Philocrites

Just war calculator.

by Philocrites

Beliefnet's Belief-o-matic promises to find the religion that matches your beliefs. Now the religion Web site offers a quiz that helps you apply "just war" principles to the war with Iraq. I took the test three times to see how my waffling on several key questions would affect the outcome, and I ended up with scores of 54 to 66 — doubtful to "almost certain" that this war meets the criteria. Just as I thought: conflicted.

Question 2 ("Does the United States have the right to go to war alone in this case?") doesn't include a response that recognizes the presence of other allies in the fight, most notably Great Britain, and Question 7 ("Will fighting a war now make it more likely that there will be peace in the region in the long run?") hinges entirely on choices the United States must still make. But the quiz is useful in pushing you to make up your mind on several key questions.

David Gushee explained last year in the Christian Century that there are at least two quite different versions of "just war" theory; I offered my own responses to the "soft" and "hard" versions of the doctrine in October.

Copyright © 2003 by Philocrites | Posted 20 March 2003 at 12:43 PM

Previous: Keeping up.
Next: Signs of war.