Atheists in foxholes, christian in uniform.

In a speech after the September 11, 2001, attacks, speaking of a war on terrorism, U.S. President George W. Bush said, "We cannot know every turn this battle will take, yet we know our cause is just...." In his 2003 State of the Union message, referring to war against Iraq, the president said, "We will fight in a just cause and by just means."

Just cause? That was the name of a military operation his father, President George Bush, authorized in 1989 to "liberate" the people of Panama, an action that resulted in the deaths of thousands of unsuspecting civilians during the arrest of one man, Manuel Noriega. Little more than a year later, the elder President Bush was talking about another military operation, this time to drive the Iraqi army out of Kuwait. In a speech he gave in January 1991, he said, "The war in the Gulf is not a Christian war, a Jewish war, or a Muslim war--it is a just war." Sounding like a Muslim cleric, he said, "God willing, this is a war we will win."

Just war? What is a just war? The concept was described over 1,500 years ago by Aurelius Augustinus, better known to us today as Saint Augustine. A convert to Christianity, Augustine argues in Contra Faust there is never any justification for one individual to kill another, not even under threat of death. But this limitation doesn't apply to nations. The rulers of nations, he argues, have an obligation to their subjects to maintain peace, and this obligation gives them the right to wage war. Augustine states, "The natural order conducive to peace among mortals demands that the power to declare and counsel war should be in the hands of those who hold the supreme authority." Accordingly, the ruler's subjects have a responsibility to wage war when they are called to do so. The just motive for war is peace. Augustine writes, "We go to war that we may have peace." Furthermore, "War is the result of sin, and war is the remedy for sin."

In Augustine's time, Christians were considered unfit for warfare because of their peculiar religious beliefs. Many became martyrs in the cause of peace. There was Maximilian, a young Christian who, in 295 CE, was executed for refusing to join the Roman army. He said, "I cannot serve in the military; I cannot do wrong; I am a Christian." There was Marcellus, a centurion who converted to Christianity. In 298 CE he was executed after he said that he would serve only Jesus Christ and that he could no longer wage war. There was Martin of Tours, an officer in the Roman army who converted to Christianity. On the eve of a battle around 340 CE, a battle to defend the empire against the invading Teutons, he told the emperor that he could no longer fight; his religion forbade it. The emperor accused Martin of cowardice, and so Martin volunteered to face the enemy unarmed except for the sign of the cross. He was thrown into prison. The next day, the enemy surrendered without a fight. Martin was excused from military service.

Despite the efforts of martyrs, Augustine helped to convert Christianity from a pacifist religion to one that would succeed the Roman Empire. Before long, the church in Rome would be leading its own battles (the Crusades) and torturing and executing people for such things as translating the Bible into English (William Tyndale) or suggesting that the sun wasn't the center of the universe (Giordano Bruno).

The next major advancement in just war theory is attributed to Thomas Aquinas. In his Summa Theologica, Aquinas details three conditions for a just war: proper authority, just cause, and right intent. The proper authority is the head of state, responsible for the welfare of the citizens. Aquinas finds biblical justification for this in Paul's letter to the Romans where Paul writes, "Obey the government, for God is the one who put it there. All governments have been placed in power by God" and "whoever opposes the existing authority opposes what God has ordered, and anyone who does so will bring judgment on himself." If the government says go to war, you go to war. Aquinas also considers what is just cause for going to war: "Those who are attacked should be attacked because they deserve it on account of some fault." As for right intent, Aquinas presents two possibilities: to further some good or to avoid evil.

After Aquinas, other Christian writers elaborated on his three just war conditions. Later, the Catholic scholars Francisco de Vitoria (who, in 1536, argued that the natives of the Americas weren't inferior to Europeans and shouldn't be enslaved), Francisco Suarez (a Jesuit theologian and philosopher), and Hugo Grotius (a humanist, widely considered the father of international law) formalized the theory. These scholars retained the conditions set forth by Aquinas, but they added two more: war must be fought only as a last resort and in a proper manner (for example, without the wanton killing of innocents).

Aquinas said there are two types of wars: defensive and aggressive. The defensive war occurs when one nation defends itself from attack by another. This type of war is said to needs no moral justification; nations have a natural right to defend themselves and their way of life. The aggressive war occurs in response to some offense other than direct attack, as when a nation refuses to abide by a United Nations resolution. This type of war needs to be justified; the requirements for a just war apply only to aggressive wars.

The Roman Catholic Church refined the theory, which now consists of the following:

* Just cause: war may be used only to preserve the existence of, or correct a massive violation of the basic rights of, whole populations.

* Legitimate authority: only duly constituted public authorities may wage war.

* Right intent: force may be used only in a truly just cause and solely for that purpose.

* Last resort: force may be used only after all peaceful alternatives have been exhausted.

* Comparative justice: the wrong to be righted must be of such magnitude that warfare is justified.

* Probability of success: war may not be used to fight a futile cause.

* Proportionality: the overall destruction expected in war must be outweighed by the good to be achieved.

Those are the conditions for going to war (the jus ad bellum). In addition, there are regulations for how war is waged (the jus in bello). These include:

* Proportionality: the response to aggression must not exceed the destructiveness of the original aggression.

* Discrimination: non-combatants must not be the target of attack.

These are the elements of the Catholic church's formal "Christian ethic of war." What is interesting in all of this is that the ethic is based not on the teachings of Jesus but on other considerations. As the U.S. Council of Bishops noted in 1983 in The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response, a paper that considers the theory of just war in considerable detail, "Faith does not insulate us from the challenges of life." Warfare is certainly such a challenge.

Augustine and Aquinas founded just war theory on a few lines from Paul's letter to the Romans. It is based on Paul's advice (given in Romans 13) to the Christians in Rome that they should obey the authorities. Why? Because of the belief that all governments, including that of Rome, are ordained by God; if one disobeys the government, one disobeys God. By extension, if the government sends one off to war, that is one's duty.

Paul's advice to obey the Romans was for the sake of the new religion he was establishing. Pagans turned Christian were pacifists who refused to fight. Like the hippies of the 1960s who refused to fight in Vietnam, they said Christ prohibited his followers from waging war. Refusing to join the army was bad enough, but so many Pagans turned Chris-tian went out of their way to insult the state religion and to disrupt official religious ceremonies. Rome's royalty could spend an afternoon watching hungry lions kill and eat brash pacifists. To end it, Paul's advice was to conform. If the Christians didn't cool it, the Romans would wipe them out, and it would be pretty hard for Paul to establish much of a church and attract converts. People took his advice.

Paul's letter had some effect. Over time, the new religion gained many adherents. In 31 CE, Emperor Constantine became a convert and, the next year, issued the Edict of Milan, granting Christians religious freedom and making Sunday the official day of worship. A challenge of life had been settled with some pragmatism.

Augustine followed the tradition of pragmatism established by Paul. He welded the sword of a falling empire to the philosophy of a prophet. He helped change the new religion from one not suitable for this world into one that the greatest army ever known carries into battle. The U.S. army may be multicultural but it is essentially Christian. It has a Christian god on its side and has a Christian commander in chief, Christian chaplains in its ranks, and Christian soldiers. Or does it?

Today, the church in Rome stands by its just war theory. It says this war against Iraq doesn't meet the requirements of just war. The pope repeatedly voiced his opposition to the war. Just weeks before the war began, he called for Christians around the world to observe Ash Wednesday as a day of fasting and prayer praying for peace. He sent an envoy to meet with the president and deliver a letter pleading against war. White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said that Bush wouldn't be influenced by the pope. And National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said she can't understand how anyone could consider war against Iraq immoral.

The pope isn't alone. In a letter to Bush dated September 13, 2002, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote, "We respectfully urge you to step back from the brink of war." Mark S. Henson, the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, said, "I do not believe such a war can be justified under the historic principles of `just war.'" James E. Winkler, the general secretary of the United Methodist Church, said, "It is inconceivable that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior and the Prince of Peace, would support this proposed attack." United Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert, appearing in a television commercial, said that an attack on Iraq "violates God's law and the teachings of Jesus Christ." Robert W. Edgar, the General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, wrote, "Pre-emptive military action now being contemplated by the Administration cannot be morally justified."

Others saw it differently. In a letter to Bush, a group of conservative Christians--including D. James Kennedy and Charles Colson--wrote, "We believe that your policies are both right and just ... are prudent and fall well within the time-honored criteria of just war theory." Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said war with Iraq is well justified: "If you are looking for just cause, we have already passed that threshold."

There are the televangelists who read the Old Testament and conclude that God favors war, even preemptive war. They read Paul's letter and conclude that when the nation calls you to military service, it's your duty .to fight for your country. They read the Gospels and conclude that Jesus isn't opposed to war, that peace justifies violence. One month before the war, Televangelist Charles Stanley sermonized on the issue, saying, "God approves of war" and hates peaceniks. And he challenged those who believe war is always wrong: "When someone says to you, `God is against all war,' ask them, `Where is that in the Bible?' It is not in the scriptures." Before the last Gulf war, Billy Graham said, "There comes a time when we must fight for peace."

It used to be different. Pagans-turned-Christian had a different understanding of their religion of choice. As Maximilian put it, "I am a Christian and cannot fight." As Martin of Tours put it, "I am a soldier of Christ; it is not lawful for me to fight." As Tertullian put it, "When Christ disarmed Peter in the garden, he disarmed all Christians." As Lactantius put it, "It can never be Lawful for a righteous man to go to war, since his warfare is in righteousness itself." As Cyprian put it, "Christians are not allowed to kill, but they must be willing to be put to death." These were men who--unlike Bush--chose their religion instead of inheriting it. And they consciously chose to heed the teachings, even to sacrifice their lives for their religion.

There's an old saying: there are no atheists in foxholes. The idea is that once the shooting starts, everyone is ready to turn to God. Whoever started this saying didn't appreciate that once the shooting starts, it is the desire for survival that consumes a soldier. There is no time for pondering theology, or the meaning of Luke 22, or whether the gods give one hoot about people in foxholes or their causes.

Mister Thorne is a writer living in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. His monthly column about religion in the news is available online at www.misterthorne.org