Just to be fair to the other side of thought I decided to post this C.S. Lewis quote. Given time, I will respond to all Lewis’ arguments here. This is one area of his writing that in my opinion proves to not have been one of his strengths. Though, it is an understandable position for Lewis to have held, due to his time as a soldier in WWI. Whether I believe there are weak or strong arguments in the quote below does not prove they are illegitimate. They ask questions that need to be answered.
Does loving your enemy mean not punishing him? No, for loving myself does not mean that I ought not to subject myself to punishment—even to death. If one had committed a murder, the right Christian thing to do would be to give yourself up to the police and be hanged. It is, therefore, in my opinion, perfectly right for a Christian judge to sentence a man to death or a Christian soldier to kill an enemy. I always have thought so, ever since I became a Christian, and long before the war, and I still think so now that we are at peace. It is no good quoting “thou shalt not kill.” There are two Greek words: the ordinary word to kill and the word to murder. And when Christ quotes that commandment He uses the murder one in all three accounts, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And I am told there is the same distinction in Hebrew. All killing is not murder any more than all sexual intercourse is adultery. When soldiers came to St John the Baptist asking what to do, he never remotely suggested that they ought to leave the army: nor did Christ when He met a Roman sergeant-major—what they called a centurion.
…..We may kill if necessary, but we must not hate and enjoy it.
The above passage was taken from C.S. Lewis' in Mere Christianity
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3 comments:
I deleted my ealier comment because I do not think that it really reflects my beliefs.
I got excited and spoke too quickly.
Overall, I agree with C.S. Lewis.
I can give only applause to his thinking on the matter.
I have some complicated concerns about war though, in particular.
Perhaps it is just that I cannot come to terms with how avidly I dislike war.
Lewis is right to say that we must not hate it though. If we hate it, we might refuse it in the day of its rightful necessity.
What I have a problem with is how a person becomes an "enemy." It seems so obscure that patriotism is somehow - anyhow, implied as a virtue. How can any sort of nationalism be a virtue? What if the nation is wrong and the enemy is right? Should you still kill them?
I would like to have asked C.S. Lewis this.
It occurs to me now that I have misunderstood C.S. Lewis: He did not suggest that we should not hate war; he means we should not hate other people and enjoy that experience of hating.
I also wrote William a personal email last night and explained that my words really are proceeding my understanding here...
I don't know what I believe on this sensitive subject, and I need to be honest about that.
I have a culture, and I think it has done something to my mind that perhaps Jesus would un-do. I don't know.
I am certain that God protects his people who trust in Him. There is no "if" in my thinking. So is being an armed Christian a rational idea? Is it faithlessness? I really don't know, today - that is. I might tomorrow, if God pleases.
William, you make a formidable arguement.
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