My best friend, who I\u2019ve known since kindergarten, was in the U.S. Marines. If you\u2019ve ever seen the show Reacher, he is a leaner more charismatic version of Alan Ritchson\u2019s character from the show. We attended the same church, went to the same school, \u00a0and played football together in a \u201cFriday Night Lights\u201d kind of town. After high school we went our separate ways and didn\u2019t talk for over ten years. He went into the military, and I went into full time ministry.<\/p>\n
After he experienced several deployments to the Middle East and I had several years of ministry under my belt in the South we reconnected at a funeral. I suggested we have lunch to catch up and it didn\u2019t take long for us both to realize we were not the same people. Our religious and political worldviews had shifted over the years. It was also surprising to find that although we had taken very different paths in life, we had come to similar conclusions about God, religion, politics, and morals. His understanding of the world changed after being overseas and many of my inherited beliefs had slowly unraveled through education while working through my own and others existential questions while in ministry.<\/p>\n
Since that lunch conversation our childhood friendship has rekindled, and our families do a lot of life together. In fact, he was traveling with me when I randomly saw Tim Clark and John Fehlen at the Nashville airport on the way to Sarasota Florida to interview someone for my NPO. It\u2019s probably obvious why I bring up my best friend in light of Marc LiVecche\u2019s book, The Good Kill: Just War and Moral Injury. <\/em>The moral and philosophical concepts explored within this book have been the topic of conversation over several steak dinners and whiskies throughout the years since we\u2019ve reunited.<\/p>\n During my friends third deployment he began wrestling with the ethics and ideologies of war. Shame and guilt started eating at his soul due to the violent nature of it all, which is what LiVecche\u2019s book is tackling. LiVecche says, \u201cMany do not present\u2014or do not only present\u2014the paranoia, hypervigilance, or other typical responses to life-threatening ordeals. Instead\u2014or additionally\u2014they display what is best described as soul wounds: crippling degrees of guilt, shame, sorrow, or remorse.\u201d[i]<\/a> Marc proposes strategies to prevent <\/em>high degrees of emotional and psychological trauma he refers to as \u201cmoral injury\u201d. He believes moral bruising is inevitable in war, but moral injury may be preventable if soldiers are better prepared morally, theologically, and psychologically when taking the lives of others in combat before deployment.<\/p>\n This preparation means introducing doctrines of just war theory to young people long before they step foot onto a battlefield. Marc in his chapter, Neither Sin nor Paradox, <\/em>pulls heavily from St. Aquinas while exploring the complexity of war who says, \u201cAquinas\u2019s three conditions necessary for the just resort to force\u2014sovereign authority, just cause, and right intention\u2014”.[ii]<\/a> Another noteworthy concept he mentions is \u201cConsequently, any ethic of war claiming to be a Christian ethic must commit to the view that killing can at least cohere with, if not be a manifestation of, love.\u201d[iii]<\/a> This is certainly a complicated topic, not unlike other issues we\u2019ve dealt with over the semester, and one that I feel is out of my lane since I have never been in the military or had to wrestle with the aftermath of killing a human being. Marc LiVecche admits this is the case for him as well as a researcher and author. Living in a world where it is \u201ckill or be killed\u201d, at least for those of us living in peaceful areas in the 21st<\/sup> century, is extremely foreign. I feel it unwise to make rigid moral judgements around this subject and I can see, as LeVecche points out, how not <\/em>protecting those we love could lead to just as much moral injury as doing what is necessary to protect them.<\/p>\n Paul, in the famous 1 Corinthians 13 \u201cwedding passage\u201d about love, says \u201c\u2026it always protects\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Would it haunt me if I took a life even while protecting my family? Most likely.<\/p>\n Would it haunt me if I allowed someone to hurt my family out of pacifism. Most certainly.<\/p>\n I have an ethic that life is sacred, but I have a love for my family and others in a world that does not share my ethics. We live in a time that has not fully developed into the ideal \u201ckingdom of God\u201d Jesus preached about several thousand years ago. What I see LiVecche and other Christians throughout history doing is working through practical matters in the real world, Christian realism, with the love and Spirit of Christ in mind as much as possible. I\u2019ve concluded that intention<\/em> is such a major factor in this theological conversation about war and violence. Two people can perform the same action with very different motivations. I believe God will judge the depths of our hearts in the end which is why legalism is better suited for the courtroom not churches, religion, or theology.<\/p>\n Part of my friend\u2019s crisis happened after questioning the complex motivations of those responsible for sending him overseas, those he fought alongside, and even those within himself. When it comes to war where humans are involved, money, ego, pride, control, fear, hate, fundamentalism, ignorance, insecurity, and prejudice can ultimately be at the root of what can appear to be noble or just actions.<\/p>\n My friend also felt like he and others were desensitized, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to the humanity of \u201cthe enemy\u201d which bred a callousness toward certain people groups as a whole. This callousness slowly melted during unexpected experiences, some during shared meals with Middle Easterners, which sounds a lot like Jesus\u2019 approach in life. Dismissing unfortunate incidents as \u201ccausalities of war\u201d to cope or justify certain actions in battle became increasingly unsettling. My buddy began his career in the military feeling his actions were completely justifiable, but left questioning much of it. He has found a balance at this point in life, but what do you do when you discover both sides of war may have questionable motives?<\/p>\n One of my favorite stories concerns St. Thomas Aquinas, a man mentioned in Marc LeVecchi\u2019s book. Aquinas spilled gallons of ink formulating various theologies, including those that touch on just war theory. It is reported that he stopped writing after a vision he had and said, \u201cI can write no more. I have seen things that make my writings like straw.\u201d[iv]<\/a> What he meant by this has been highly debated and Christian leaders are quick to argue this statement should not negate his years of theological contribution. However, it may illustrate that many of us who follow Christ are doing the best we can to figure this religious, moral, and ethical stuff out in a complicated, ever evolving world, but likely coming up short. However, this will never stop us from seeking to find what Christ\u2019s love looks like even on a battlefield.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [i]<\/a> LiVecche, Marc,\u00a0‘Introduction’,\u00a0The Good Kill: Just War and Moral Injury<\/em>\u00a0(New York,\u00a02021;\u00a0online edn,\u00a0Oxford Academic, 22 Apr. 2021),\u00a0https:\/\/doi-org.georgefox.idm.oclc.org\/10.1093\/oso\/9780197515808.003.0001<\/a>,\u00a0accessed 4 Apr. 2024.<\/p>\n [ii]<\/a> LiVecche, Marc,\u00a0‘Neither Sin nor Paradox’,\u00a0The Good Kill: Just War and Moral Injury<\/em>\u00a0(New York,\u00a02021;\u00a0online edn,\u00a0Oxford Academic, 22 Apr. 2021),\u00a0https:\/\/doi-org.georgefox.idm.oclc.org\/10.1093\/oso\/9780197515808.003.0004<\/a>,\u00a0accessed 4 Apr. 2024.<\/p>\n [iii]<\/a> LiVecche, Marc,\u00a0‘Neither Sin nor Paradox’,\u00a0The Good Kill: Just War and Moral Injury<\/em>\u00a0(New York,\u00a02021;\u00a0online edn,\u00a0Oxford Academic, 22 Apr. 2021),\u00a0https:\/\/doi-org.georgefox.idm.oclc.org\/10.1093\/oso\/9780197515808.003.0004<\/a>,\u00a0accessed 4 Apr. 2024.<\/p>\n