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The question the writer of the below essay was trying to answer is “What ideals would you go to war for”
What Ideals would I go to war over? This is a difficult questions to answer because it reaches into many ideologies that I hold dear. Ideological reasoning usually begins with abstract generalizations and applies those generalizations to specific situations (Facione, & Gittens, 2013). My major ideologies stem from my belief in a creator. My Christian worldview is my general ideology which thus trickles down into many specific situations. Ideologies are generally deductive in nature; their premises are axiomatic; and they are usually taken on faith (Facione, & Gittens, 2013). This means that mapping the deductive structure would look similar to: We are all created in God’s image and he was pleased (Gen. 1:26, 27 NASB); being made in God’s image makes us valuable (Matt. 6:26 NASB); murdering someone destroys their value (Gen. 9:6 NASB); war involves murdering people and destroying their value; thus war destroys the image of God and does not please him (Luke 6:29 NASB).
Now, on the surface it appears then that I would not go to war to defend anything. Yet when I begin to examine my ideology further I find that is not the case. For example, my ideology believes that there is a difference in killing someone and murdering someone. Killing someone could be accidental or in self-defense. Non-intentional/accidental death is a tragedy because it involve the destruction of Gods image, but it is distinguished differently from murder in both our legal system and by God (Exodus 22:2 NASB). Murder on the other hand carries malice and intent, and it is condemned by the law and by God (1 John 3:15-18; Gen. 9:6; Exodus 20:13; Num. 35:30-31 NASB).
Where does war land on the issue of killing and murder? I know that my ideology believes in defending the weak (Deut. 19:10 NASB); that God sends people to war in the Old Testament (Num. 33:50-53 NASB); God uses war as a means of national discipline (Amos 4:10 NASB); the Lord himself is even called a warrior (Exodus 15:3-4). Mapping my argument, I could use these points to conclude that war itself is not a violation of Gods image, thus war would not be categorized as murder. Does this mean that war is always justified? Not necessarily. People/countries go to war to either better their way of life, or protect their way of life, or both (Freedman, 2003). We can basically boil war down into those two categories. My point is that people could go to war to better their own lives/countries at the expense of others (Freedman, 2003). I don’t want to get into a discussion on our perspectives of moral ethics, so I will conclude that if a war is not from a standpoint of self-defense or protecting the innocent then it is not aligned with God’s depiction of war, thus being murder and destroying God’s image.
Going deeper into my ideology, God even instructs his people to be in subjection to their governing authorities (Rom. 13:1-4; 1 Peter 2:13-14 NASB); but we are to always remain in subjection to God first because governing bodies can conflict with God (Acts 4:19-20 NASB). If our country is pressed to war out of self-defense or to protect the innocent, and I am drafted into service, then I could argue that my ideology demand that I comply. Going further, John the Baptist (a prominent biblical figure; the cousin and for-runner of Jesus) even instructed soldiers not to quit but to do their jobs properly and honestly (Luke 3:14 NASB).
I conclude that I would go to war under the right circumstances, – to defend our nation or to defend the weak and innocent. Unfortunately, war is never that simple. It’s not always easy to tell who is right, who is wrong, who is the antagonist, who is the innocent, etc. because the conversation can become so convoluted and philosophical. Prospectively, nations who goes to war probably believes that they are right (Freeman, 2003). At the end of the day, I have to realize that I could die if I went to war. Generally I don’t think about that because I like to imagine myself as the hero of my own story… but I have no delusions that I could die if I went to war. Going to war and dying is the apex of my conflict because I’m a huge fan of not dying. War, – and the potential for death – would really hurt my quest to live forever, which, so far is going good…
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