Loving Neighbors by Standing Up to Their Slaughter

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, as the editors already noted, has exposed deep fault lines within American thought. The scriptures Latter-day Saints have chosen to emphasize have exposed similar divides. Many are quoting well-known scriptures such as those to "renounce war and proclaim peace," the tears of God in response to violence among His children, and others reflecting a general opposition to violence and bloodshed that is true of virtually every faith tradition. The problem with highlighting those scriptures right now isn't the aspiration towards peace, since everyone wishes for it. The problem is the failure to recognize that renouncing war in isolation seems to imply opposition to all warfare. And that opposition taken as a blanket rule would mean that the Ukrainian people, in this current moment, are subjected without any real, and effective assistance to the naked aggression and "barbarous cruelty" of their brethren to the east.