No Greater Love? Moral Injury and Sacrifice
Channel: MettaCenter
Date: 2021-12-28

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0:00:15 Introduction
0:03:12 Sacrifice of Violence
0:08:21 Language of Moral Injury
0:13:09 Definition of Moral Injury
0:15:01 Betrayal of Human Nature
0:18:31 Sacrifice: Violence vs Nonviolence
0:24:21 Structural Violence that Supports Moral Injury
0:31:34 Conflicting Natures of Self-Sacrifice
0:39:27 Restorative Justice for Moral Injury
0:46:04 History and Modern Investigation of Moral Injury

Originally published 2021-08-16

On this episode of Nonviolence Radio, Stephanie and Michael are joined by Kelly Denton-Borhaug. Kelly teaches in the Global Religious Department at Moravian University and has written extensively on issues of war culture, moral injury and the ways that sacrifice can be used as a means to dehumanize and oppress marginalized people. Kelly traces the celebration of sacrifice -- so pervasive in America today -- back to the Bible, back to Ancient Greece and Rome, revealing the deep roots of this powerful and destructive rhetoric. Her work encourages us to think seriously about the damaging consequences of this kind of thinking and to be aware of how religious language can be misused to support, sustain and normalize a culture of war. 
We need, Kelly insists, to listen to the voices of those who have been unjustly pushed into lives of violence and battle. More broadly, we need to push back against this worldview and reckon with the impact it has, not only on soldiers but on all of us, collectively, as human beings.