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Last month, I shared a reflection on the military action being taken by the United States in Iran: The Bishop’s Reflection on Just War Doctrine and Current Military Action in Iran. Just War Doctrine is a centuries-old Christian ethical framework holding that armed conflict may be morally permissible only when certain conditions are met. I sought to apply historic teaching regarding engaging in military action by nations to the conflict in Iran. Frankly, nothing that has been shared by the Adminstration has altered my opinion about the actions of the United States.
Tom Buechele, a retired priest, commented on my reflection: “The Just War Theory was one of my most difficult moral theology class subjects… I was taught by Dominicans and as I recollect it, while it certainly provides logical premises… I/we argued that WAR is never justified. To this day, I am still a pacifist… Dorothy Day style.” Tom gave me permission to share his comment. Tom rightly identified that I am not an absolute pacifist.
I have been guided by St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE) and Christian thinkers influenced by him as I consider issues of the Christian’s engagement with the social and political realities of life. Augustine's political theology rests on a distinction between the “City of God” and the “Earthly City.” This is not distinction between church and state, but between two loves, two orientations of the will, two ways of organizing human community. The earthly city is ordered by love of self; the heavenly city by love of God. These two cities are mixed in history: no earthly institution purely embodies one or the other. Those of us in the Church are “citizens” of both cities.
This has profound consequences for the Christian regarding political ethics. Earthly peace is real and profoundly valuable. It is not the true peace of the heavenly city, but it is important. It is the ordered understanding that allows human beings to live together, conduct commerce, raise families, pursue learning. The state is obligated to serve this peace. The Christian can and must participate in maintaining it. It is always fragile and subject to the vagaries of human fear, greed, and pride.
Just War Doctrine is an attempt to provide a framework to evaluate the actions the state in the world as it is. The reality of war is brutal. The New Testament ethic of enemy love (Matthew 5:43-48) and the just war tradition's criteria, when taken seriously together, create a framework for a “contingent pacifism.” This is the understanding that non-violence is the Christian default position, but force is permitted under extreme and carefully constrained conditions. The love command radically restricts the conditions under which force can be justified, and that those conditions are met only in the most extreme circumstances of defense against aggression. We must pay particular attention to actual physical effects of war on non-combatants and on the moral harm done to those combatants who are engaged in the actual fighting.
Morally, those in civil authority are responsible to ensure that any military action is just and engaged with great humility. For example, John Calvin (1509-1564) insisted, following Augustine, that the civil authority must go to war “with great grief of mind” (magno animi dolore). There is no room for bellicosity or martial enthusiasm in this framework.
Words from the current Administration belie notions of “Just War” and the humility needed by those who wage war.
The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has particularly been intentionally inflammatory rejecting international law. The central flash point came on March 2, 2026, when Hegseth held a Pentagon press conference about U.S. military operations against Iran. He declared that America, “regardless of what so-called international institutions say,” is conducting its air campaign “all on our terms, with maximum authorities,” a phrase widely read as a direct dismissal of UN authority and international humanitarian law. He said there would be “no stupid rules of engagement,” “no politically correct wars.” He also praised Israel for its willingness to dispense with rules of engagement. On March 13, Secretary Hegseth stated that "no quarter" would be given to "our enemies" in Iran. Declaring no quarter — the refusal to spare enemy combatants' lives by accepting their surrender — is a war crime under international humanitarian law. Secretary Hegseth clearly lacks a “great grief of mind” or moral conscience when engaging the war in Iran.
More troubling is the Secretary’s use of Christian prayer and the providence of God to justify the military action in Iran. During an interview with CBS News that aired in early March, Secretary Hegseth said Iran should not doubt U.S. resolve because it is backed by a higher power: "Our capabilities are better. Our will is better. Our troops are better. The providence of our almighty God is there protecting those troops, and we're committed to this mission." In the first Christian worship service at the Pentagon since the start of the Iran strikes, Secretary Hegseth used prayer and several Bible passages to cast the conflict as a holy war against God's enemies. The prayer began with Psalm 144:1 and mixed in other verses to argue that it is God's will to show no mercy to the enemy. The prayer included: "Give [U.S. soldiers] wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy. Preserve their lives, sharpen their resolve, and let justice be executed swiftly and without remorse that evil may be driven back and wicked souls delivered to the eternal damnation prepared for them…. We ask these things with bold confidence in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ, King over all kings and amen."
While less theologically articulate, President Trump described the rescue of a downed U.S. airman as an "Easter miracle," implying that the military actions have divine approval. He also said publicly, "God was watching us. We were in Easter territory, I guess." As the President renewed his threats to bomb "the entire country" of Iran, he offered a new justification for the costly five-week conflict with no clear end in sight: God himself wants the United States to do it. When asked by a reporter whether God supported America's cause in Iran, Trump's response was notable for its indirection: "I do, because God is good, because God is good, and God wants to see people taken care of." While Trump stopped short of explicitly stating that God is on America's side, the inference was clear — that the United States has divine support and justification for initiating the conflict against a predominantly Islamic country.
Now, the Secretary’s prayer provoked a reaction from Pope Leo XIV. Addressing tens of thousands in St. Peter's Square on Palm Sunday, Pope Leo called the conflict "atrocious" and said the name of Jesus should never be invoked to propagate a war. That was an unmistakable and direct counter-witness to both President Trump's Easter-framed justifications and Secretary Hegseth's Pentagon prayer. Pope Leo is proclaiming Christ as “King of Peace” set deliberately against the conflation of Christian identity with military power and any nation-state.
As Christians during these troubling times, we must recognize that in our world as it is, we are called to live into the world as God would have it be. We must refrain from deifying civil authority. There is no room for so called “Christian Nationalism.” We are called to stand for peace with justice.
I again turn to a Franciscan to help me frame our times: St. Bonaventure (1221-1274) was the Minister General of the Franciscans and a bishop.
Following Augustinian tradition, Bonaventure distinguished “killing” from “murder.” A combatant killing in a just war authorized by legitimate authority, acts under obedience and justice, not sinful will. The moral weight falls on the one who commands unjust war, not the combatant who obeys. This insulates ordinary combatants from full moral culpability — a position with enormous practical and pastoral significance. The individual combatant is responsible for their own actions in war, but the leaders of a nation are morally accountable for waging the war itself.
War prosecuted out of lust for power, hatred, or greed is sinful even if it happens to be somehow legally sanctioned. War intentionally undertaken from love of neighbor, protection of the innocent, and correction of the wrongdoer retains moral legitimacy. The interior motivation determines the moral quality. The early Franciscan movement had notable pacifist strands, and the Rule directed friars away from bearing arms. Bonaventure had to navigate the tension of the world as it is and the Christian life. Bonaventure’s theology of Franciscan poverty had a structural connection to peace: the renunciation of property removes the chief occasion of conflict. In his “Life of Francis,” he presented Francis as one who embodies the peaceable kingdom precisely through radical dispossession. The Franciscan is a living eschatological sign that the conditions generating war — greed, domination, and pride — can be transcended in this life.
The Christian reality is about living in two worlds: “City of God” and “Earthly City.” The explanation for current war in Iran by the Administration continues to fail to meet the criteria for a “Just War.” More importantly, the rhetoric is a profound theological distortion equating the actions of the nation with the will of God. The danger is allowing the Earthly City and its leaders to replace God and the Kingdom of love, justice, and peace. This is sin.
As Christians, we must engage civil authority holding our leaders to account for their actions and words. As citizens, we do that through the ballot box, non-violent protest and civil action, and contacting our elected representatives. As followers of Christ, we do these without rancor. We answer anger and hate with love.
Finally, we act with humility and in prayer:
O God, you have bound us together in a common life. Help us, in the midst of our struggles for justice and truth, to confront one another – in local communities, the nation, and the world – without hatred or bitterness, and to work together with mutual forbearance and respect; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Aloha ma o Iesu Kristo, ko mākou Haku,
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