Sanctions for War

What is worth fighting for? West Germans, forming a new army eleven years after the Wehrmacht's surrender, are again debating this fateful question, and the old, martial German answers no longer ring true. Last week one of West Germany's 14 Evangelical Academies--which have been holding conferences for laymen to discuss moral and social problems--considered the sanctions for war in the modern world. At Loccum, near Hannover, gathered 120 military leaders, chaplains, bankers, white collar workers and clergymen from seven countries. First speaker was the secretary-general of the German Evangelical Church's annual Church Day, Dr. Hans-Herman Walz. The thing worth fighting for, he said, is Europe. For Europe is not merely an inheritance from the past, but "a goal which lies before us . . . a vision . . . a task." Dr. Walz doubted that men and women fight for abstract values, but he was sure that they could be persuaded to fight for the future of Europe.

One Responsibility. Neutrality, said Oldenburg's Evangelical Bishop D. Gerhard Jacobin, "has become absolutely impossible because wars have become total wars. In the age of democracy the individual cannot push the responsibility for war to the state. The individual is co-responsible, and the Christian must oppose wars waged for the enrichment of the state or for power . . . but in a state of emergency in which moral values are endangered, the defense of these values can be more important than life itself."

Former General Curt-Ulrich von Gerstorff rose to protest. Individuals cannot judge the justice of war, he said; "the individual can only know that every war--even the unjust war--is a threat to his fatherland. Do you expect the fire brigade to stop fighting the fire because the mayor of the town lit the fire himself? There is only one thing we can do: take care that the government is composed of peace-loving men."

One Foundation. The discussion was wending its way through the high places of theory when British Lieutenant Colonel Hugh S. Freeth, stationed at Hannover, rose to sound a noncontinental note:

"I am a simple soldier with a simple mind. As I see it, the object of this conference is to find a Christian foundation for a new German army and a close cooperation for it with the foreign armies. I have listened to the all-too-able learned lectures; they have offered and laid open the problems, but I have not yet heard a solution. If we are going to be successful against the common threat of Communism, we must find a greater means of cooperation to build a common foundation." There is only one foundation, added Colonel Freeth, on which all could hope to stand together: "a sincere belief in Jesus Christ as the Lord of our life. This is what a soldier can understand."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.