Should the church take sides in military conflict?

[Stan]

By Ray McAllister, PhD - Your church group has been asked to have a special prayer for a member who will be going away to serve in the military overseas.  How should your church respond to this request? 

The post Should the church take sides in military conflict? appeared first on ReligiousLiberty.TV - Celebrating Liberty of Conscience.

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[Gregory Matthews]

NOTE:  I have read the article.  I do not believe that the heading of the article justly represents the substance of the article.  But, one would have to read the article to see that.

The truth, is as the article makes clear, spiritually supporting an individual who is a member of the military is not the same as supporting  a military conflict in which that person may be participating. 

The Seventh-day Adventist Church today has members who take the following positions related to military service:

1)  Those who will fully participate in all aspects of military service.

2)  Those who will limit their participating in military service to a few areas in which they are not directly involved in taking human life.

3)  Those who will not participate in any form of military service.

The official position of the SDA Church is that members who take any of the above three (3) positions should be spiritually supported by their churches and should not be disciplined by the congregation for the position that they took.

My personal position is that that any member who holds to traditional beliefs, should not enlist in the military in almost all cases.  [NOTE:  Chaplains are an exception.]  This is the official recommendation.  This recommendation comes from an experience that tells us that people with traditional SDA beliefs will likely have a hard, if not impossible, time in keeping true to their faith. 

 However, the bottom line is:  People with ties to the SDA Church enlist in the U.S. military in large numbers and in all fields of military service.  The issue now becomes one as to how the SDA Church can reach out to those people and help them in their spiritual life.

Well, my post does not respond to Stan's question.  Continue the discussion.