Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite

Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite

Professor, Chicago Theological Seminary

Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite is professor of theology at Chicago Theological Seminary and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. She was president of CTS from 1998-2008. Her area of expertise is contextual theologies of liberation, specializing in issues of violence and violation. An ordained minister of the United Church of Christ since 1974, the “On Faith” panelist is the author or editor of thirteen books and has been a translator for two translations of the Bible. Her works include Casting Stones: Prostitution and Liberation in Asia and the United States (1996) and The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Translation (1995). She edited and contributed to Adam, Eve and the Genome: Theology in Dialogue with the Human Genome Project (2003). Close.

Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite

Professor, Chicago Theological Seminary

Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite is professor of theology at Chicago Theological Seminary and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. She was president of CTS from 1998-2008. more »

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"Just War" or Just More War?

Just War theory is useful in bringing orderly reflection to the consideration of using military force. Otherwise, the emotional drumbeat for war will always prevail.

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All Comments (11)

Steve:

Is any war really just? I imagine a better a better description would be "acceptable based on the circumstances." Really, it's hard to define that now because of the nature of warfare and WMD. It's a fact that America has enemies in the Middle East. It is fact that they have weapons and WMD It is debatable whether or not they intend to use them, they certainly intended to attack us on 9/11. Personally, I think America refusal to fully commit to the war, or fully disengage is quite a bit more dangerous then fighting a war that is debatably unjust.

Tomcat:

One could argue that Iraq was a just war, ineptly handled. After all, Saddam was killing his people and ignoring UN sanctions. Should we sit idly by and let Iraqis perish? It only went sour after we cleared out Saddam and his Baathists. The question of justice should only consider intentions, not results.

Ba'al:

Anonymous should go sign up then and found out whether or not our troops are "waging war against another party". Seems like we are spending billions on this "not war", and lots of people are getting killed in it.

I would like to invite Anonymous to take a walk across the very busy freeway near my house. Of course, the fact that I have politely asked him to do this doesn't make it in his best interests. The fact that this sham of a government in Iraq -- that controls a few square blocks of Baghdad on a good day -- "invites" us in doesn't make it in our best interests to stay there.

Of course it is in the best interests of war profiteers, who seem to have a lot of access to the White House.

Anonymous:

Sweetie,

Maybe you should read the newspapers more. Whatever the morality of the original intervention, Coalition forces are now in Iraq at the invitation of the constitutionally elected and internationally recognized popular government, to assist it in restoring order following three decades of brutal totalitarianism. Just war has long since been moot because we are not waging war against another party.

Bob:

Thank you Ms. Thistlethwaite. Finally an irrational believer and a rational non-beliver readily agree. We both share that innate sense of human "morality" (ethics) which transcends all religious belief.

BGone:

BA'AL, Bush called on Pat Robertson for his advice. He said that he told him there would be a lot of casualties. Lot is a realitive number. It's also relevant when it reaches the present number. We hear about the dead but the seriously wounded for life are rarely mentioned, about 5 for every dead one.

Jerry Brown may prove to be the prophet of doom when he said this war signals the end of America as a world leader. The Chinese have since opened a national bank.

Ba'al:

The outcome of this war -- the thing we now see plainly -- was predicted by many people long before Bush sent in troops. It was not hard to find these commentaries, which proved prescient; but it is also true that those of us who opposed this war were not taken seriously and our patriotism was impugned (as it still is in certain circles).

A war cannot be "just" when you can easily predict that fighting it is likely to make things worse for pretty much everybody involved -- like the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqi's who had nothing to do with Saddam Hussein's policies, not to mention the tens of thousands of Americans killed and grievously disabled.

I'm trying to figure out at this point who is coming out ahead in this whole deal. For sure, the Iranian hard-liners and their proxies; and the American war profiteers. (Make no mistake, the billions of $ of unaccounted money spent in Iraq will be found in their pockets once people decide to look for it). It helped Bush in 2004. I don't think at this point I see any other winners.

Cloud:

Someone had to be blamed for 9/11 and be seen as payback. It redirected US sentiments away from itself to a target. Sadam was at the wrong place at the right time. And now Augustine and Aquinos want the warmongers brought to justice

BGone:

Tomcat, we need to know more about the history of war to decide just or unjust. I think we can say war is the product of one group of people deciding that another group isn't entitled to what they have. In the case of Iraq that was sold as WMDs the Iraqi were not entitled to own. The usual, historical normal, wars are when one group has wealth another group wants, gold being the most common form of that wealth. The Nazi, Imperial Japanese said they needed territory and were entitled to that of others based upon race. They were better than other people.

The easy way to understand the actual fighting, killing of other human beings is described at the hoax buster web site. There's a psychological problem with the taking of human life experienced by the killer. It can be summed with the notion that ALL DEAD go to another world not unlike this one where they wait for their killers. Hell was invented to keep the dead of war out of the next world, today known as heaven.

Thus all faith is in Devil, http://www.hoax-buster.org/sellyoursoul shows that the Bible was written as "The Word of Devil" by it's authors. They call Devil God as one might expect.

There's a lot of information at that web site and a very good, in my opinion way of looking at war with the rose colored glasses off. Check out the battle of the Little Big horn on the home page. War is a situation where groups of people are attempting to send each other to hell, always done in the name of God.

Tomcat:

I find it hard to think about Iraq and Just and Unjust Wars without some examples. What are the generally agreed upon Just and Unjust Wars? I guess WWII was just, although it left Eastern Europe under the boot of Godless Communism. Was the Korean War just? How about WWI?

BGone:

Being a reverand and all you must know what's up.

Jesus said, "When two are more are gathered in my name__________________________."

Fill in the blank. That's what Mr President did. He gathered rooms full in the name of Jesus. He brought America's pastor, Billy Graham, the high priest to crown him. He did everything right except one thing, read the whole gospel.

When two or more are gathered in the name of Jesus somebody is going to get crucified. I've heard that Hillary has already given the order, "somebody get a cross."

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