Marc LiVecche

“liberté, égalité, fraternité”

For soldiers, the burden of having to do that which they believe to be morally evil is devastating. And according to the classic Just War tradition, it needn’t be.

The primary aims of Mark Amstutz’s Evangelicals and American Foreign Policy are twofold. First he intends to provide a “more compelling account of Evangelicals’ influence on America’s role in the world” than has been previously appreciated. The book’s second, and primary, task is to issue both a challenge and a caution.

On Saturday October 3rd, the United States military destroyed a hospital building in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing at least 22 people. Without question, even the accidental destruction of the hospital and the killing of the innocent remains indescribably awful- Was it an act of terror?

Pope Francis surely is a shepherd with the responsibility to guide his flock through history. He has the world’s ear – many are straining to hear him clearly…

It is as scandalous as it is shocking. It is much more than dereliction of duty. We ought to be soul-crushingly ashamed.

Bloom questions if conservatives rallied around Kim Davis would support an infantryman commanded by his Bishop to refuse orders in the Iraq mission.

In the dark days after the planes hit, the late political theorist Jean Bethke Elshtain mused to a friend, “Now we are reminded of what governments are for.” Sept. 11, she forever after insisted, made plain that “the primary responsibility of government is to provide for basic security – ordinary civic peace.” This responsibility is a divine mandate

This is not a blog about Sweden, but much of it will seem like it is. Recent Nordic events certainly warrant comment. Mirroring the larger European mood, Sweden, perhaps particularly so, is suffering some loss of confidence in the endurance of her own sovereignty. In an opinion piece in Sweden’s Svenska Dagbladet newspaper, the leadership of the influential Center Party neatly summarizes the reason, “We lack the ability to defend ourselves.”

The observance of the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has garnered reflection, especially about the nature of apologies.