Every Church a Peace Church
March Potluck


What: ECAPC Bimonthly Potluck

When: Monday, March 13, 6:30 P.M.

Where: St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 1895 Laurel
Avenue, St. Paul.
Take I-94 to the Cretin Avenue exit. Go south on
Cretin to Marshall Avenue. Turn left (east) on
Marshall to Howell. Turn right (south) on Howell to
Laurel. The church is on the corner of Howell and
Laurel, near the University of St. Thomas. Parking is
on the street.

Who: You and Someone from another church? Someone who
needs to know about ECAPC? Your pastor? A friend
interested in the arts?

Why: Support, networking, delicious food, and an
outstanding program! The program will be on The
Absurdity of Just War.
"Nonsense!" say some. "Folly!" say others. Yet the
Christian just war theory continues to hold sway. Join
us in looking at its tenets. Together we’ll see if we
can develop ideas that could be used to show how
impossible it is to have a just war in the 21st
century. We’ll try to imagine ways to dramatize the
absurdity and immorality of just war using any
performance medium‹song, dance, drama, visual and
high-tech arts, puppetry, mime, humor, and so on. We
hope we?ll spark some energy for creating a "just war
revue" over the next few months. We look forward to an
enjoyable evening as we play with the very serious
bases for Christians to kill. The just war tenets are
described below so you can get a head start, and we’ll
hand out more information at the potluck. Bring your
friends. It should be fun.


Just War Tenets:

Augustine and the early church leaders developed just
war theory to evaluate their governments’ involvement
in war and decide whether the church could support the
nation. However, according to Augustine, the Christian
is not excused from Jesus’ command to love enemies and
to love as Jesus loved.

According to just war theory, all the criteria below
are to be met. If any criterion is not met, the war
and the killing are unjustified. Unjustified killing,
by definition, is murder, and the church cannot
support it.

1. The war must have a just cause.
Force may be used only against a grave public evil,
such as an invasion or massive violation of the basic
rights of a whole population. The cause must be
defensive. An offensive war is an unjust war.

2. It must we waged by a legitimate authority.
Only a duly constituted public government may wage
war.

3. It must be formally declared.
A government must follow legal procedures set up to
formally commit the country to war. Undeclared mass
slaughter of human beings is unjust.

4. It must be fought with a peaceful intention.
The aim of political and military leaders must be
peace with justice. Augustine insisted that all war
activities had to be done in love. The motivation must
not be hatred or vengefulness. This also applies once
the combat has begun. Conquest and economic benefit
are also insufficient reasons for warfare.

5. It must be a last resort
Force may be used only after all peaceful alternatives
have been seriously tried and exhausted.

6. There must be a reasonable hope of success.
A government may not take a country to war if success
is unlikely.

7. The means used must possess proportionality to the
ends sought.
The means used to fight a war, such as the weapons
chosen, must always be proportionate to the ends
sought. Only the minimal force needed to obtain the
goal should be used.

8. Noncombatants must be given immunity.
Civilians are immune from attack. Civilians cannot be
executed in war. Weapons that cannot distinguish
between combatants and noncombatants, such as weapons
of mass destruction, are prohibited. This also applies
to the use of conventional weapons in
non-discriminating ways as occurred in the bombing of
Dresden in World War II.

9. Prisoners must be treated humanely.
All war prisoners must be treated humanely.
Humiliating, torturing, or killing a prisoner is
forbidden.

10. International treaties and conventions must be
honored.
A number of international treaties, including the
United Nations Charter, have been created to address
various practices of warfare, and the provisions of
these treaties must be followed.



We’ll see you in March!


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