WEBVTT NOTE Authors Forum: War and Morality 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.000 You may not believe me when I say that Ralph Reiko and fundamentalist Christians have something in common, but they do. 2 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:14.000 They both say I'm becoming more radical, and they are both right. I am. 3 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:26.000 But while my increasing radicalness is a blessing to Professor Reiko, it is at the same time a curse to Christians who support or defend the state and its military. 4 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:30.560 One of my favorite quotes, and one that has been proven to be true more and more each 5 00:00:30.560 --> 00:00:36.680 day since the invasion and occupation of Iraq, is that of Randolph Byrne, War is the Health 6 00:00:36.680 --> 00:00:38.400 of the State. 7 00:00:38.400 --> 00:00:43.600 I use this quote to close the preface of my new book, and I've also used it at the close 8 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:46.800 of several of my Lew Rockwell articles. 9 00:00:46.800 --> 00:00:48.860 That quote says a mouthful. 10 00:00:48.860 --> 00:00:52.480 It means that the state loves war, the state needs war. 11 00:00:52.480 --> 00:00:56.320 War is what keeps the state alive and helps it to grow. 12 00:00:56.320 --> 00:01:00.320 The warfare state is much more dangerous than the welfare state. 13 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:05.040 The warfare state robs us of not only our liberty and our money, but in some cases, 14 00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:06.560 our life. 15 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:14.040 And unlike the welfare state, the warfare state can sometimes enlist conservatives, libertarians, 16 00:01:14.040 --> 00:01:19.480 and evangelical Christians who normally decry the welfare state. 17 00:01:19.480 --> 00:01:25.640 They will do the bidding of the warfare state without a second thought in many cases. 18 00:01:25.640 --> 00:01:31.680 This is my book, Christianity in War and Other Essays Against the Warfare State. 19 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:35.880 The picture on the front is The Triumph of Death by Peter Bruegel. 20 00:01:35.880 --> 00:01:39.780 I think it's from the 1600s. 21 00:01:39.780 --> 00:01:46.020 And the book consists of 13 of my Lew Rockwell essays against the warfare state, and they're 22 00:01:46.020 --> 00:01:53.620 are organized under four headings, Christianity and War, The Evils of War, Specific Wars, 23 00:01:53.620 --> 00:01:59.040 and the U.S. Global Empire. The essays are contemporary, but yet they're timeless, since 24 00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:06.620 they discuss the principles of war, empire, militarism, interventionism, the warfare state, 25 00:02:06.620 --> 00:02:12.740 and the Christian attitude toward these things. The book is proudly dedicated to Lew Rockwell, 26 00:02:12.740 --> 00:02:17.180 Who am I considered to be an implacable foe of the warfare state? 27 00:02:17.180 --> 00:02:23.700 And while I applaud many, the many libertarians and conservatives who are now opposed to the 28 00:02:23.700 --> 00:02:30.660 war in Iraq because Bush screwed up or it's taken too long or there's too many casualties, 29 00:02:30.660 --> 00:02:36.180 I admire much more principle libertarians like Lew Rockwell who opposed the war from 30 00:02:36.180 --> 00:02:38.220 the very beginning. 31 00:02:38.220 --> 00:02:42.220 In fact, if it were not for Lew Rockwell's encouragement and willingness to publish my 32 00:02:42.220 --> 00:02:47.220 and my anti-war articles, many of them would never have been written. 33 00:02:47.220 --> 00:02:49.220 Let me tell you how this book came about. 34 00:02:49.220 --> 00:02:55.220 Like many of you, I have grown increasingly frustrated with Christian enthusiasm for Bush 35 00:02:55.220 --> 00:03:00.220 and any Republican politician who calls himself a Christian or calls himself a conservative, 36 00:03:00.220 --> 00:03:05.220 and especially Christian enthusiasm for war and the state. 37 00:03:05.220 --> 00:03:10.220 But as a conservative Christian, this is especially troubling to me. 38 00:03:10.220 --> 00:03:16.820 If there's any group of people that ought to oppose war, and especially the current unconstitutional, 39 00:03:16.820 --> 00:03:21.040 immoral, unscriptural war in Iraq, it is Christians. 40 00:03:21.040 --> 00:03:27.340 And especially those Christians who turn themselves conservatives, evangelicals, and fundamentalists 41 00:03:27.340 --> 00:03:31.300 and claim to be in subjection to the authority of Scripture. 42 00:03:31.300 --> 00:03:36.460 There's nothing more tragic than a dispensationalist appealing to the example of the wars of the 43 00:03:36.460 --> 00:03:43.060 the Jews and the Old Testament to justify the United States going to war in Iraq. 44 00:03:43.060 --> 00:03:50.180 The back cover of the book, as well as the preface, contains a couple sentences I'd like 45 00:03:50.180 --> 00:03:56.140 to read to you, which made some Christians mad enough to want to cut my throat. 46 00:03:56.140 --> 00:04:02.740 It simply says this, war is a subject that needlessly divides and sidetracks Christians. 47 00:04:02.740 --> 00:04:09.680 It is my contention that Christian enthusiasm for the state, its wars, and its politicians 48 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:15.960 is an affront to the Savior, contrary to Scripture, and a demonstration of the profound ignorance 49 00:04:15.960 --> 00:04:18.440 many Christians have of history. 50 00:04:18.440 --> 00:04:24.200 There's nothing Christian about the state's aggressive militarism, its senseless wars, 51 00:04:24.200 --> 00:04:29.600 its interventions into the affairs of other countries, and its expanding empire. 52 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:34.840 I would also now add that war is the greatest opponent of morality. Men do things in war 53 00:04:34.840 --> 00:04:40.360 that they would never think of doing in peace. It is my opinion that a Christian cannot abdicate 54 00:04:40.360 --> 00:04:47.360 or defend the state's wars and interventions without either intentionally or unintentionally 55 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:53.720 rejecting the basic precepts of Christianity. So after writing many Lew Rockwell articles 56 00:04:53.720 --> 00:04:59.560 on War and the Warfare State, I realized I had a small book in the making that I could 57 00:04:59.560 --> 00:05:06.520 use to get anti-war, anti-state material into the hands of Christians and also direct these 58 00:05:06.520 --> 00:05:13.280 Christians to lewrockwell.com to get the information that's been lacking from their pulpits and 59 00:05:13.280 --> 00:05:15.900 lacking from their reading material. 60 00:05:15.900 --> 00:05:21.260 But this is not just a book for Christians, it contains original research that has nothing 61 00:05:21.260 --> 00:05:27.500 to do with Christianity, such as The True Extent of the US Global Empire, which I document 62 00:05:27.500 --> 00:05:33.540 as including 150 different countries or regions of the globe. 63 00:05:33.540 --> 00:05:39.940 And I hope that the book will also show non-Christian defenders of liberty that one can be a conservative 64 00:05:39.940 --> 00:05:45.580 Christian and not be a warmonger and a worshiper of the warfare state. 65 00:05:45.580 --> 00:05:50.200 Now, what's the response to the book? 66 00:05:50.200 --> 00:05:56.240 After teaching for years at a Bible college, regularly writing articles for religious periodicals, 67 00:05:56.240 --> 00:06:02.240 or at least I did before the book came out, and writing and publishing six other religious 68 00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:08.040 books, I had a tremendous opportunity, so I thought, because my name was firmly established 69 00:06:08.040 --> 00:06:13.680 among Bible-believing Christians, to get this anti-war material into the hands of the typical 70 00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:19.960 conservative Christian who votes Republican, he faithfully listens to Hannity and Limbaugh, 71 00:06:19.960 --> 00:06:25.560 And perhaps he just hasn't been exposed to this kind of material before, but my intentions 72 00:06:25.560 --> 00:06:27.720 were hijacked. 73 00:06:27.720 --> 00:06:33.320 And I'm sorry to say they were hijacked by my Christian friends and my own church. 74 00:06:33.320 --> 00:06:39.080 When I wrote about Christianity and war, criticized the Iraq war, critiqued Jerry Falwell and 75 00:06:39.080 --> 00:06:45.800 condemned the U.S. global empire, I was appreciated by some and tolerated by others. 76 00:06:45.800 --> 00:06:51.000 But when I challenged the state and its military in my article, Should a Christian Join the 77 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:57.680 Military, everyone went to pieces and I began to be denounced by Christians as anti-American, 78 00:06:57.680 --> 00:07:05.840 a communist, a liberal, an anti-war weenie, unpatriotic and even a traitor. 79 00:07:05.840 --> 00:07:09.680 Just yesterday I received an email from a Christian who told me he was ashamed to be 80 00:07:09.680 --> 00:07:15.640 from the same country as me. 81 00:07:15.640 --> 00:07:22.040 According to the Christians in the military article, I wrote the article Christian Killers? 82 00:07:22.040 --> 00:07:25.080 And that sealed my fate for good. 83 00:07:25.080 --> 00:07:29.140 Christian bookstores and ministries that have sold my other books for years suddenly 84 00:07:29.140 --> 00:07:32.460 were not interested in anything I had to write. 85 00:07:32.460 --> 00:07:36.160 Christian friends that I had for years suddenly became my enemies. 86 00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:40.120 My own church bookstore refuses to sell my book. 87 00:07:40.120 --> 00:07:42.080 I live in Pensacola, Florida. 88 00:07:42.080 --> 00:07:47.940 Pensacola is a big Navy town with a heavy presence of active duty and retired military. 89 00:07:47.940 --> 00:07:51.860 Pensacola also has a lot of new and used bookstores. 90 00:07:51.860 --> 00:07:58.240 So far, only one bookstore in town, the smallest bookstore that there is, has agreed to sell 91 00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:00.320 my book. 92 00:08:00.320 --> 00:08:04.200 Before I took delivery of my book from my printer, one leader in my church told me I 93 00:08:04.200 --> 00:08:07.560 should destroy all the books as soon as I got them from the printer. 94 00:08:07.560 --> 00:08:13.600 Of course, he didn't offer to reimburse the thousands of dollars I had to spend. 95 00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:15.720 But with the bad comes the good. 96 00:08:15.720 --> 00:08:21.400 Besides sales at Amazon.com and my personal website, I have a few bookstores that are 97 00:08:21.400 --> 00:08:22.960 selling the book. 98 00:08:22.960 --> 00:08:25.860 Laissez-faire Books has also agreed to sell it. 99 00:08:25.860 --> 00:08:29.760 A few libertarian publications have promised me reviews. 100 00:08:29.760 --> 00:08:32.960 Ron Paul wrote me a nice endorsement. 101 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:38.640 And I'm pleased to report that my essay, Christian Killers, will appear in the forthcoming book 102 00:08:38.640 --> 00:08:44.440 called Neocon, Just War Principles, A Condemnation of the War in Iraq. 103 00:08:44.440 --> 00:08:47.660 And that's going to be published by IHS Press. 104 00:08:47.660 --> 00:08:53.960 And I believe David Gordon and Paul Godfrey will have essays in that book as well. 105 00:08:53.960 --> 00:08:56.720 I have no illusions about my book. 106 00:08:56.720 --> 00:09:01.600 Because it is self-published and merely a collection of essays, I know it is not destined 107 00:09:01.600 --> 00:09:10.600 My reaction to my critics is this. I wrote even more anti-war articles and more anti-state articles, and I plan on writing even more. 108 00:09:10.600 --> 00:09:19.600 From a humanistic standpoint, I get my inspiration from Mises and Rothbard to the horror of some Christians. 109 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:36.600 From a humanistic standpoint, I get my inspiration from Mises and Rothbard. To the horror of some Christians, I have pictures of Mises and Rothbard hanging on my office wall next to some Christians that I admire. 110 00:09:36.600 --> 00:09:43.600 Mises and Rothbard stood alone and spoke and wrote the truth, regardless of the circumstances or the consequences. 111 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:49.160 Consequences, and although they were Jews, they are a great example to Christians, but 112 00:09:49.160 --> 00:09:54.520 I know I'm not alone. I have countless numbers of Christian supporters who are opposed to 113 00:09:54.520 --> 00:10:00.160 the war and the warfare state. I know because they write to me. They're frustrated. They 114 00:10:00.160 --> 00:10:05.200 are disgusted. They are angry. They are tired of Republican politics from the pulpit. They 115 00:10:05.200 --> 00:10:11.320 are weary of Christian war fever. This little book has cost me a great deal. It's cost me 116 00:10:11.320 --> 00:10:32.040 My only regret is that I did not have some of my more recent anti-war articles, like 117 00:10:32.040 --> 00:10:37.960 the one I have on the website today, included in the book. 118 00:10:37.960 --> 00:10:42.700 So God giving me time and health I hope to have the opportunity to include him in a second 119 00:10:42.700 --> 00:10:46.320 edition and make my fellow Christians even more upset.