WEBVTT NOTE Alexander Campbell, Tolbert Fanning, David Lipscomb: A Nineteenth-Century Anti-War Triumvirate 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.400 Alexander Campbell, Talbert Fanning, and David Lipscomb had three things in common. 2 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:11.800 They all lived during the 19th century. 3 00:00:11.800 --> 00:00:16.160 They were all ministers in the Church of Christ denomination. 4 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:20.120 And they were all vehemently antiwar. 5 00:00:20.120 --> 00:00:26.700 To the historic peace churches must be added, at least for the 19th and early 20th centuries, 6 00:00:26.700 --> 00:00:32.260 The Church of Christ, the Disciples of Christ, and the Christian churches that came out of 7 00:00:32.260 --> 00:00:37.560 the Restoration Movement of the early 19th century. 8 00:00:37.560 --> 00:00:43.620 One of the largest groups of religious conscientious objectors during World War I was from the 9 00:00:43.620 --> 00:00:45.180 Church of Christ. 10 00:00:45.180 --> 00:00:51.900 Campbell, Fanning, and Lipscomb were three outstanding 19th century opponents of war 11 00:00:51.900 --> 00:00:54.860 and proponents of peace. 12 00:00:54.860 --> 00:01:00.340 All wrote well before the horrors of World War I, with Campbell and Fanning writing their 13 00:01:00.340 --> 00:01:06.620 anti-war works even before the carnage of the so-called Civil War. 14 00:01:06.620 --> 00:01:13.620 My paper explores the connection between the anti-war views of Campbell, Fanning, and Lipscomb, 15 00:01:13.620 --> 00:01:20.540 and modern libertarians, and examines to what extent their overall political, economic, 16 00:01:20.540 --> 00:01:27.600 and Religious Philosophy parallel their libertarian anti-war views. 17 00:01:27.600 --> 00:01:32.620 Campbell was born in Ireland, attended the University of Glasgow and immigrated to America 18 00:01:32.620 --> 00:01:39.400 in 1809 with his family to join his father, a Presbyterian minister who had immigrated 19 00:01:39.400 --> 00:01:42.940 to Pennsylvania two years previously. 20 00:01:42.940 --> 00:01:49.080 The elder Campbell soon left the Presbyterians and formed a Christian society in 1809 and 21 00:01:49.080 --> 00:01:57.080 Church in 1811. The younger Campbell began preaching in 1810 and was ordained in 1812. 22 00:01:57.080 --> 00:02:03.520 He was soon acknowledged as the leader of what became known as the Restoration Movement. 23 00:02:03.520 --> 00:02:09.620 Campbell embarked on preaching tours, engaged in religious debates, and in 1840 founded 24 00:02:09.620 --> 00:02:16.120 Bethany College in what is now Bethany, West Virginia, where he lived until his death. 25 00:02:16.120 --> 00:02:23.860 He also edited and published two journals, The Christian Baptist from 1823 to 1830 and 26 00:02:23.860 --> 00:02:29.820 The Millennial Harbinger from 1830 until his death in 1866. 27 00:02:29.820 --> 00:02:36.220 At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Campbell expressed grief and disgust at the 28 00:02:36.220 --> 00:02:40.700 willingness of Christians to slaughter and destroy. 29 00:02:40.700 --> 00:02:45.380 He wrote in The Millennial Harbinger to not only dissuade Christians from participating 30 00:02:45.380 --> 00:02:52.740 in the Civil War, but to condemn the war as a monstrosity that caps the climax of human 31 00:02:52.740 --> 00:02:56.900 folly and gratuitous wickedness. 32 00:02:56.900 --> 00:03:02.980 I shall present Campbell's anti-war views from his famous Address on War that was delivered 33 00:03:02.980 --> 00:03:09.500 in May 1848 in Wheeling, West Virginia, or Virginia at the time, and published in the 34 00:03:09.500 --> 00:03:14.100 Millennial Harbinger in July the same year. 35 00:03:14.100 --> 00:03:18.940 Franklin was born in Tennessee and raised in Tennessee and Alabama. 36 00:03:18.940 --> 00:03:25.100 He began preaching at age 19 and made several preaching tours with Alexander Campbell. 37 00:03:25.100 --> 00:03:32.220 He graduated from Nashville University in 1835, established a school for girls in Franklin, 38 00:03:32.220 --> 00:03:40.140 Tennessee in 1837, and then founded and served as the first president of Franklin College. 39 00:03:40.140 --> 00:03:48.540 He began the Christian Review Magazine in 1844 and the Gospel Advocate in 1855. 40 00:03:48.540 --> 00:03:55.340 Like Campbell, Fanning opposed Christian participation in the Civil War at its outbreak. 41 00:03:55.340 --> 00:04:01.460 I shall present Fanning's anti-war views from his March 1847 article in the Christian 42 00:04:01.460 --> 00:04:05.700 Review titled simply, War. 43 00:04:05.700 --> 00:04:10.440 Lipscomb was born in Tennessee, lived briefly in Illinois and Georgia, and then spent the 44 00:04:10.440 --> 00:04:12.980 rest of his life in Tennessee. 45 00:04:12.980 --> 00:04:18.580 His family was active in the Restoration Movement before he was born. 46 00:04:18.580 --> 00:04:23.060 Lipscomb was baptized by Talbert Fanning in 1845. 47 00:04:23.060 --> 00:04:29.220 He graduated from Franklin College in 1849 and founded the Nashville Bible School in 48 00:04:29.220 --> 00:04:31.260 1891. 49 00:04:31.260 --> 00:04:37.260 The school was named in his honor as Lipscomb University after his death. 50 00:04:37.260 --> 00:04:43.740 Lipscomb began preaching in 1856 and made numerous preaching tours throughout the South. 51 00:04:43.740 --> 00:04:51.140 In 1866, he began again to publish The Gospel Advocate, which was forced to suspend publication 52 00:04:51.140 --> 00:04:53.540 at the start of the Civil War. 53 00:04:53.540 --> 00:04:58.100 He served as the magazine's editor for 50 years. 54 00:04:58.100 --> 00:05:05.240 Like Camblin Fanning, Lipscomb opposed Christian participation in the Civil War and its outbreak. 55 00:05:05.240 --> 00:05:08.780 During the war, he was to Southerners a traitor. 56 00:05:08.780 --> 00:05:12.980 After the war, he was to Northerners a southern sympathizer. 57 00:05:12.980 --> 00:05:19.660 I shall present Lipscomb's antiwar views from his 1889 book, Civil Government, Its 58 00:05:19.660 --> 00:05:25.680 Origin, Mission and Destiny, and The Christian's Relation to It, which was originally published 59 00:05:25.680 --> 00:05:32.640 as a series of articles in the Gospel Abdequate from 1866 to 1867. 60 00:05:32.640 --> 00:05:37.840 Because of time constraints, I will have to abbreviate my remarks on the anti-war views 61 00:05:37.840 --> 00:05:42.760 of this triumvirate in order to present my conclusions. 62 00:05:42.760 --> 00:05:44.960 I first turn to Campbell. 63 00:05:44.960 --> 00:05:50.080 Although he waited until the end of the Mexican War to speak out against it, he says he often 64 00:05:50.080 --> 00:05:56.440 Man reflected with intense interest on the desolations and horrors of war, as indicated 65 00:05:56.440 --> 00:06:02.880 in the sacrifice of human life, the agonies of surviving relatives, the immense expenditures 66 00:06:02.880 --> 00:06:08.700 of a people's wealth, and the inevitable deterioration of public morals. 67 00:06:08.700 --> 00:06:15.560 He concludes that a Christian man can never of right be compelled to do that for the state 68 00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:22.000 in Defense of State Rights, which he cannot have right due for himself in defense of his 69 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:24.760 own personal rights. 70 00:06:24.760 --> 00:06:30.100 Campbell had some harsh words regarding the soldier, whom he called the professional and 71 00:06:30.100 --> 00:06:37.000 licensed butcher of mankind, who with his vulgar profanity, brutality and debauchery 72 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:43.820 hires himself to lay waste a country, to pillage, to burn, and destroy the peaceful hamlet, 73 00:06:43.820 --> 00:06:59.820 to the cheerful village or the magnificent city, and to harass, wound, and destroy his fellow man for no other consideration than his paltry wages, his daily rations, and the infernal pleasure of doing it. 74 00:06:59.820 --> 00:07:05.820 Campbell also laments the pernicious influence of the warrior spirit on society. 75 00:07:05.820 --> 00:07:12.820 Women are fascinated with soldiers whose profession it is to make widows and orphans. 76 00:07:12.820 --> 00:07:18.180 Campbell is especially troubled that this delusion is found in the pulpit. 77 00:07:18.180 --> 00:07:23.940 He considers war prayers as desecrating the religion of the Prince of Peace. 78 00:07:23.940 --> 00:07:29.660 He mocks the idea of chaplains on both sides of a conflict, offering up prayers for the 79 00:07:29.660 --> 00:07:36.420 success of rival armies, as if God could hear them both and make each triumphant over the 80 00:07:36.420 --> 00:07:42.420 other, guiding and commissioning swords and bullets to the hearts and heads of their respective 81 00:07:42.420 --> 00:07:49.520 of Enemies. Campbell's antiwar views were grounded in logic and Scripture. Based on 82 00:07:49.520 --> 00:07:54.780 Christ's declaration that his kingdom was not of this world, Campbell reasoned that 83 00:07:54.780 --> 00:08:01.780 if the cause of Christ should not be defended militarily, then surely no lesser cause would 84 00:08:01.780 --> 00:08:07.620 be sufficient for Christians to take up arms. If Christ would not have his servants take 85 00:08:07.620 --> 00:08:19.020 Campbell concludes his address on war with wonder and shame that he has not spoken out 86 00:08:19.020 --> 00:08:21.580 or written his views. 87 00:08:21.580 --> 00:08:26.660 He laments that he might have saved some lives if he had published something two or three 88 00:08:26.660 --> 00:08:29.820 years previously. 89 00:08:29.820 --> 00:08:35.300 Fanning begins by marveling that nations and individuals still settled their difficulties 90 00:08:35.300 --> 00:08:42.940 He's by moral combat, not questioning at all the divine right of slaying their fellows. 91 00:08:42.940 --> 00:08:49.120 He says he writes not for savages or infidels, but for the civilized nations of the earth, 92 00:08:49.120 --> 00:08:53.960 and for such professed Christians as feel authorized of God and their country to take 93 00:08:53.960 --> 00:08:56.500 the life of their brother man. 94 00:08:56.500 --> 00:09:01.580 He then offers nine arguments against war, with the sixth argument itself containing 95 00:09:01.580 --> 00:09:14.140 Fanning doubts whether distinctions can be made among just wars, offensive wars, and 96 00:09:14.140 --> 00:09:16.100 defensive wars. 97 00:09:16.100 --> 00:09:21.700 No one has ever read in history of a people who acknowledge themselves the offending party. 98 00:09:21.700 --> 00:09:26.500 All plead justification on the ground of aggressions from the enemy. 99 00:09:26.500 --> 00:09:33.140 Indeed, says Fanning, there is scarcely in the annals of time an account of an important 100 00:09:33.140 --> 00:09:38.940 war in which both parties did not operate both offensively and defensively. 101 00:09:38.940 --> 00:09:45.900 As soon as war is declared, the technicalities of offense and defensive war are forgotten. 102 00:09:45.900 --> 00:09:53.300 Fanning considered the causes of war to be love of conquest, territory, lust, and plunder. 103 00:09:53.300 --> 00:09:59.860 He lamented the fame of military chieftains that exert a vast influence on the mind of 104 00:09:59.860 --> 00:10:01.300 youth. 105 00:10:01.300 --> 00:10:09.020 Because all the causes of war are fleshly, the idea of holy wars is utterly inadmissible. 106 00:10:09.020 --> 00:10:13.620 In answer to the question of whether the Christian institution permits its subjects to engage 107 00:10:13.620 --> 00:10:20.620 in war, Fanning pointingly says, Christians as a nation, church or individuals have no 108 00:10:20.620 --> 00:10:27.340 No divine authority for engaging in war, offensive or defensive, for fame, plunder, revenge, 109 00:10:27.340 --> 00:10:31.620 or for the benefit of themselves or their enemies. 110 00:10:31.620 --> 00:10:34.660 Last but not least, there's Lipscomb. 111 00:10:34.660 --> 00:10:39.920 Because he's writing on the Christian's relation to government, he focuses on the state as 112 00:10:39.920 --> 00:10:42.440 the instigator of war. 113 00:10:42.440 --> 00:10:47.980 The chief occupation of human governments from the beginning has been war. 114 00:10:47.980 --> 00:10:57.980 Nine-tenths of the taxes paid by the human family have gone to preparing for, carrying on, or paying the expenses of war. 115 00:10:57.980 --> 00:11:08.980 Lipscomb lamented the then-recent Civil War and the spectacle of disciples of the Prince of Peace with murderous weapons seeking the lives of their fellow men. 116 00:11:08.980 --> 00:11:15.980 He considered it abhorrent to the principles of the religion of the Savior, who died that even his enemies might live, 117 00:11:15.980 --> 00:11:27.980 That brethren for whom Christ died were found in brewing their hands in the blood of their own brethren in Christ, making their sisters widows and their sisters children orphans. 118 00:11:27.980 --> 00:11:31.980 Lipscomb thought it immoral to kill on behalf of government. 119 00:11:31.980 --> 00:11:42.980 Christians cannot fight, cannot slay one another or their fellow men at the behest of any earthly ruler or to establish or maintain any human government. 120 00:11:42.980 --> 00:12:01.980 And neither can they vote to make others fight. A man who votes to bring about a war, or that votes for that which logically and necessarily brings about war, is responsible for that war and for all the necessary and usual attendance and results of that war. 121 00:12:01.980 --> 00:12:23.980 Echoing Alexander Campbell, Lipscomb concludes that Christ disavows the earthly character of his kingdom, declaring that it is of a nature so different from all worldly kingdoms that his servants could not fight for his kingdom, and if they could not fight for his kingdom, they could not fight for any kingdom. 122 00:12:23.980 --> 00:12:29.980 My conclusion will focus on politics, war, and the state. 123 00:12:29.980 --> 00:12:34.980 It is impossible to be a libertarian and not be anti-war. 124 00:12:34.980 --> 00:12:39.740 War is not only nothing but state-sponsored terrorism, violence and aggression, it is 125 00:12:39.740 --> 00:12:41.900 also the health of the state. 126 00:12:41.900 --> 00:12:47.460 The connection between the anti-war views of Campbell, Fanning and Lipscomb and modern 127 00:12:47.460 --> 00:12:50.300 libertarians is a strong one. 128 00:12:50.300 --> 00:12:57.180 In fact, because they don't sanitize soldiers or call killing for the state serving the 129 00:12:57.180 --> 00:13:02.680 in the country, they are more consistent than some modern libertarians. 130 00:13:02.680 --> 00:13:07.580 Their shared religious philosophy certainly guided their anti-war views, but cannot be 131 00:13:07.580 --> 00:13:11.380 said to be solely responsible for such views. 132 00:13:11.380 --> 00:13:16.220 There remains to be seen the economic and political views of the members of this anti-war 133 00:13:16.220 --> 00:13:22.340 triumvirate and to what extent their overall philosophy paralleled their libertarian anti-war 134 00:13:22.340 --> 00:13:24.540 views. 135 00:13:24.540 --> 00:13:28.760 Ronald's early education was steep in the tradition of John Locke. 136 00:13:28.760 --> 00:13:32.800 He spoke favorably of Adam Smith and other classical liberals. 137 00:13:32.800 --> 00:13:34.740 He admired Jefferson. 138 00:13:34.740 --> 00:13:39.020 He was a fierce defender of the separation of church and state. 139 00:13:39.020 --> 00:13:43.920 He wrote in The Christian Baptist that the clergy have ever been the greatest tyrants 140 00:13:43.920 --> 00:13:49.320 in every state and at the present they are in every country in Europe on the side of 141 00:13:49.320 --> 00:13:54.880 and the oppressors of the people who tramp on the rights of men. 142 00:13:54.880 --> 00:13:57.720 He defended the importance of private property. 143 00:13:57.720 --> 00:14:03.400 He used at Bethany College the works of Francis Whelan, the great Baptist champion of liberty, 144 00:14:03.400 --> 00:14:05.240 property and peace. 145 00:14:05.240 --> 00:14:11.920 He opposed Christian participation in politics, considering it a moral pestilence. 146 00:14:11.920 --> 00:14:17.480 Campbell considered patriotism to be a pagan virtue that had no special place in the Christian 147 00:14:17.480 --> 00:14:18.480 religion. 148 00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:27.480 Although he believed that the state existed to punish crimes against men, he did not believe in using state power to punish sins against God. 149 00:14:27.480 --> 00:14:33.480 He was very critical of moral societies looking to the state to help stamp out sin. 150 00:14:33.480 --> 00:14:41.480 Were it not for the prevalence of injustice and violence in the world, thought Campbell, civil government would be wholly unnecessary. 151 00:14:41.480 --> 00:14:47.120 With these views on the nature and role of government, I don't see how we can describe 152 00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:50.600 Campbell as anything but a libertarian. 153 00:14:50.600 --> 00:14:55.440 I have only a little information about Fanning's economic and political views. 154 00:14:55.440 --> 00:15:02.800 Lipscomb wrote in a book on Franklin College in 1906 that Fanning never voted or took part 155 00:15:02.800 --> 00:15:07.880 in the political and civil contests of the country. 156 00:15:07.880 --> 00:15:13.560 Money can certainly be classified as at least a classical liberal. 157 00:15:13.560 --> 00:15:17.560 Lipscomb was as fervently anti-state as he was anti-war. 158 00:15:17.560 --> 00:15:22.400 He distinguished human government from the government of God. 159 00:15:22.400 --> 00:15:27.040 He believed that the essential elements of human government were evil. 160 00:15:27.040 --> 00:15:33.480 Echoing Rothbard and Hoppe, Lipscomb described civil government as resting on force as its 161 00:15:33.480 --> 00:15:35.400 foundation. 162 00:15:35.400 --> 00:15:41.480 National power is founded on force, lives by it, and it is its only weapon of offense 163 00:15:41.480 --> 00:15:43.240 or defense. 164 00:15:43.240 --> 00:15:49.160 Government is not benevolent, its rulers oppress their subjects for their own benefit. 165 00:15:49.160 --> 00:15:54.500 Christians should submit to human government when doing so does not directly violate Scripture. 166 00:15:54.500 --> 00:15:58.360 But they should also seek to work its destruction. 167 00:15:58.360 --> 00:16:03.160 This should be accomplished not by violence and the sword, but by spreading the religion 168 00:16:03.160 --> 00:16:08.640 of Christ and so converting men from service to the earthly government to service to the 169 00:16:08.640 --> 00:16:10.500 heavenly one. 170 00:16:10.500 --> 00:16:14.280 Christians should neither participate in government nor vote. 171 00:16:14.280 --> 00:16:20.660 They should not use the civil powers to promote righteousness, morality, or good to humanity. 172 00:16:20.660 --> 00:16:28.760 Even more so than Campbell, we cannot describe Lipscomb as anything but a libertarian. 173 00:16:28.760 --> 00:16:34.420 With examples like these, why is it that the greatest supporters of war in the military 174 00:16:34.420 --> 00:16:38.040 continue to be conservative Christians? 175 00:16:38.040 --> 00:16:43.400 I've given many reasons for this in my many articles and lectures on Christianity and 176 00:16:43.400 --> 00:16:44.400 war. 177 00:16:44.400 --> 00:16:54.480 But now we must add two more, ignorance or rejection of the 19th century anti-war triumvirate 178 00:16:54.480 --> 00:16:57.920 of Alexander Campbell, Talbert Fanning and David Lipscomb.