Christianity and War and Other Essays Against the Warfare State (Paperback)

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Review
Truth has an unhealthy habit of confronting lies. In my case, it came in the writings of Laurence Vance. His writings used the wisest military tactics, on the one hand, scrambling my communications with military doctrine, and on the other, attacking my religious beliefs with a brilliant flanking maneuver. My concurrent discovery of lewrockwell.com worked together with Vance's writings to challenge my rather weak public education and strong military indoctrination. I found both my Christian faith and my understanding of the state confused and uncertain. My first reaction was anger and disbelief. Vance is nothing if not a persistent Christian. Indeed, he is running the race to win, and has refused the world s attempts to silence him. Each essay unsettled my military view, my theology, and my understanding of the history of the Christian Church. I found myself running to history books, historical Christian writers, and the Bible to disprove him. Most describe it as a loss of innocence that moment of enlightenment when we discover a painful truth of life. My loss of innocence is still ongoing. Vance has caused me to open my eyes. The result has been a discovery of the wonderful truths and economics of libertarianism, and a correction and deepening of my faith in and understanding of Christianity, and most importantly, the orthodox, historical, and biblical views of war. Growth does not come without price, nor does following the teachings of Christ. Inspired by Vance, I have set about trying to reach my Christian brethren who support war and the military due to their confusion over key passages in the Bible. To some degree I have found myself ostracized; yet, rather than discouraging me, it tells me that I am on the right course, for Christ himself predicted such for those who followed him in obedience. In this most commendable work, Vance greatly expands upon his previous edition. It will be my goal to get a copy into the hands of every military comrade and fellow Christian that I know well enough to reach with my concerns. Let me not suggest that the reader must be military or Christian. Indeed, this book is a perfect antidote for the poison being slowly fed through the media, our public schools and universities, conservative and fundamental Christian churches, and the military. Within its pages, the reader will surely be challenged in his prior understanding of history and the biblical view of warfare. Vance pulls no punches; I cringed the first time I found myself being called a Christian warmonger. As I have said, growth can be painful. I will be forever indebted to Vance for his clear understanding of history, Christianity, and libertarian thought. I challenge the reader to not simply accept what he writes, but to test what he writes by holding it against the pale of orthodox Christianity, the Bible, and history itself. This book is a clarion call that challenges the modern American church, the military member, and all citizens as to their beliefs concerning the historical and moral aspects of warfare. For me, it was literally life changing. --From the Foreword by Mike Reith (USAF, Major, Ret.)

Product Description
These thirteen essays, organized under the headings of Christianity and War, The Evils of War, Specific Wars, and The U.S. Global Empire, have one underlying theme: opposition to the warfare state that robs us of our money, our liberty, and in some cases our life. Although many of these essays reference contemporary events, the principles discussed in all of them are timeless: war, militarism, empire, interventionism, the warfare state, and the Christian attitude toward these things. It is the author s contention that Christian enthusiasm for the state, its wars, and its politicians is an affront to the Saviour, contrary to Scripture, and a demonstration of the profound ignorance many Christians have of history.

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These essays, although organized under four headings, have one underlying theme: opposition to the warfare state that robs us of our liberty, our money, and in some cases our life. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
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7 Reviews 5 star:  (5) 4 star:    (0) 3 star:  (2) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 4.4 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   33 of 38 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars A Sound Critique of the Warfare State from a Christian Perspective, October 7, 2005 By  Ryan Setliff "InternetPundit.com" (VA, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    ~Christianity and War: And Other Essays Against the Warfare State~ is a trenchant collection of thirteen essays by Laurence Vance, which has one fundamental and reverberating theme-opposition to the warfare state that robs us of our liberty, substance, and sometimes our lives. Vance takes issue with mindless evangelicals that twist Scripture and are persistently in the amen corner of the warfare state. Vance itinerates the just war theory of Murray Rothbard, and reminds us that: "A just war exists when a people tries to ward off the threat of coercive domination by another people, or to overthrow an already-existing domination. A war is unjust, on the other hand, when a people try to impose domination on another people, or try to retain an already existing coercive rule over them." "We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of our great nation," proclaimed President Bush. Former Pentagon official and National Review columnist Michael Ledeen has proclaimed: "Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show we mean business." Sadly, a good little war has become as American apple-pie, and the modus operandi of our establishment. The United States doused the flames of the Yugoslav civil war with gasoline. As biased intermediaries, the West gave the Albanian KLA the tacit go ahead to invade Kosovo. The KLA has been longed classified by the CIA as white-slave runners and narco-terrorists. The Yugoslav war also turned out to be a proving ground for international mujahideen fighters, our alleged allies at the time, which now fill the ranks of terrorist Al-Qaeda cells. Rep. Ron Paul has rightly characterized U.S. foreign policy as "schizophrenic." Sadly, many American evangelicals are in the amen corner of the war-hawk party. Laurence Vance rhetorically asks, "Under what circumstances, then, is a Christian justified in or excused from killing another human being? Is it ever all right for a Christian to be a killer? As I see it, there are four circumstances under which a Christian could justifiably kill or be excused from killing: capital punishment, self-defense, accidents, and just wars." He speaks from a Christian perspective and not as a mere reactionary pacifist. "No one, Christian or otherwise, would fault a man for killing another man in self-defense." However, Vance does not acquiesce in the rollover and play dead interpretation of Romans 13, which is no divine right of kings or Hobbesian mandate for unfettered obedience to the powers that be. When the State demands that the Christian defy God's immutable standards of righteousness, and fight an unjust war and commit bloodshed, it is the Christian's duty to resist. The Christians of the early church would not worship the image of Caesar. Yet today many Christian evangelicals are blind cheerleaders for the State and its wars of aggression. "To justify their consent or silence, and to keep their congregations in line, Christian leaders repeat to their parishioners the mantra of 'obey the powers that be,' a loose paraphrase of Romans 13:1, as if that somehow means that they should blindly follow whatever the president or the government says, and even worse, that it overturns the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' (Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17), which is repeated in the New Testament (Matthew 19:18; Romans 13:9)." Vance takes issue with the late tele-evangelist Jerry Falwell and other prominent evangelical leaders that are cheerleaders for the warfare state. Vance reflects upon the Biblical doctrine of sin, and sketches a more prudent understanding of war from a Biblical perspective. As Bob Jones Sr. has opined, "War is God's judgment on sin here; hell is God's judgment on sin hereafter". Vance's anthology of essays against the warfare state is multi-faceted. Vance offers a thoughtful critique of the overblown American empire and spells out the implications of imperial blowback. George Santayana has reminded us that "Those who do not remember their history are doomed to repeat them." Itinerating lessons from history, Vance echoes the principles of America's founding generation and their thoughts on the evils of standing armies, interventionism, militarism and empire. He offers a thoughtful exposition of the Cato's Letters by Englishmen Gordon and Trenchard, and their thoughts on war and militarism. Cato's Letters embodied the Old Whig tradition of liberty and had profoundly influenced America's founding generation. As Cato's Letters declare, "Standing armies are standing curses in every country under the sun, where they are more powerful than the people." Likewise, Vance builds on the wisdom of the Anti-Federalist pamphleteer Brutus which has been ascribed to Robert Yates. Brutus speaks on at length on the evils of standing armies. Brutus observes that "A free republic will never keep a standing army to execute its laws. It must depend upon the support of its citizens." Brutus traces the unfortunate history of Europe where confidence in standing armies as the long-arm of the high magistrate was ever where the parent of despotism. This wisdom has not fallen on deaf ears to modern political leaders. The late U.S. Army General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned that, "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." Eisenhower reluctantly admitted that a new powerful interest had become entrenched in our nation, in the aftermath of the massive collectivist mobilization of economic and human resources to fight the Second World War. It should go without saying that a powerful interest in the war business may lead the way for more war. Another prong to be satisfied in a just-war test would obviously be that the war is declared with a constitutional Declaration of War. If Americans honestly studied the United States Constitution, they would notice that the President has no constitutional authority to wage war, and the President is only commander-in-chief during a Congressional Declaration of War. We have not had a single constitutional declaration of war since World War II. This fact alone should be reason to be against the last fifty-years of warmongering in the United States, and no war can possibly be just when it is unlawful. Some wars were fought under the auspices of a United Nations Security council resolution (i.e. Korea), a UN peacekeeping mandate (i.e. Somalia, Kosovo) or a Presidential deployment of troops guised as a "police action" followed by some unconstitutional Congressional rubber-stamping (i.e. Tonkin Gulf Resolution.) Congress simply cannot abrogate its constitutional power to declare war nor can the President constitutionally call up and deploy troops to wage war without first consulting the Congress and getting a Declaration of War. Congress' act of delegating away a constitutional power violates the Constitution and the established Anglo-Saxon legal maxim Delegata potestas non potest delagari ("a delegated power cannot itself be delegated.") For the United States, the constitutionality of a war is another oft-neglected prong to be satisfied in any "just war" litmus test. The Gulf War and Gulf War II are unconstitutional... end of story, and no American who affirms support of the Constitution can support an unconstitutional war without admitting insincerity and duplicity. "The free men of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise," avowed James Madison, "and entagled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle." Abuse and usurpation passed off as a long-standing precedent does not legitimize the constitutionality of an action. Christians that have seen the horrors of war have soberly looked upon it with neither reverence nor affection. Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson declared, "It is painful enough to discover with what unconcern they speak of war and threaten it. I have seen enough of it to make me look upon it as the sum of all evils." Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has opined, "Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence." The pains of war leave many of its survivors scarred, disillusioned, and some are overwhelmed with the burden of guilt. All things considered, Laurence Vance has pieced together a powerful, yet succinct collection of essays confronting the ill effects of the warfare state. Moreover, he tackles the naivety of evangelicals that mindlessly lend their support to the wars of the state. War represents God's judgment against sin, and it should be avoided at all costs. The only just war is a war of self-defense against an aggressor and an invader. "From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?" --James 4:1 Comment Comments (3) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   41 of 49 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant writer, December 25, 2004 By  Alan (UK) - See all my reviews Just read of the 'Silent Night' truce between the Germans and British 90 years ago for a stunning, tear-jerking account of the inherent goodness and lack of ill-will in man's heart. The massive slaughter of war is not found in such hearts, it is shoved upon us as a few old men barter with the lives of many young men. As humans let alone Christians we should reject the few warmongers, close our ears to their calls for killing, maiming and war. Don't let the few rot the rest of us. Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   14 of 17 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Christian's viewpoint on war, March 23, 2006 By  M. W. McKinney "Bibliomane" (Columbia City, IN,USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    Very informative and scripturally truthful. As a Christian minister,I knew my view of war, and this book helped support it. It also supported the direction in which I want to lead my congregation. I highly recommend this book to anyone wondering whether this, or any other war, is moral and just. If you know where you stand, this book will help support your belief. If you are unsure, this is a great tool to use in forming a position. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 7 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 3.0 out of 5 stars Comment A collection of informative,emotion-packed,persuasive essays on a topic that has been around and divided christians for centuries. Read more Published 10 days ago by Tomdine 5.0 out of 5 stars Peircing the darkness with truth- it opened my eyes For those looking for a true Christian-based viewpoint on war, the warfare state, and the military, look no further! Read more Published 6 months ago by F. Noel 3.0 out of 5 stars Strong Christian Military Is Best Guarantee of Peace A wonderful exposition of politically correct and liberal pacifist Christian belief. Congrats! So good to see Christians concerned with war open to the larger and more honest... Read more Published 18 months ago by Bradford Morgan 5.0 out of 5 stars A Serious Religious View of the Warfare State Laurence Vance's book titled CRISTIANITY AND WAR is an informative little book that should urge those who claim to be Christians to think. Read more Published 19 months ago by James E. Egolf Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 7 customer reviews...

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