Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-07-01
80 :
For Sunday Reading
= All Sorts Of Opinions. !
&a.ea-i-a-isi333s.-s..a-ii-ii-siiaa
Christianity and War

If fully satisfied that Jesus approved
or permitted war, Christianity should
rest in that conviction, since it holds
that he spoke with absolute and final
authority. In fact, it is not and never
has been satisfied. The contradiction
between this and the doctrine of nom
resistance is too plain to be ignored
by the most hardened believer. 1t is
driven at the outset to apology. The
only explanation it can offer Is that He
changed his view. The necessary con-
sequence is to conclude that the doc
trine of non-resistance was imprac-
ticable, and that his earlier teaching
was a deiusion. But with the ever
widening sense of human brotherhood,
the conviction has deepened that the
law of love is the permanent and uni
versal rule for the guidance of human
conduct and that war with it's dreadful
destruction and enormous suffering
can not be reconciled with it, Chris
tianity, therefore, has shifted its
ground. oh, yes, war is horrible, ana
Christ did not approve of 1T as a per-
manent principle, but he allowed 1t Tor
a season because in the state of soct-
ETY. which he found and which he left
It is unavoidable. There VIII come u
time Of universal peace--in the m1lleh-
MUM War has not been eliminated
because the evil passions of men, their
selfishness, sin and folly have not been
eliminated When Christianity is ev-
erywhere accepted, war Will cease.
Very good. War Is permissible, theh'
because based on the folly, selfishness'
and sin of men. Christ sanctioned II
because it is sinful and selfish. But
this will apply equally to lying, steal
ing, burglary. arson and murder.
e. n. Warner in "Ethics Of Force"
'.The peculiar note of the Gospel is:
Blessed are the meek-Blessed are the
northumberland are the peace-mak-
ers Jesus said: Put up thy sword;
all they that take the sword shall per-
tsh with the sword There are priests
OF the gospel today. as of the Russian
state church, who seem to say day ana
night: Draw thy sword; they who
do not draw the sword shall perish l
say it is a truly awful thought that an
archbishop should write the savage
calumny that God made battles too"
that leading statesman on a Sunday
afternoon should cite with approval to
his people this sickening blasphemy."
We quote further from Mr.. Harri-
sons article the following interesting
statements:
1.-THE great majority of the wars of
the last fifty years have been waged
between nations of different faiths
namely, by Christian nations against
Christian. Almost every war un-
dertaken since the Crimean war, either
by Russia or by England, has been
against a Christian people--Mus-
sulrnan, Buddhist, Polytheist, or Fet-
ishist-Afghans, Zulus. Ashantis. Bur-
mans, Circassians, Chinese, Japanese.
In all of these the ministers and the
xealots of the Christian churches have
vehemently stimulated the war pas
sion. We see today how the Russian
priests bless the guns, consecrate ev-
cry engine of destruction and even
carry miracle-working relics. crosses
and the host itself into the battlefield
The only exception out Of some fifty
wars waged by England in as many
years was the Boer war. In the last
forty years the only war waged by
France against Christian power was
In lS7D-against Protestants. The only
instance Of war between nations of the
same creed in forty-five years was the
Prusso-Danish war of 1864. Frederic
Harrison, in Positivest' Review.