War & Peace

Christian citizens in a great democracy like the United States, living in a world with all too many oppressive and aggressive regimes, regularly confront questions of war and peace: When is it right to use force to keep or restore international peace? When is it necessary to intervene militarily to stop a tyrant from killing his people?

These are not easy questions. The IRD helps U.S. Christians to wrestle with such questions, without giving easy answers. We believe that the Christian tradition offers valuable resources to guide our thinking. The Scriptures direct us to seek peace, but warn that there are evildoers from whom the citizens must be protected. This is why, according to the apostle Paul, the state “bears the sword” (Romans 13: 4).

The IRD works within the “just war tradition” that has been the Christian mainstream. That tradition offers criteria to help discern when and how the state should resort to military force.

The IRD has examined how those criteria might apply in situations ranging from the Cold War to the first Persian Gulf War, the U.S. response after September 11, 2001, and the current Iraq War. We have not offered firm answers to these questions of political judgment; we try to help Christian citizens draw their own conclusions.

At the same time, the IRD has challenged church leaders who categorically oppose every U.S. military action since the 1960s. We respect a genuine pacifism that is willing to pay the price of not resisting evil. But we dispute the dishonest quasi-pacifism that pretends that all dangers could be averted by disarming our nation and appeasing its enemies. Within denominations that affirm the just war tradition, the IRD has contested the pacifist and quasi-pacifist minority that has tried to monopolize the church’s social witness.