Once upon a time I was a pacifist, and some days I still am. Although I’m a theologian, which means it pays to pretend to know everything about everything, there are still some topics about which I remain uncertain. War is one.
Two factors called my pacifist confidence into question. The first was the weight of Christian tradition. No believer is an island unto himself, and discipleship is not a DIY project. So while the tradition can err, and the church has always had a pacifist strand, the burden of proof falls to the dissenter. The bulk of Christian writing on war is not pacifist, and that shouldn’t be cavalierly dismissed.
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