| Bishop's CornerEvil And The Morality Of Justice
By Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker
 On Sept. 11 a group of terrorists
hijacked passenger planes and crashed them into the twin towers of the
World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Northern Virginia,
and in Pennsylvania.
All of us sense the solemn significance of these
acts of terrorism. There are few events that have far-reaching,
long-term and unforeseen consequences. What happened on that day is
one of those events. We know that our lives, our nation and our world
will be different.
The unthinkable has happened. All of us have
known that terrorism is a threat. However, it was impossible for us to
live our normal daily lives thinking that some catastrophe caused by
terrorists would actually occur. Now, the nightmare has become a
reality, and we cannot avoid thinking about the unthinkable.
What is most on our minds now is: what will
happen next? We are aware that we face an uncertain and dangerous
future, for we are a nation whose leaders have announced that we have
been drawn into war.
As we think about what should be done, we
acknowledge that our confession of Christian faith causes us to
struggle. Our highest loyalty belongs to the living God. God is a God
of peace. Within God’s inner life there is the perfect love, harmony
and peace among Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When God made room for
the creation as something other than God’s self, God called the
creation “good;” surely war does not represent God’s purpose for
the good creation. God the Father sent His Son Jesus Christ into the
world; Jesus came blessing the peacemakers, and he died on the cross
rather than trying to resist evildoers. God the Father through Jesus
Christ has poured out His Spirit upon us so that we might love God and
love one another.
What does it mean to be faithful to this God?
The simplest and clearest way to be faithful to God is to be a
pacifist, one who makes a single-minded commitment to eschew violence
and be peaceable. The world needs the witness of the pacifists. Their
courage and principled opposition to all violence is a reminder to us
of God’s perfect purpose for the world. In the Social Principles of
The United Methodist Church we say that we “honor the witness of
pacifists” and “we support and extend the ministry of the Church
to those persons who conscientiously oppose all war, or any particular
war, and who therefore refuse to serve in the armed forces or to
cooperate with systems of military conscription.”
There is another reality that we must consider,
and that is the mystery of evil in the world. Because it is a mystery,
evil cannot be explained, but we know that it exists. God has promised
that at the end of history all evil will be abolished. In the
meantime, there is evil in the world, and it has to be restrained. As
indicated by the apostle Paul in the thirteenth chapter of the Epistle
to the Romans, governments exist as authorities instituted by God for
the purpose of restraining evil in the world. Governments have
responsibilities that individuals do not have, including the
responsibility to use force to restrain evil for the cause of
protecting people from harm.
What happened Sept. 11 was a tragedy. Yet, it
was more than a tragedy; it was a lawless act of evil against the
American government and the American people. Indeed, it was one of the
most horrible acts of barbarism in modern history. This was no assault
by an army upon another army; this was a barbaric attack upon innocent
people. It was not only an attack upon the American people, but it was
an attack upon civilization itself. If our nation and other nations of
the world ignored the threat of this kind of barbarism, there would be
more attacks in the future. The scariest scenario is that sometime in
the future terrorists will use biological or chemical weapons.
The government of the United States and the
governments of other nations should work together to arrest terrorists
and dismantle their organization by using diplomacy, control of
financial exchanges and other measures that are as peaceful as
possible. However, they may also have to fulfill their office of
restraining evil by using force to execute justice against those who
have perpetrated these acts of barbarism. In the Social Principles of
The United Methodist Church we say that we “deplore war,” but “we
also acknowledge that most Christians regretfully realize that, when
peaceful alternatives have failed, the force of arms may be preferable
to unchecked aggression, tyranny and genocide.”
If force has to be used, then it must be
exercised with deliberation and wisdom. According to the tradition of
teaching about a “just war,” a war is waged justly if it meets at
least three primary conditions. First, it must be waged by a
legitimate power. Second, its cause must be just and right. Third,
just methods must be used. Because our leaders and all of us are
fallible human beings and sinners it is very difficult for us ever to
wage a “just war” in every respect. May the Lord of history and
the Judge of all humanity have mercy on us and guide us in the
difficult days to come so that, to the best of our ability, we may do
what is just in a just way.
Governments have a responsibility to restrain
evil, but we also have a personal responsibility to restrain evil in
ourselves. We must not indulge the passions that we feel in reaction
to these acts of terror, but we must expect our government to respond
to execute justice in a just manner. We must not hate others who are
different from us. We have no permission from God to hate Arabs,
Muslims and those who disagree with our nation’s policies or despise
our way of life. We must be faithful in our prayers for President
George W. Bush, the other leaders of the United States and the heads
of the other nations of the world so that they receive wisdom in
making their solemn decisions. With God’s grace, we must walk in the
light of reason and righteousness.
We live in the midst of the uncertainties of
life, the ambiguities of history, and the fearful knowledge that we
may be wrong. We are in the hands of the God of justice and grace.
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