war. -- Rey V. Paulo | Internet : rvp@csc.canberra.edu.au University of Canberra | "One and one and one is three" PO Box 1, Belconnen ACT, AUSTRALIA | -The Beatles --------------------------------------+----------------------------------- [However the World Council really represents only the "liberal" wing of the Protestant Church. At least within the U.S. (I don't know as much about church membership elsewhere) I'd bet 1) that the churches it represents don't include a majority of members even of Protestant Churches. And of course Catholics aren't included. 2) that the people who vote in the World Council are noticably more "liberal" than the members of the churches they come from. That's not to say that statements by the World Council are useless, (though there are certainly people who believe that the Council would be better off not to make statements on controversial issues unless there is a real concensus among Christians). They may provide guidance to churches and individual Christians. But it would be a great exageration to consider them as representing any kind of Christian concensus. --clh]