Introduction: So Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel which involved thousands of rockets, and a deliberate murdering of civilians, along with the kidnapping of multiple hostages. Counting both sides, to date thousands are injured, and hundreds dead. This came just a few weeks after the Biden administration released $6B back to Iran, which serves …
The First Casualty of War
Introduction: The sentiment has been expressed in various ways, from Aeschylus to Winston Churchill, and I am referring to the very pointed sentiment that the first casualty of war is the truth. That said, I really like the way Samuel Johnson expressed it. ‘Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of …
She Don’t Lie, She Don’t Lie, She Don’t Lie . . . Ukraine
Introduction: What I would like to do here, Lord willing and the crik don't rise, is cover a few related or soon-to-be-related items. With the Russian aggression against Ukraine, this outbreak ...
Suleimani and the Surly Wolverine
Introduction: So the Iranian general Suleimani was taken out by an American missile a few days ago, and this has resulted in a good deal of agitated discussion. And there is a pressing temptation, whenever things like this are done, for all the participants in our public life to default to their factory settings. Conservatives …
Torture and the Sum of All Fears
This will be one of those posts where I am afraid that I will make no one happy. But . . . oh, well. Torture is much in the news, and so — to the law and to the testimony. Let us begin by offending those who are recycling Joseph Fletcher’s situation ethics from back …
Personal Grace and Calling the Cops
Alright then, on postmill assumptions, knowing that there will come a time when they will not hurt nor destroy in all God’s holy mountain, when will we know to shut down all the fire departments? This is not a trick question. Actually, if you think about it, it might be a trick question. We will …
How Pacifism Protects War
Given how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit love and esteem one another, and given how God has revealed this triune nature to the world through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the world has now been inaugurated into a new era of biblical glory. This glory is tied to worship, and so as the Church …
Thou Shalt Play With Cobras
The Old Testament prophecies of the glories of the new covenant era teach us to look forward in faith to a stupendous pileup of grace at the culmination of human history. God’s goodness to us has already been overwhelming, and much more is on the way. But in order not to get tangled up in …
Chump Change Violence
In discussions of violence and the nature of God, one of the biggest issues before us is that of sorting out the relationship of the Old Testament to the New. Also, as it happens, sorting out that relationship is critical to a host of other issues as well — from baptism to church government, from …
Tired Thinking
One of the natural but intellectually lazy responses of theologians in the 20th century was to react to the advent of nuclear weapons with the idea that just war theory was now somehow outdated or tired. There were some exceptions, like John Courtney Murray and Paul Ramsey, but the general tendency was to pay lip …