“Of one thing I am sure: God never institutes war; God is not the author of confusion or of war; they are the results of the acts of the children of men. Confusion and war necessarily come as the results of the foolish acts and policy of men but they do not come because God desires they should come.
“If the people generally would turn to the Lord, there would never be any war. let men turn from their iniquities and sins, and, instead of being covetous and wicked, turn to God and seek to promote peace and happiness throughout the land, and wars would cease.”
– Brigham Young
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3 thoughts on ““God Never Institutes War””
Last night with my students we went through Richard Land’s 2002 letter appealing to “Christian” just war theory to support the invasion of Iraq. (http://www.drrichardland.com/press/entry/the-so-called-land-letter).I’ve done this dozens of times over the years, but last night I was finding myself surprisingly emotional and angry while reading him appealing to Christianity and God as justification for killing others.
And then I was reminded of Nelson’s general conference talk a few days later (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2002/10/blessed-are-the-peacemakers) which at first seemed to speak against the war, but was later minimized by Church PA as being merely a general statement with no direct application to anything in particular. And then, 6 months later, Hinckley gave his support to the war effort.
Oh, when will we ever learn to prophetically “renounce war and proclaim peace”?
President Hinckley gave his support to a specific war effort — once that war had already begun. He was as much a man of Peace an any, and would have been far happier if there’d not been a war. But once the war has started, the tune changes.
GBH’s remarks on the war were ambiguous enough for different people to understand them in diverse ways.
Last night with my students we went through Richard Land’s 2002 letter appealing to “Christian” just war theory to support the invasion of Iraq. (http://www.drrichardland.com/press/entry/the-so-called-land-letter).I’ve done this dozens of times over the years, but last night I was finding myself surprisingly emotional and angry while reading him appealing to Christianity and God as justification for killing others.
And then I was reminded of Nelson’s general conference talk a few days later (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2002/10/blessed-are-the-peacemakers) which at first seemed to speak against the war, but was later minimized by Church PA as being merely a general statement with no direct application to anything in particular. And then, 6 months later, Hinckley gave his support to the war effort.
Oh, when will we ever learn to prophetically “renounce war and proclaim peace”?
President Hinckley gave his support to a specific war effort — once that war had already begun. He was as much a man of Peace an any, and would have been far happier if there’d not been a war. But once the war has started, the tune changes.
GBH’s remarks on the war were ambiguous enough for different people to understand them in diverse ways.