United Methodists and War

by Bishop C. Dale White

How do you speak of the unspeakable? As the seemingly impregnable symbol of U.S. capitalism –- The World Trade Center -- burst into flames and then collapsed, horror and confusion gave way to unspeakable grief, then anger.

Then the Pentagon -- the symbol of U.S. military might –- was hit. Who could do such a thing?

People around the country watched TV screens hour after hour with rapt fascination, repelled and drawn to the images at the same time. Having ministered in New York Conference for 16 years, I felt wild beasts were ravaging my hometown. Questions filled my thoughts:

• Is our daughter Lisa all right?
• How about her friends in the New York City Opera?
• Are hundreds of friends and colleagues in our churches okay? 
• Is Old John Street Church, the oldest United Methodist church in continuous service and just blocks from ground zero, in ruins?

Then came the awareness that nothing will ever be the same. Fortress America is now a gaping hole, and we have lost our innocence. The illusion that we can bask in the sun of our affluence while much of the world suffers is shattered. How can we respond to this invasive threat to our tranquility?

The first impulse is to declare war, to root terrorists out of their holes and make them suffer for their crimes. Some 90 percent of U.S. people agreed with President George W. Bush's call to arms. But how can we find the terrorists? We can appropriate billions to fight a war, but whom shall we strike?

As the nation mobilizes for combat, its ships, planes, and military personnel streaming toward the Middle East, cool heads begin to urge patience. Allied nations, promising their solidarity, fear a military adventure that could kill a few terrorists and create hundreds more. How is our church to respond?

United Methodists have been ambivalent about war from our beginnings. Throughout the warring 20th century, The United Methodist Church demonstrated its diversity as it offered support and counsel to men and women who believe it their duty to participate in the military, while at the same time supporting conscientious objectors in their plea to do alternative service.

There are three major strains of thought in our denomination:

For the first four centuries of Christendom, Christians were mainly pacifists. They refused to participate in all killing, military service and warfare. Their scriptural seriousness, their closeness to Jesus and the Apostles, and their heroic willingness to go even to death for their convictions, has been an inspiration to Christians since.

Even after Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire under Constantine, pacifist groups remained. The embodiment of peace and the prayers for peace of St. Francis of Assisi have inspired Christians for centuries. The Protestant Reformation gave rise to the Mennonites, the Church of the Brethren and the Quakers -- peace churches.

A strain of pacifism has continued in Methodism. The founder of the Methodist movement, John Wesley condemned all war as the prime example of human depravity. Many prominent leaders of our denomination in the 20th century were pacifists.

For decades the legislative body of United Methodism -- the General Conference -- had taken an essentially pacifist stance. The Social Principles, paragraph 69C in The 1996 Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church, said:

"We believe war is incompatible with the teachings and example of Christ. We therefore reject war as an instrument of national foreign policy and insist that the first moral duty of all nations is to resolve by peaceful means every dispute that arises between or among them."

Pacifism has survived in nonviolent strategies of social change, civilian defense and conflict resolution in which United Methodists have been involved:

• Mahatma Gandhi’s "soul force" movement that brought independence to India;
• Demonstrations and civil disobedience to bring civil rights to African-Americans led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.;
• The Nuclear Freeze Campaign and other protests against the nuclear-arms build-up;
• The anti-apartheid struggle.

Among Roman Catholics from the time of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, a just-war tradition has flourished. Its principles, which place strict controls over any resort to war, include:

• Just cause: A decision for war must seek justice in response to serious evil, such as a war of aggression.
• Just intent: The ends sought in a decision for war must mean the restoration of peace with justice, and must not seek self-enrichment or devastation of another nation.
• Last resort: Like pacifism, this tradition is based on a strong moral presumption against going to war. Every possibility of peaceful settlement of a conflict must be tried first.
• Legitimate authority: A decision for war may be declared only by properly constituted governmental authority.
• Reasonable hope of success: A decision for war must be based on a prudent expectation that the ends sought can be achieved.

If war should break out, it must be constrained by two principles:

• Discrimination: Justice in the conduct of war requires respect for the rights of enemy peoples, and immunity of noncombatants from direct attack. Such respect also rules out atrocities, reprisals, looting and wanton violence.
• Proportionality: The amount of damage inflicted must be proportionate to the ends sought. Small-scale injuries should not be avenged by massive suffering, death and devastation. The war's harm must not exceed the war's good.

The 2000 General Conference, after vigorous debate, for the first time in the history of Methodism acknowledged most Christians accept the just-war doctrine.

The Social Principles, paragraph 165C –- previously paragraph 69C –- in The 2000 Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church say: "... We therefore reject war as the usual instrument of national policy..."

Under conditions of modern warfare, just-war standards are difficult to maintain. World War II rapidly escalated into wholesale attacks upon cities. Hundreds of thousands of noncombatants were killed.

In the light of just-war principles, the 2000 General Conference condemned nuclear weapons:

"We reaffirm the finding that nuclear weapons, whether used or threatened, are grossly evil and morally wrong."

Along with major religious bodies of the world and growing numbers of senior military officers, research scientists and engineers who created the bombs, global medical groups, and the World Court, The United Methodist Church, using the words of the Council of Bishops' 1968 study "In Defense of Creation," said, "a clear and unconditioned "No" to nuclear war and any use of nuclear weapons."

The fusion of political and religious authority in the Middle Ages fostered a third Christian tradition in matters of war and peace: crusades against infidels. The capture of Jerusalem's holy places by the Turks at the end of the 11th century was cited to make warfare a holy cause and a path to sainthood. Unlike the pacifist and just-war traditions, the crusade tradition assumes unrestrained conduct of war is a religious obligation.

If crusade tradition seems a relic of past centuries, look at the excess of self-righteousness and barbarism with which most modern wars have been waged. Moral restraints have been overwhelmed. Nations and warring groups have used poison gas, fire raids, nuclear weapons and napalm against civilians and military personnel.

For decades, some religious groups have promoted a nuclear-arms buildup and a militantly anti-Soviet foreign policy, with emphasis on atheistic communism as the enemy of the faith. President George W. Bush called the planned actions against terrorism a crusade, until warned by staff that the word is offensive to Muslims.

Limitations of just-war and crusade traditions have led United Methodists and ecumenical partners to begin to formulate principles of a just peace. Just-war principles, fragile as they are, are vital to observe if war is imminent or under way. A Christian's calling is to be a committed peacemaker day after day, year after year, remembering Jesus blessed the peacemakers. Just-peace principles under discussion include such things as:

• Peacemaking is a sacred calling of the Gospel, blessed by God, making us evangelists of shalom-peace that is overflowing with justice, compassion and well-being.
• Government is a natural institution of human community in God's creation and a requirement for the restraint of human evil. Every policy of government must be an act of justice and must be measured by its impact on the poor, the weak and the oppressed.
• The transformation of the conflict-ridden nation-state system into a new world order of common security in interdependent institutions such as the United Nations offers the only practical hope for enduring peace.
• Security is not only a legitimate concern but an imperative responsibility of governments for the protection of life and well-being. The security of which biblical prophets speak cannot be separated from moral imperatives of justice and peace and the full range of basic human needs.
• All Christians -- pacifists and non-pacifists -- ought to share a strong moral presumption against violence, killing and warfare, seeking every possible means of peaceful conflict resolution. The Gospel command to love enemies is more than a benevolent ideal. It is essential to our well-being and survival. $sBEvery person of every race and nation is a sacred being, made in God's image, entitled to full participation in the shalom of God's good Creation.
• Peacemaking in the nuclear age, under the sovereignty of the Creator God, requires the defense of Creation itself against possible assaults that may be rationalized in the name of national defense.
• The church of Jesus Christ, in the power and unity of the Holy Spirit, is called to serve as an alternative community to an alienated and fractured world –- a loving and peaceable international company of disciples transcending all governments, races and ideologies; reaching out to all enemies; and ministering to all victims of poverty and oppression.

Bishop C. Dale White is a United Methodist bishop who served in the New Jersey and New York areas from 1976-1992. In retirement he is serving as co-pastor of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Newport, R.I. He is a former director of the Women’s Division and the General Board of Global Ministries.

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