war — McDurmon — Lamb's Reign

Kingdom work in a culture of war (2 Samuel 2)

The militaristic mindset wants to build walls, bomb “evil” nations, reinstitute torture, jail millions of people for all kinds of minor offenses, and maintain a “show of force” as a means of “keeping the peace”—but it knows nothing of peace. The problem with modern Christianity—and indeed a large swath of historic Christianity—is that it has separated the realms of the state and military apart from God’s revealed word. It has created a radical division between “two kingdoms”: the private kingdom of God and the church, and the general public and civil society. The private kingdom of God and church are ruled by the revealed word of God, they say, but we dare not “impose” God’s revealed standards upon the civil realm, for God rules that only by his secret providence. Here, Christians must repose and allow a mixture of Christians and pagans, or perhaps just pagans, to rule society by “natural” law (whatever that may be), or humanism, or whatever is the law de jure.

Joel McDurmonFebruary 19, 2016war, kingdom work

Constitution: Yes, the president may bomb without congressional approval

The United States in no way has been attacked, and therefore there is no true “defense” on our part. Nor do we even have allies attacked, which is already beyond the specific issues addressed by Madison, Hamilton, etc. But just this far is enough to show the one basic principle: the power to make war—and you don’t even have to call it a “police action” or “limited military action,” you can just call it “war”—is not exclusively and solely vested in Congress. It is, in fact, sometimes, an Executive power, apart from Congress, and that is constitutional.

Joel McDurmonSeptember 5, 2013war, foreign policy, history

Hear the neoconservative master’s calling for war

The leader of the neoconservative warmongers, William Kristol, called Congressional Republicans to “Hail Ceaser!” yesterday. No, that’s not a misprint. It refers to First Things blog editor James Ceaser (not Caesar), who has penned a shocking case for Republicans to wholeheartedly, unconditionally support Obama in attacking Syria, no matter what.