The War On Justice

NOTE: Do not read if you are strongly opposed to Christian worldview!

In 1095 ad., Pope Urban II granted “remissions of sin” (more commonly known as “indulgences”) to all Christians who died in the crusade against the Turks. Three years later, a siege on Antioch prevailed, and the Muslims living within the city were massacred. “More people have been killed in the name of Jesus Christ than any other name in the history of the world." author Gore Vidal claims. Is Christianity a religion of conquest?

The answer is…not really. It is true that during the Crusades, many Christians did embrace the idea of “Holy War.” However, the majority of the fighters were driven by the political agendas of secular rulers during that time. “What's most significant is that the idea of Holy War didn't stick among Christians; it went largely dormant for centuries, was resurrected for a time in European religious wars between Christians and eventually provoked a backlash that began a Christian movement toward tolerance in Europe and spread to the American colonies. Looking across history, what strikes [the authors] isn't that Christians have fought wars, too, but that they so frequently prevented or mitigated them.” Matt Kaufman writes.

Alright, so what about the minority? What about those few who actually believed it was their commission to “purge the land of infidels?” These people who did think this way were often misleading hypocrites looking for an excuse to disregard the laws of chivalry. Speaking of the misled, this topic naturally brings up the question; Then why do we hear all this stuff about the un-sympathizing, intolerant Christian crusaders? The answer is society. In the 1960’s, a distorted view of history was being taught in schools across America. It was the view that America in the past had been “inherently evil” in their past offences against the Native Americans; and that evil, they claimed, was inherited by the massacres committed by Christendom during the crusades-some 900 years ago. They go on to say that it was the Christians who justified their cause by using the scriptures. And so on, and so forth. Now, that may have been true is some cases, but generalization cannot be considered a factual representation.

Now, in a culture that presents “tolerance” as the end-all to religion, many Christians have embraced the view that war, “just like the Crusades of long ago,” are evil, even when fought for a just cause. This immediately raises the question; what is considered to be a “just cause.” Wikipedia defines “Just War Theory” as “a doctrine of military ethics of Roman philosophical and Catholic origin which holds that a conflict can and ought to meet the criteria of philosophical, religious or political justice, provided it follows certain conditions.” So that brings up a second point: Is there really such a thing as “Just War,” and what defines it? To some, there can be no such thing as “Just War’ because truth is relative, and therefore Just War cannot be universally defined. Now the latter part of this statement may be true, but Just War is definable. Some people base it off of moral or ethical standpoints, the rights of conscience, so to speak. There is one main problem to this, however, and that is what is to be considered “moral” or “ethical.” But to Christians, the only way we can base a justification for conflict on is the Bible. We live in a fallen world, and in some cases war is necessary in order to preserve that which is right. “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven…A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.” Ecclesiastes 3:1 and 8. In an age where tolerance and “peace” is preached as doctrine, let us stand firm, and stand solely upon the word of God. For this is the only way we can hope to stand against the war on justice.