No just wars—N.C.C.

Press, 24 April 1986, Page 34

No just wars —N.C.C.

PA Wellington It was unlikely there was ever a truly just war by standards of Christian doctrine, said the National Council of Churches international affairs committee at the Defence Committee of Inquiry. Other people and organisations to make submissions were the former Bishop of Wellington, Sir Edward Norman, the Maori Women’s Welfare

League, and the Y.W.C.A. The Christian doctrine of a just war, the inquiry was told, was initially developed in the fourth century. It was based on a just cause for war, an aim that the outcome of the war must be for the greater good, that a legitimate Government of the people authorised the war, and that any fighting minimised the conflict and

protected civilians. “Governments have used this doctrine to involve people in wars, often by both sides at once,” said the Church committee. “While many past conflicts, including World War 11, have been justified by this doctrine, the evidence in retrospect suggests to us that there has never been a truly just war.”

The inquiry was also told by the committee that in the face of nuclear technology it was now impossible to talk of a just war. “In a nuclear war none of the just war criteria could be met. At this point in history, in the light of nuclear weapons, all Christians are challenged to the point of being nuclear pacifists,” the committee said.