Love and Faith at War: Reflections on a Platoon Commander in Fallujah

Abstract

The public culture of liberal democracies like the United States include a number of ‘platitudes’ about the proper political role of religion. One of those platitudes has to do with the relation between religion and war, viz., that ‘mixing’ religion and war leads to moral horror. When combatants are motivated to fight by their religious faith, when political communities construe violent military conflict in religious terms, when ‘religion’ intrudes upon ‘war,’ we can expect only moral atrocity. Hence the familiar parade of horribles: the Crusades, the religious wars of the 16th and 17th centuries, 9/11. I am skeptical: the religious is internally complex; war is as well; we should not expect the proper relations between religion and war to be regulated by simplistic claims decrying any influence of religion on war; nor should we expect the truth about religion and war to be accurately characterized by a narrative depicting a series of religiously motivated atrocities. My skepticism in this respect is grounded on a whole host of historical, philosophical, sociological, and theological considerations. Articulating those considerations would take a tome. In lieu of that more substantial treatment, I want to provide initial grounds for skepticism by reflecting on a particular case, one that I lay out in some detail. I think that reflection on that one case indicates just how subtly, and yet consequentially, the religious can relate to the martial. I hope that it also provides some indication – though hardly a demonstration! – that we have excellent reason to abandon familiar prejudicial platitudes about religion and war. We should at least be far more careful in our formulations than many are.