Book Review
War and Christian Militarism

War and Christian Militarism

Laurence M. Vance, Ph.D., writes against current U.S. foreign policy, the warfare state, and the overwhelming support among conservative Christians for American militarism. ...
John Larabell

Are you a “Christian warmonger,” a “Red-state Fascist,” a “Reich-Wing nationalist,” an “Imperial Christian,” a “Christian killer,” a “pro-life murderer,” a “double-minded warmonger,” a “God-and-country Christian bumpkin,” or a “warvangelical Christian”? According to Laurence M. Vance, Ph.D., you may be if you support current U.S. foreign policy and the current actions of the U.S. military. Do you get your news from the “Fox War Channel” and the “War Street Journal”? If so, you need to read Vance’s books War, Christianity, and the State: Essays on the Follies of Christian Militarism and War, Empire, and the Military: Essays on the Follies of War and U.S. Foreign Policy.

War, Christianity, and the State is a collection of 76 of Vance’s essays written between 2003 and 2013, all of which appeared on LewRockwell.com. Vance accurately summarizes the contents of the chapters:

In chapter 1, “Christianity and War,” Christian enthusiasm for war and the military is shown to be an affront to the Saviour, contrary to Scripture, and a demonstration of the profound ignorance many Christians have of history. In chapter 2, “Christianity and the Military,” the idea that Christians should have anything to do with the military is asserted to be illogical, immoral, and unscriptural. In chapter 3, “Christianity and the Warfare State,” I argue that Christians who condone the warfare state, its senseless wars, its war on a tactic (terrorism), its nebulous crusades against “evil,” its aggressive militarism, its interventions into the affairs of other countries, and its expanding empire have been duped. In chapter 4, “Christianity and Torture,” I contend that it is reprehensible for Christians to support torture for any reason.

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