‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.’ The Beatitudes give us Jesus’ vision of
the kingdom of God, a kingdom of justice, peace and equity. It is much easier to make war than it is to make peace. It’s also
difficult to be a Christian and to be an advocate of war. Because if we value
human life, as God calls us to, then any casualty of war is one too many. As of 15 October 2011, the British forces in Afghanistan have suffered 383 fatalities. Each of the 383 young men and women leave behind grieving families
who are permanently affected by what has happened in a foreign country a long
way from home.
The
political assumption is that each of these individuals is somehow expendable
because there is a greater good to be won, though many of the bereaved may
question this. The Christian faced with a decision for war has to understand
whether the cause to be fought is just, whether the means by which it is to be pursued
are proportionate, and whether the outcome will lead, on balance, to a
betterment of the conditions of mankind and those affected by the dispute
leading to the war. These issues are rarely simple; because the issues cannot
be easily resolved the presumption should be for peace until all the avenues
for a peaceful resolution of the dispute have been fully exhausted.
Chaplains
to the armed forces are there to try to bring some guidance to a disordered
world, and especially to those among the armed forces who have to come to terms
with grief, the loss of comrades and the moral dilemmas involved in the use of
force. The role of chaplains is of the greatest importance because they have to deal at
first hand with the ethical and moral questions raised by servicemen and women which
others, away from the fog of war, have greater time to reflect on and pray
about. Fighting a war justly is difficult enough; peace making is a great deal
more difficult. As John Stott remarked, it is ‘a divine
work. For peace means reconciliation, and God is the author of peace and of
reconciliation … It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the particular
blessing which attaches to peacemakers is that “they shall be called sons of
God”. For they are seeking to do what their Father has done, loving people with
his love.’
