A main support group for Bush's "war on terror" and war on Iraq and other nations were evangelical Christians. They cited a religious justification for attacking Islam and claim Biblical and moral support for their position. They were the firmest warfare statists in Bush's ideological arsenal.
Laurence Vance shares their religious position but not their politics. He grappled with them throughout the decade, and through this struggle wrote a book that closely examines the moral responsibilities of religious people in times of war. He points out that to sign on to war means endorsing the most grim aspect of the state, including its lies and theft and mass death.
Vance paid a high personal price for his writings, which are gathered in this excellent book. He lost his teaching position at a Bible college. But in doing so, he has also left all future generations of Christians an excellent defense of a truly historical Christian position in favor of peace and freedom.
Laurence M. Vance is an Associated Scholar of the Mises Institute, columnist and policy adviser for the Future of Freedom Foundation, and a columnist, blogger, and book reviewer at LewRockwell.com. He is also the author of Gun Control and the Second Amendment, The War on Drugs Is a War on Freedom, and War, Empire and the Military: Essays on the Follies of War and U.S. Foreign Policy. His newest books are Free Trade or Protectionism? and The Free Society. Visit his website: www.vancepublications.com.
