Five hundred years ago, Desiderius Erasmus hoped that someday Christian leaders would help create a more peaceful world by thoughtfully applying their faith to questions of war. It’s safe to say he would not be encouraged by the leaked group chat featuring top Trump officials discussing airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
There’s been a great deal of reflection within Christian traditions, especially in the last century, about whether Christianity is more consistent with just war theory (the view that Christians may resort to war under certain conditions) or some version of pacifism (the view that no war is consistent with the Gospel). But a rare glimpse of actual Christians in power making actual decisions about actual warfare revealed just how little they care about any of it. Instead, it exemplified how Christian leaders use empty religious gestures as window dressing for war-making.
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