DALLAS (BP)--In refusing to rule out military force against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, President Bush has an ally in Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land -- and that has the talking heads talking.
"I have stirred up a hornet's nest," Richard Land said Oct. 12 on his weekly talk show, "Richard Land Live!"
"It seems that I have surprised many Americans, at least those in the media, with my views about 'just war' theory and how it applies to the unfolding situation in Iraq," said Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
Land was broadcasting from a studio in the Salem Radio Network's headquarters in Dallas. The nation's leading radio broadcaster of religious and family themed programming, Salem syndicates "Richard Land Live!" nationally.
Land was the lead signatory on an Oct. 3 letter to President George W. Bush that affirmed the president's policies concerning Hussein's Iraqi regime were "right and just." Prison Fellowship's Chuck Colson and Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, were among others who signed the letter that said the administration's efforts were "within the time-honored criteria" of just war theory.
NBC News sent a camera crew to capture Land talking with listeners about the subject during his Saturday afternoon syndicated radio program. The SBC executive has been featured in The New York Times, the Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal and on Fox News, National Public Radio and MSNBC, among others, for his views on possible military action against Iraq.
Land contends the president is now free to pursue military action against the Iraqi leaders, noting Congress gave the president approval to use lethal force and that the situation now fully meets the criteria of just war theory.
The bipartisan resolution authorizes President Bush to use lethal force, if necessary, to bring about the neutralization and disarmament of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. Adopted by the U.S. Senate Oct. 11 after House approval a day earlier, the resolution urges Bush to exhaust all diplomatic means before launching an attack but allows the president to move forward against the Iraqi government without the United Nations' approval.
Just war theory, Land explained, was constructed by St. Augustine and other early church fathers in the late 4th and early 5th century A.D. as a tool to determine when military action could be justified within a Christian framework.
"We cannot give blind allegiance to the government; we can't give over control of our conscience to the government," Land noted. "Jesus made clear that ultimate allegiance must always be to God, not Caesar. We cannot allow the government to take control of our ethical and moral decision-making process."
