In the first of a collection of letters, Lewis responds to an article on ‘Conditions for a Just War.’ His primary point is once again related to authority and who has the duty to assess information and make decisions regarding going to war and the like. This does not mean that “private persons must obey governments commanding them to do what they know is sin, but perhaps it does mean (I write it with some reluctance) that the ultimate decision as to what the situation at a given moment is in the highly complex field of international affairs is on which must be delegated.”
Lewis goes on to argue that extreme pacifism effectively divides the Christian world and results in “no clear Christian witness.” A far better strategy would be for Christians to insist upon what they do know and all agree upon. “A man is much more certain that he ought not to murder prisoners or bomb civilians than he ever can be about the justice of a war. It is perhaps here that ‘conscientious objection’ ought to begin. I feel certain that one Christian airman shot for refusing to bomb enemy civilians would be a more effective martyr (in the etymological sense of the word) than a hundred Christians in jail for refusing to join the army.”
(Timeless at Heart, 126-127)
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