I’m becoming a big fan of William Vanwagenen (of Mormon Worker fame) — and he’s at it again.
As mentioned in today’s SLTrib, if your brand of Mormonism compels you to be inclined against (instead of towards) war, please consider signing this petition.
Go William go!!!!
I was very uncomfortable with VanWagenen’s piece. It seems he wants to re-fight the issue of whether it was right to go into Iraq in the first place. He dismisses it as a preemptive war. I’ll confine my remarks here to that one point.
As a Christian, I felt strong support for the war on moral grounds. Christianity knows no borders, and I can’t just dismiss the suffering of innocents (don’t click that link if you have a weak stomach) with a wave of my scriptures because “it’s none of my affair.” The Parable of the Good Samaritan leaves us no such wiggle room. We weren’t speculating about bad stuff Saddam might do. We already knew of his villainy. Even more was uncovered after we invaded.
There are plenty of potentially good arguments against going to war with a murderous tyrant. Resources are finite. We can’t fight every battle that is righteous. The harm from engaging in the battle might be greater than the original harm you’re trying to avert–possibly destabilizing an entire region.
Yes, I can understand and sympathize with opposition to this and other wars. But VanWagenen’s doctrinal assertion for the superiority of “peace” is hollow indeed.
Thank you for providing a positively-written statement tying Mormon doctrine with a “peace” orientation. I applaud your efforts and plan to pass it on to other like-minded souls.
William,
Bravo…carry on. The war was illegal..and that is the end of the the story. If one is in support of illegal wars then one is a war criminal which according to International law is the ultimate crime against humanity…something Satan would be proud of.
Keep it up mate. Keep making people feel uncomfortable!
Steve
Keep in mind that there were many reasons for the war, with saving the iraqi people from a cruel dictator being a very small factor.
Some of the major factors were:
– access to iraqi oil
– support for israel
– pushing war costs so high that social security and health care would be weakened or destroyed
– gaining power for the neo-con group
– gaining power for evangelical Christian groups
– opposition to homosexual marriage
– opposition to abortion
– getting tax cuts and other benefits for powerful groups
While I have not tried to be complete in listing reasons for the war, morality is not on the side of the war.