In “A Question For Conservatives About Religious Liberty and Unjust Wars”, a recent post at The Mitrailleuse blog, author J. Arthur Bloom questions whether conservatives who have rallied around Kim Davis would likewise rally around a Romanian Catholic infantryman commanded by his Bishop, on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, to refuse orders to participate in the mission.
It’s not a mere thought experiment as Bloom utilizes the 2003 Lenten pastoral missive of Eastern Catholic Bishop John Michael Botean in which Botean rails against the Iraq War and, indeed, commanded those in his Eparchy to refuse direct service in what he determined was an unjust war. Believing that many of Kim Davis’ defenders would not extend similar support to the Romanian infantryman, Bloom wonders what precisely defenders of religious liberty would say to this soldier: “Should he quit? Should he be allowed to sit this one out? Should he be jailed for insubordination? Why, or why not?”
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