How should Christians prepare for war (the real kind)? (with David French)

Good Faith

News, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

5 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2023

⏱️ 65 minutes

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Summary

Curtis and "founding friend" David French explore Christianity and armed conflict. Viewed through the prism of the Ukraine War, they explore Christian just war theory. David, a former Army lawyer, walks through the moral and theological origins of the law of armed conflict. Curtis emphasizes the differences between the institutional purpose of the state and the church when it comes to war. Applying those principles to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, they discuss the necessity of Ukrainian resistance and the importance of American aid.

A helpful summary from Thinking Faith on the Christian “just war” theological tradition

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to The Good Faith Podcast. I'm your host, Curtis Chang, and The Good Faith Podcast
0:24.4	is a production of redeeming babble. And on this podcast, we gather together with
0:29.7	friends who follow Jesus to make sense of this world. And today, we don't have just any friend,
0:37.2	we have founding friend, David French. David, welcome back. The country has founding fathers,
0:43.3	Good Faith, has founding friends. So welcome back. It's so great to be back. I love that title
0:49.3	founding friend because on advisory opinions, Sarah has much less flattering descriptions of me.
1:00.2	I'm all about here. I'm here to flatter you, David. I'm here for that. I appreciate founding
1:04.6	friend. That sounds lofty. All right. Well, today, my discussion with David is going to be on a
1:11.0	weighty topic. And it's about war. I'm not talking about war in the cultural war, hyper,
1:19.0	hyperbole sense of that word. I'm talking about actual war, like violent military conflict between
1:25.6	organized armies. And the reason why this topic got catalyzed was because David and I were at the
1:32.1	CCCU conference a few weeks ago where we had that really fun live podcast that many of you probably
1:38.8	have heard. And we were just kind of chilling out afterwards over drinks with some other folks.
1:44.3	And the conversation as it often happens around David turned into politics. And people were asking
1:50.5	David for his opinion on which presidential candidate for the dams or for the Republicans.
1:55.8	Did he think had the best chance? And then David, you said something that was really interesting that
2:00.1	got my attention because you said, look, far more important than where a president is on the
2:06.3	ideological spectrum of left right or their charisma or their political or cultural or economic
2:14.2	issue. You said, the most important issue was whether this candidate has the temperament and the
2:21.5	character to lead this nation in war or in a time of potential war. That's it. That was the overwriting
2:28.2	evaluative criteria that you were applying. And that as we discussed that you really felt like
2:33.6	everyone, including Christians, should apply. So I want you to explain that more. Why do you think
	...

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