Lesson Objectives

•To know about weapons of mass destruction

•To know the Christian just war theory

•To understand why some Christians believe in a just war

Can a war be fair?

The theory of Just War

Peace is the ideal

• Most religious believers accept that war is sometimes a ‘necessary evil’

• So a set of rules has been formulated to judge whether a war is ‘just’

The rules have been developed over centuries

• St. Thomas Aquinas came up with the JUST WAR theory.

• This outlines the conditions under which Christians could justify going to war.

A Just War

A Just War is….• A war that is fought for the right

reasons and in the right way.

There are 7 just war principles to remember!!!!!

The war must be fought for a JUST CAUSE. There has to be a just or moral reason such as defending a nation under attack or trying to

stop tyranny

The war must be fought by the PROPER AUTHORITY of a

government or the United Nations.

The politicians must make the most important decisions

It must be fought with the RIGHT INTENTION, it must be fought to restore

peace. A war can be fought if it is believed that it would prevent a greater evil. Most people argue that Britain and her allies, by taking on the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler, prevented greater evil from happening

A war is just if it is begun as the LAST RESORT, all non violent means of solving the

conflict must have been tried and failed before you

turn to war

There must be a REASONABLE CHANCE OF SUCCESS. You cannot go to war and waste the lives of

brave soldiers for something which you have very little

chance of winning, lives should not be wasted.

There must be CONTROLLED VIOLENCE. Every effort must be made to make sure that as

little violence as possible is used to achieve victory and

methods should AVOID KILLING CIVILIANS

The force used in the war must be PROPORTIONAL to the

cause. It would not be proportional to drop a nuclear weapon on a small country for

invading a small island.

Why Do Christians Believe in Just War

• St Paul said in Romans 13 and Titus 3 that Christians must obey the orders of the GOVERNMENT

• Jesus never condemned the soldiers the met and commended their faith in Luke 7

• When Jesus was asked about paying takes he said “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s” which must mean fighting in a ‘just war’ ordered by the government

• Everyone including Christians agree that a police force is needed to protect innocent people from criminals. In the same way an army is needed to police the world and fight ‘just wars’ in order to protect innocent countries from criminal ones