The Elephant in the Room of American Christianity: Alexander Campbell's Address on War (Part 1)

Alexander Campbell, 1788-1866

Alexander Campbell writes,

"...With your indulgence, I will attempt, if not to decide the question, at least to assist those who, like myself, have often and with intense interest reflected on the desolations and horrors of war, as indicated in the sacrifice of human life, the agonies of surviving relatives, the immense expenditures of a people's wealth, and the inevitable deterioration of public morals invariably attendant on its existence and career...."

"If we should put down its slain victims to the minimum... imagination could picture all the miseries and agonies inflicted upon the slain and upon their surviving relatives and friends. And who could compute the wealth expended in the support of those immense armies whose butchered millions can never be exactly computed? If Great Britain alone, from the revolution in 1688 to the overthrow of Napoleon in 1815, during her 7 years' wars, occupying 65 years of 127, expended the sum much more easily expressed than comprehended by even the most accomplished financier, how can we compute the aggregate expenditures of all the battles fought and wars carried on during a period of some 5,000 years?"

"Yet these millions slain and these millions expended are the least items in its desolations... when we attempt to reflect upon one human being in the magnitude of his whole destiny in a world that has no limit according to the Christian revelation, how insignificant are the temporal and passing results of any course of action compared with those which know neither measure nor end?"

"More than half the controversies of every age are mere verbose wranglings about the terminology of the respective combatants; and more than half the remainder might be compressed into a very diminutive size. If, in the beginning, the parties would agree on the real issue, on the proper terms to express and define them... So many a false and dangerous position, couched in ambiguous terms, when pruned of its luxuriant verbiage and presented in an intelligible attitude, is unworthy of our reception and regard."

A CHRISTIAN NATION

"...We cannot without great difficulty imagine such a thing as a Christian nation carrying on an aggressive war. We, therefore, simplify the discussion by placing in the proposition the naked term "war." Nor shall we spend our time in discussing the political right of one nation to wage war against another nation, and then ask whether they have a divine right. Indeed, the latter generally implies the former; for, if a nation has a divine right, it either has or may have a political or moral right to do so."

"But we must inquire into the appropriateness of the term "Christian" prefixed to nation for popular use has so arranged these terms. We have, indeed, had, for many centuries past, many nations called Christian nations; but we must fearlessly ask were they baptized? Who were their founders? These, indeed, are preliminary questions that demand a grave and profound consideration. That there are many nations that have Christian communities in them is a proposition which we most cheerfully and thankfully admit."

"So we have, if anyone contend for the name, as many Christian nations as we have Christian communities in different nations, and as many Jewish nations as we have nations with Jewish synagogues in them, and as many Mohammedan nations as we have nations containing mosques in them. But, according to this rhetorical figure, we may have a Christian and a Mohammedan nation, in one and the same nation, as we sometimes find both a Jewish and a Christian synagogue in the same nation. But a rhetorical Christian nation and a proper and literal Christian nation are very different entities. A proper literal Christian nation is not found in any country under the whole heavens. There is, indeed, one Christian nation, composed of all the Christian communities and individuals in the whole earth."

"The Apostle Peter, in one letter addressed to all the Christians scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and the Bithynia, though "strangers" or aliens in these respective nations, calls them collectively "a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people." In strict logical and grammatical truth there is not, of all the nations of the earth, one properly called a Christian nation. Therefore, we have never had as yet one Christian nation waging war against another Christian nation. Before anyone, then, no matter what his learning or talents may be, can answer the great question now in discussion, he must form a clear and well defined conception of what constitutes a nation and what constitutes a Christian."

"We have very high Roman authority for defining a nation, from nascor... which, in our vernacular, means a race or tribe of men who have not come abroad but live where they were born. Being a Roman word, derived from natural birth, a Roman author has the best right to define it. Now, a Christian is not one born where he lives; he is born from above, as all Christians of all parties admit. Therefore, no nation, as such, as respects either its natural birth or its constitution, can with any show of truth or reason be called a Christian nation. When anyone produces the annals of a nation whose constitution was given by Jesus Christ, and whose citizens are all born of God spiritually, as well as of man physically, I will at once call it, in good faith, without a figure, a true, proper, and literal Christian nation...."

"But there is a reflex light of Christianity, a moralizing and a civilizing influence as well as a direct and soul-redeeming radiance, which imparts to those nations that have the oracles of God a higher standard of moral excellence, a more discriminating conscientiousness, and a more elevated national character which, in contrast with pagan nations, obtains for them the honorary distinction of Christian nation.... The American Nation as a nation is no more in spirit Christian than were Greece and Rome when the apostle planted churches in Corinth, Athens, or in the metropolis of the empire, with Caesar's household in it."

"Roman policy, valor, bravery, gallantry, chivalry are of as much praise, admiration, and glory in Washington and London as they were in the very center of the pagan world in the days of Julius or Augustus Caesar. We worship our heroes because of their martial and Roman virtue. Virtue in the Roman language was only a name for bravery or courage. Such was its literal meaning. With a Roman it was queen of all the graces and of all moral excellencies. It raised from plebian to partician rank and created military tribunes, decemvirs, triumvirs, dictators, consuls, kings, emperors. With us it cannot make a king, but may, perhaps, a third time make for us a President.... Kings cannot grow in America. But under our free and liberal institutions we can impart more than kingly power under a less offensive name."

"But a Christian community is, by the highest authority, called a kingdom. He, however, who gave it this name said to Caesar's representative, "My kingdom is not of this world. Had My kingdom been of this world, My servants would have fought, and I should not have been delivered to the Jews. But now is My kingdom not from hence." It is, then, decided, first, that we have no Christian nation or kingdom in the world, but that Christ has one grand kingdom composed of all the Christian communities in the world, of which He is Himself the proper sovereign, lawgiver, and king."

"Having, then, no Christian nation to wage war against another Christian nation, the question is reduced to a more rational and simple form, and I trust it will be still more intelligible and acceptable in this form: Can Christ's kingdom or church in one nation wage war against His kingdom or church in another nation? With this simple view of the subject, where is the man so ignorant of the letter and spirit of Christianity as to answer this question in the affirmative? Is there a man of ordinary Bible education in this city or commonwealth who will affirm that Christ's church in England may of right wage war against Christ's church in America?"

"But I will be told that this form of the question does not meet the exact state of the case as now impinging the conscience of very many good men. While they will with an emphatic no negative the question as thus stated, they will in another form propound their peculiar difficulty: 

"Suppose," say they, "England proclaims war against our Nation, or that our Nation proclaims war against England: Have we a right, as Christian men, to volunteer, or enlist, or, if drafted, to fight against England? Ought our motto to be, "Our country, right or wrong'? Or has our Government a right to compel us to take up arms?" 

"This form of the question makes it important that we should have as clear and definite conceptions the word "right" as of any other word in the question before us. We must, then, have a little more definition. For the doctrine of right and wrong, so frequently spoken of by elementary political writers, I cannot say that I entertain a very high regard. Men without religious faith, being without an infallible guide, are peculiarly fond of abstractions. Led by imagination more than by reason, authority, or experience, they pride themselves in striking out for themselves and others a new path, rather than to walk in the old and long-frequented ways. They have a theory of man in society with political rights, and of man out of society with natural rights; but as they cannot agree as to the word "natural" prefixed to "right" - whether nature be a divinity or the cause of things - I will not now debate with them the question of natural rights, but will take the surer and well- established ground of a divine warrant, or a right founded on a divine annunciation."

"Much, in all cases of any importance, depends on beginning right; and in a question upon right itself, everything depends upon that ultimate tribunal to which we make our appeal. In all questions involving the moral destinies of the world, we require more than hypothetical or abstract reasoning from principles merely assumed or conceded. We need demonstration, or, what in this case of moral reasoning is the only substitute for it, oracular authority. All questions on morals and religion, all questions on the origin, relations, obligations, and destiny of man, can be satisfactorily decided only by an appeal to an infallible standard. I need not say that we all, I mean the civilized world, the great, the wise, the good of human kind, concede to the Bible this oracular authority; and, therefore, constitute it the ultimate reason and authority for each and every question of this sort. What, then, says the Bible on the subject of war?"

Alexander Campbell's Address On War Part 2

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Alexander Campbell, Address on War, 1848. Edited.