By Kevin Straub – Christianity, if it looks to Christ as its norm, will have nothing to do with the affairs of national/international politics and the wielding of the sword. It will not be involved in any of the processes involved in the adjustments of the balances of earthly powers. This is not our work. However, it has come to be standard thinking in Christianity that it is a part of our work. The discussions of whether to enter into a war or to stay out of that war is not merely academic in today’s Christianity; it is deemed the Christian’s duty to engage in a politicized Christianity. Today’s Christianity, since the time of Constantine, is not concerned solely with the gospel work, remaining an outside observer of the machinations of worldly powers, but as subscribers to the notion of “the just war,” is necessarily fundamentally involved in the geopolitical movements and the questions of taking nation(s) into war or not.
