Rector’s Reflections
Friday 18th October 2024
Christians and the Ethics of War
Today we have reached end of the current series on how Christians might engage with the ethics of war. Christians might decide to apply general ethical principles, for example a rules-based approach such as Natural Law theory, or a consequentialist approach, which looks at ethics in terms of the consequences of the actions we to choose to take. Such general ethical principles might also include the application of Just Law theory. But Christians might also choose to apply specific principles and values which are characteristic of the Christian ethical tradition : for example, the values of forgiveness, humility, trust in God, and justice. Other characteristically Christian values can be added to this list, for example compassion and hope.
There is something else which Christians can contribute to the ethics of war, which is often overlooked and undervalued. It is the gift of remembrance. Christians tend to place a high value on remembrance, and indeed an act of remembrance is at the heart of the eucharist, when we recall Jesus’ words, “Do this in remembrance of me”.
When we remember someone or something from the past, we are making a moral statement: we are saying that this person or event mattered. We are saying that the person or event is worth remembering.
As I write these words, I am thinking of the war memorials up and down the land , which are so often found in our churchyards and inside our church buildings. I am thinking of annual services of Remembrance, and the solemn reading out of the names of the fallen. By recording these names, and by reading them out, we are saying that their deaths mattered – not just to their own generation, but to the generations which have come after them.
It is a choice we make. We could easily decide that it is now time to forget the names of the dead of the 1st and 2nd World War. After all, the events of the 1st World War took place over 100 years ago. But we choose to keep the memory of these two wars alive. Why is this? I think it is in large part because we feel that it is profoundly right to honour those who have sacrificed their lives on behalf of our country.
Are there other names and events which should be remembered? Undoubtedly so. It is very easy for those in power to write history in such a way as to ensure that some names are remembered and honoured, while other names are conveniently forgotten. This can be done in two different ways. The first is to ensure that no record is made in the first place. A group of people are massacred, but no record is made- and in the absence of evidence, who is to say that the massacre ever happened? The other way is to keep a contemporary record, but to ensure that the event is never referred to in the official histories of the period in question.
A good example of the moral power of remembrance can be found tucked away in a chapel in Southwell Minster in Nottinghamshire. It is a modern memorial, recording the massacre of 14, 500 Polish prisoners of war which took place in Katyn Forest and elsewhere in 1940. These prisoners of war were deliberately massacred by the Russians, largely for political reasons. For many years, the Russian government denied that this massacre had ever taken place. So the Polish community in Nottinghamshire decided to make a point. They erected a memorial in Southwell Minster with the following inscription: “Katyn. This stone was given by the Anglo-Polish Society to commemorate the 14500 gallant Polish Prisoners of War who were massacred in Katyn Forest & other places in Russia in 1940”. The memorial was erected many years after the massacre, and a hard-headed realist might say that it is a pointless waste of money. A memorial like this isn’t going to bring the victims back to life. True. But is making a point that needs to be made. There is moral value in remembering the victims of past suffering and injustice. Their lives mattered then and they matter now.
And so, with this sobering story, I bring this current series of reflections to an end. Most of us, fortunately, do not experience the sheer horror of war at first hand. But for millions of our fellow human beings, the suffering brought about by war is only too real. Let us redouble our efforts to bring the blessings of lasting peace to our communities and our world. And let us do so in the power and the spirit of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.