I am reminded of LtCol. Dave Grossman's writings on "killology."
I think “Thou shall not kill” translates as Thou shall not murder.
bfl
When considering the issue of a Christian’s involvement in warfare, I remember the picture of this nun at a peace rally holding a sign saying “Thou shalt not kill”. There was an example of someone for whom embracing a morality fabricated by human intellect prevented objective study of her tradecraft. She achieved acceptance within the larger social and academic humanistic community by allowing others to write her definitions and set her agendas. She to merged a Christian identity into a liberal, secular orthodoxy by backward engineering selected scriptures through selected homilies to arrive at an acceptable, preordained point of departure.
She was typical of so many pastors and congregations committed to moral exhibitionism residing within the comforting light of asymmetrical theological analysis that excludes the fallen world of Genesis. Popular acceptance demands they remain undefiled by any perception of looming danger, or of historical awareness of the bloody conflicts and shattering tragedies the warrior fights through on their behalf. They harvest the requisite moral authority for acceptance by berating at a safe distance those who go into harm’s way.
Now contrast this position with that of C. S. Lewis, who experienced two world wars and a depression during his distinguished academic career. In terms of pure intelligence few surpassed him. After WW I Lewis entered Oxford as an undergraduate student, where he won a triple first; the highest honors in three areas of study. Such was the beginning of an outstanding career. As a Christian few have surpassed him for accurately tempering a superior intellect with the wondrous mystery of the Lord’s existence as absolute righteousness and absolute love resulting in perfect justice.
He balanced those academic achievements previously with experiences from the trenches of WW I. As an Irishman, Lewis could not be drafted, but turned down a scholarship in 1917, and chose to volunteer. Lewis was commissioned while still 18, and was shipped to the front line near Arras, France. He joined Third Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry in the Somme valley on his 19th birthday. He was wounded by an exploding artillery shell in April 1918 and never returned to active service.
The quote I remember comes from Mere Christianity, which included a compilation of radio addresses he gave from 1941 through 1944, and was later expanded into a book. He gave the radio addresses after experiencing the Blitz and the threat of Nazi invasion as well as trench warfare when a young man.
“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 has committed a murder, the right Christian thing to do would be to give yourself up to the bench and be hanged. It is, therefore, in my opinion, perfectly right for a Christian judge to sentence a man to death or a Christian solder 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 the 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 Christ when He met a Roman sergeant-major – what they call a centurion….. We may kill if necessary, but we must not hate or enjoy it.”
An introduction to the distinction for the Hebrew of the Old Testament initially appears by reviewing Strong’s Concordance. The commandment “Thou shalt not kill” uses the word ratsach, which by my count appears 33 times in the Old Testament, and always refers to what our civil courts would interpret as a sub-set of first and second degree murder. I find two others words for kill and slay, muwth and harag, and three for destroy, shamad, shachath, and charam. These appear over 230 times and encompass all accounts of warfare and capital punishment. There is another word for killing a sacrifice, but I did not attempt to count its appearance.
When faced with individuals such as the nun possessing a fledgling intellect and life experiences as two dimensional as her sign, I would always choose to take my council from people like C. S. Lewis. Lewis expressed a durable morality earned in ultimate bloody deluges and the great economic tragedy of the 20th century.
American Sniper
That inane statement by Michael Moore that snipers were considered cowards demonstrates a complete detachment from reality for him and his acolytes. The applicable principle of warfare I have heard many times is that, “If you ever find yourself in a fair fight you have failed to plan correctly.”
The sniper is the ultimate weapon for the application of precision munitions. Whether individuals or teams they operate apart from supporting units and must rely upon stealth for survival. The infantry knows there could never be too many snipers watching their backs for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
5.56mm
If you can not see how a sniper taking a shot would have been good and just then there is nothing for me to say.
And by the way, thanks for the post. I put it at end of my C.S. Lewis essay.
Logic dictates that those who initiate physical force outside of rational self-defense lose any claim to the right to life.
It’s that simple for me. I’m honestly amused at people who seem to think you can both violate the right to life and hold it at the same time.
MUCH Shorter one on snipers in Bosnia *here.