The just war theory is weak guidance in these times. There is no competent authority to declare war and there is no reasonable means off the authority has sought peace.
I have oft had these debates with folks and the just war theory still applies. I always go back to ww2 as an example. The problem now is the muddling of the Truth to the point where most of the time no one can agree on the facts around any conflict.
Very pleased to see the core issue addressed. In conversations with many good men, in navigating their (often) righteous anger, it’s evident through their unrighteous response that they lack prayer, discernment, prudence, and everything else you (thankfully) mentioned. Only once a man has a truly solid prayer life, and life in the sacraments, can he then further navigate the righteous (or otherwise) anger. But this first step is missed the vast majority of the time. Again - very thankful to see it addressed.
Men clearly are too passive today. We should be angry for the right reasons in the right measure. Dialogue rarely has solved anything in history, all lands, tribes and peoples reside where they reside because their ancestors fought and died. We clearly live in a soft totalitarian society but it will become much worse very soon. Then we will be forced to face our cowardice.
This is a crucial topic, especially given our time's increasing totalitarianism. (It's interesting that the Revolutionary war wouldn't be considered a Just war by the criteria of Aquinas.)
I've been reading a bio of St Max Kolbe, and his approach seems to have been the polar opposite of, say, a Bonhoeffer or Alexander Solzenheitzen. Here's the latter's haunting quote:
"And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? They would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation… We purely and simply deserved everything that happened.”
You guys seem to truly struggle with this one. Is this why justice is feminine? Are we better than you at feeling it? Knowing it? After all these are emotions and so quick. Perhaps feminine perception is just better at grappling with this than men’s when backs are against the wall and appeasement is now so obviously an absolute failure.
Thank you for this thoughtful and thought provoking piece. You touched on every point intrinsic to this problem. Justice and righteous anger have been a problem I've been thinking about a fair bit recently. How do you square self-defense with Christ's teaching on turning the other cheek? How do you react to social injustice meaningfully when Christ's own example in the face of Pilate is silence? Turning the other cheek, absorbing violence while not perpetrating it stops the cycle of violence, and is the wisest course, but how does that square in a break-in situation? Doubly so when you're a father of a family? Obviously in that scenario you are required to defend your family, but I don't see defense as such defended in the Gospels. Then, expanding that out, how do you respond, in true justice, to the injustice of the state? One example: Soviet Russia and the secret police. How should the Russian people have responded meaningfully to their state gone mad? Another example would be the Coptics facing Isis? Is the answer on that level of state led evil simply prayerful acceptance and martyrdom? I still don't know how to square Christ's teaching and life examples with personal defense.
The just war theory is weak guidance in these times. There is no competent authority to declare war and there is no reasonable means off the authority has sought peace.
I have oft had these debates with folks and the just war theory still applies. I always go back to ww2 as an example. The problem now is the muddling of the Truth to the point where most of the time no one can agree on the facts around any conflict.
Very pleased to see the core issue addressed. In conversations with many good men, in navigating their (often) righteous anger, it’s evident through their unrighteous response that they lack prayer, discernment, prudence, and everything else you (thankfully) mentioned. Only once a man has a truly solid prayer life, and life in the sacraments, can he then further navigate the righteous (or otherwise) anger. But this first step is missed the vast majority of the time. Again - very thankful to see it addressed.
Men clearly are too passive today. We should be angry for the right reasons in the right measure. Dialogue rarely has solved anything in history, all lands, tribes and peoples reside where they reside because their ancestors fought and died. We clearly live in a soft totalitarian society but it will become much worse very soon. Then we will be forced to face our cowardice.
I never got the glorification of nonviolence, especially with how often God commanded the Israelites to go to war.
This is a crucial topic, especially given our time's increasing totalitarianism. (It's interesting that the Revolutionary war wouldn't be considered a Just war by the criteria of Aquinas.)
I've been reading a bio of St Max Kolbe, and his approach seems to have been the polar opposite of, say, a Bonhoeffer or Alexander Solzenheitzen. Here's the latter's haunting quote:
"And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? They would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation… We purely and simply deserved everything that happened.”
You guys seem to truly struggle with this one. Is this why justice is feminine? Are we better than you at feeling it? Knowing it? After all these are emotions and so quick. Perhaps feminine perception is just better at grappling with this than men’s when backs are against the wall and appeasement is now so obviously an absolute failure.
Thank you for this thoughtful and thought provoking piece. You touched on every point intrinsic to this problem. Justice and righteous anger have been a problem I've been thinking about a fair bit recently. How do you square self-defense with Christ's teaching on turning the other cheek? How do you react to social injustice meaningfully when Christ's own example in the face of Pilate is silence? Turning the other cheek, absorbing violence while not perpetrating it stops the cycle of violence, and is the wisest course, but how does that square in a break-in situation? Doubly so when you're a father of a family? Obviously in that scenario you are required to defend your family, but I don't see defense as such defended in the Gospels. Then, expanding that out, how do you respond, in true justice, to the injustice of the state? One example: Soviet Russia and the secret police. How should the Russian people have responded meaningfully to their state gone mad? Another example would be the Coptics facing Isis? Is the answer on that level of state led evil simply prayerful acceptance and martyrdom? I still don't know how to square Christ's teaching and life examples with personal defense.