Authors Forum: War and Morality

0:00You may not believe me when I say that Ralph Reiko and fundamentalist Christians have something in common, but they do. They both say I'm becoming more radical, and they are both right. I am. But while my increasing radicalness is a blessing to Professor Reiko, it is at the same time a curse to Christians who support or defend the state and its military. One of my favorite quotes, and one that has been proven to be true more and more each day since the invasion and occupation of Iraq, is that of Randolph Byrne, War is the Health of the State. I use this quote to close the preface of my new book, and I've also used it at the close of several of my Lew Rockwell articles.

0:46That quote says a mouthful. It means that the state loves war, the state needs war. War is what keeps the state alive and helps it to grow. The warfare state is much more dangerous than the welfare state. The warfare state robs us of not only our liberty and our money, but in some cases, our life. And unlike the welfare state, the warfare state can sometimes enlist conservatives, libertarians, and evangelical Christians who normally decry the welfare state. They will do the bidding of the warfare state without a second thought in many cases. This is my book, Christianity in War and Other Essays Against the Warfare State. The picture on the front is The Triumph of Death by Peter Bruegel.

1:35I think it's from the 1600s. And the book consists of 13 of my Lew Rockwell essays against the warfare state, and they're are organized under four headings, Christianity and War, The Evils of War, Specific Wars, and the U.S. Global Empire. The essays are contemporary, but yet they're timeless, since they discuss the principles of war, empire, militarism, interventionism, the warfare state, and the Christian attitude toward these things. The book is proudly dedicated to Lew Rockwell, Who am I considered to be an implacable foe of the warfare state? And while I applaud many, the many libertarians and conservatives who are now opposed to the war in Iraq because Bush screwed up or it's taken too long or there's too many casualties, I admire much more principle libertarians like Lew Rockwell who opposed the war from the very beginning.

2:38In fact, if it were not for Lew Rockwell's encouragement and willingness to publish my and my anti-war articles, many of them would never have been written. Let me tell you how this book came about. Like many of you, I have grown increasingly frustrated with Christian enthusiasm for Bush and any Republican politician who calls himself a Christian or calls himself a conservative, and especially Christian enthusiasm for war and the state. But as a conservative Christian, this is especially troubling to me. If there's any group of people that ought to oppose war, and especially the current unconstitutional, immoral, unscriptural war in Iraq, it is Christians. And especially those Christians who turn themselves conservatives, evangelicals, and fundamentalists and claim to be in subjection to the authority of Scripture.

3:31There's nothing more tragic than a dispensationalist appealing to the example of the wars of the the Jews and the Old Testament to justify the United States going to war in Iraq. The back cover of the book, as well as the preface, contains a couple sentences I'd like to read to you, which made some Christians mad enough to want to cut my throat. It simply says this, war is a subject that needlessly divides and sidetracks Christians. It is my contention that Christian enthusiasm for the state, its wars, and its politicians is an affront to the Savior, contrary to Scripture, and a demonstration of the profound ignorance many Christians have of history.

4:18There's nothing Christian about the state's aggressive militarism, its senseless wars, its interventions into the affairs of other countries, and its expanding empire. I would also now add that war is the greatest opponent of morality. Men do things in war that they would never think of doing in peace. It is my opinion that a Christian cannot abdicate or defend the state's wars and interventions without either intentionally or unintentionally rejecting the basic precepts of Christianity. So after writing many Lew Rockwell articles on War and the Warfare State, I realized I had a small book in the making that I could use to get anti-war, anti-state material into the hands of Christians and also direct these Christians to lewrockwell.com to get the information that's been lacking from their pulpits and lacking from their reading material.

5:15But this is not just a book for Christians, it contains original research that has nothing to do with Christianity, such as The True Extent of the US Global Empire, which I document as including 150 different countries or regions of the globe. And I hope that the book will also show non-Christian defenders of liberty that one can be a conservative Christian and not be a warmonger and a worshiper of the warfare state. Now, what's the response to the book? After teaching for years at a Bible college, regularly writing articles for religious periodicals, or at least I did before the book came out, and writing and publishing six other religious books, I had a tremendous opportunity, so I thought, because my name was firmly established among Bible-believing Christians, to get this anti-war material into the hands of the typical conservative Christian who votes Republican, he faithfully listens to Hannity and Limbaugh, And perhaps he just hasn't been exposed to this kind of material before, but my intentions

6:25were hijacked. And I'm sorry to say they were hijacked by my Christian friends and my own church. When I wrote about Christianity and war, criticized the Iraq war, critiqued Jerry Falwell and condemned the U.S. global empire, I was appreciated by some and tolerated by others. But when I challenged the state and its military in my article, Should a Christian Join the Military, everyone went to pieces and I began to be denounced by Christians as anti-American, a communist, a liberal, an anti-war weenie, unpatriotic and even a traitor. Just yesterday I received an email from a Christian who told me he was ashamed to be from the same country as me.

7:15According to the Christians in the military article, I wrote the article Christian Killers? And that sealed my fate for good. Christian bookstores and ministries that have sold my other books for years suddenly were not interested in anything I had to write. Christian friends that I had for years suddenly became my enemies. My own church bookstore refuses to sell my book. I live in Pensacola, Florida. Pensacola is a big Navy town with a heavy presence of active duty and retired military. Pensacola also has a lot of new and used bookstores. So far, only one bookstore in town, the smallest bookstore that there is, has agreed to sell my book. Before I took delivery of my book from my printer, one leader in my church told me I should destroy all the books as soon as I got them from the printer.

8:07Of course, he didn't offer to reimburse the thousands of dollars I had to spend. But with the bad comes the good. Besides sales at Amazon.com and my personal website, I have a few bookstores that are selling the book. Laissez-faire Books has also agreed to sell it. A few libertarian publications have promised me reviews. Ron Paul wrote me a nice endorsement. And I'm pleased to report that my essay, Christian Killers, will appear in the forthcoming book called Neocon, Just War Principles, A Condemnation of the War in Iraq. And that's going to be published by IHS Press. And I believe David Gordon and Paul Godfrey will have essays in that book as well.

8:53I have no illusions about my book. Because it is self-published and merely a collection of essays, I know it is not destined My reaction to my critics is this. I wrote even more anti-war articles and more anti-state articles, and I plan on writing even more. From a humanistic standpoint, I get my inspiration from Mises and Rothbard to the horror of some Christians. From a humanistic standpoint, I get my inspiration from Mises and Rothbard. To the horror of some Christians, I have pictures of Mises and Rothbard hanging on my office wall next to some Christians that I admire. Mises and Rothbard stood alone and spoke and wrote the truth, regardless of the circumstances or the consequences.

9:43Consequences, and although they were Jews, they are a great example to Christians, but I know I'm not alone. I have countless numbers of Christian supporters who are opposed to the war and the warfare state. I know because they write to me. They're frustrated. They are disgusted. They are angry. They are tired of Republican politics from the pulpit. They are weary of Christian war fever. This little book has cost me a great deal. It's cost me My only regret is that I did not have some of my more recent anti-war articles, like the one I have on the website today, included in the book.

10:37So God giving me time and health I hope to have the opportunity to include him in a second edition and make my fellow Christians even more upset.