Category: War/International Relations
Called to Judgment: A Critical Review of “Fratelli Tutti”
Like a prophetic denunciation from the days of ancient Israel, the Covid-19 pandemic has come upon our self-absorbed and decadent civilization like a bolt from the blue, throwing into sharp relief the follies and fault-lines in our moral thinking and...
In Defence of War: A Reflection
In Defence of War is thoroughly researched, clearly and elegantly written, and masterfully argued. The task I have been given of responding is therefore harder than it might seem: as I find Professor Biggar’s account persuasive, perhaps because his contrarian...
Tolkien and Violence
There’s a further Tolkien-related question that needs to be discussed after last week’s comments by George RR Martin, concerning the role of violence in Tolkien’s legendarium. Martin asked in the interview if Aragorn hunted down and killed all the orcs after...
Preferential Treatment for Syria’s Christians: A Discussion
As our nation deliberated about the merits of intervening in Syria–a deliberation that has presumably come to a close with the announcement of the agreement between Russia and the United States–many American Christians argued that intervention should be avoided in part...
Is the Use of Drones Morally Permissible?
Rand Paul’s dramatic filibuster before the Senate generated a great deal of public debate in recent weeks, and for good reason. Paul has drawn attention to an egregious expansion of the drone program rationale to include targeting of American citizens...
Pacifism, C.S. Lewis, and Growing up during Wartime
Stanley Hauerwas’ long essay critiquing C.S. Lewis’ views on war is worth sitting down and reading. Hauerwas is unquestionably America’s foremost pacifist voices, and easily one of its most influential theologians. And while I don’t agree with everything, this is...
Political Correctness…, I mean Religious Correctness
[This post is lengthy; be forewarned] As I expected would happen, the readers of Mere-O have responded both with class, sensitivity, and elegance to my original post, in which I provoked conversation about the Mosque Controversy in New York City....
Carrying the Fallen
Three American flags draped the coffins lying on the cargo floor of my C-17. It was only three hours earlier that I had received a phone call informing me that my crew was to fly from Europe to America; no...
Faction and Revolt: Kyrgyzstan in Light of American Foundations
Kyrgyzstan is in revolt but it is unclear what the revolt will accomplish. The opposition parties are demanding democracy and equality, fed up with the cronyism of current President, Kurmanbek Bakiev and convinced that the government is working to undermine...
Thanksgiving for Things Unseen
October 1863 saw Americans firmly entrenched in the middle of the third calendar year of the Civil War; a war that, perhaps more than any other American war, brought great suffering, pain, turmoil, and strife to American soil and threatened...