1. Christian Beliefs about Just War,

2. To be a just war the war must meet certain criteria; 1.LAST RESORT A just war can only be waged as a last resort. All non- violent options must be exhausted before the use of force can be justified.

3. 2. LEGITIMATE AUTHORITY A war is just only if it is waged by a legitimate authority. Even just causes cannot be served by actions taken by individuals or groups who do not constitute an authority sanctioned by whatever the society and outsiders to the society deem legitimate.

4. 3. JUST CAUSE A just war can only be fought to redress a wrong suffered or to fight evil. For example, self-defense against an armed attack is always considered to be a just cause. Further, a just war can only be fought with "right" intentions: the only permissible objective of a just war is to redress the injury.

5. 4. LIKELY TO SUCCEED A war can only be just if it is fought with a reasonable chance of success. Deaths and injury incurred in a hopeless cause are not morally justifiable.

6. 5. ESTABLISH PEACE The ultimate goal of a just war is to re-establish peace. More specifically, the peace established after the war must be preferable to the peace that would have prevailed if the war had not been fought.

7. 6. MINIMAL FORCE During a just war there must be as little violence used as possible. It should only be enough to succeed – not to demolish the enemy.

8. 7. NO CIVILIANS The weapons used in war must discriminate between combatants and non-combatants. Civilians are never permissible targets of war, and every effort must be taken to avoid killing civilians. The deaths of civilians are justified only if they are unavoidable victims of a deliberate attack on a military target.

9. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Christian who realised Hitler was evil and must be stopped. Problem? Bonhoeffer was a pacifist and did not believe in using violence. He asked: how can a Christian, essentially a pacifist, justify murder? Christians are, therefore, faced with a dilemma: when assaulted by evil, they must oppose it through direct action. They have no other option. Any failure to act is simply to condone evil. Bonhoeffer was executed after being found guilty of trying to assassinate Hitler in 1944.

10. Martin Luther King,Jr Do you think that this method could be applied to ANY situation? Is known for his pacifism. He considered whether Pacifism would have worked against Hitler, in Nazi Germany. He suggested that if ALL Germans had chosen to wear a yellow star, and not let the Jews be singled out, the Final Solution – the extermination of the Jews - could not have been carried out.

11. But he did also say that a non-violent approach works well against a leader with a conscience, but less so with a leader with no conscience. MLK suggested that non- violent resistance only works if the group you are resisting possesses the ability to be shamed, embarrassed, guilted, or convicted into rethinking its treatment of you. But if your opponent is perfectly content to use your non- violence as an opportunity to send you by the millions to concentration camps, then another path is required….the path of Bonhoeffer. "if your opponent has a conscience, then follow Gandhi. But if you enemy has no conscience, like Hitler, then follow Bonhoeffer."