Pro-life = Anti-war?

Cameron Strang of Relevant Magazine made a statement in a FOX interview in which he seemed to indicate that pro-life for Christians means not only anti-abortion, but anti-war as well.

(Note: In Mr. Strang’s defense, it was a limited sound bite, so I may have misunderstood his meaning or caught it out of context, but it’s definitely an issue worth tackling.)


The first things that come to mind are the obvious…or seemingly obvious…exceptions to the rules. In the case of medical situations where it is reasonably certain that the mother, the child, or both will die, is abortion, the intentional killing of an unborn child, a moral alternative? As Nazis ravaged Europe and Asia, murdered millions, and threatened to expand their evil footprint across the globe, was war (a definition here may be the crux of the argument) a moral alternative?


In this particular case of abortion, we can say what we would do, but we cannot say what is moral. Our worldly and human sense of compassion might say it is an acceptable path to abort the baby, but maybe this is what God meant when He said he who tries to save his own life will lose it, but he who gives his life for another will gain it.

It is not our place to decide what is right, we can only attempt to discern what God has deemed right. We pray and fast and meditate on the word, and then ask for God’s wisdom and guidance to help us do His will, and we ask for His mercy and forgiveness if we fail. If you are genuinely seeking His will and giving it all up to His judgment, I have faith that He is faithful.


In the not so particular case of war, what biblical basis is there for refusing to violently oppose such evil? Also, when the soldiers asked the Christ what they should do (as righteous soldiers), he told them not to intimidate people or accuse them falsely, and be content with their wages. He did not tell them not to go to war, or to resist their leaders' direction to war.

What we see in the Bible is not an opposition to war itself, but more likely an opposition to the misuse of military might. Here again, we do not decide what is right, we attempt to discern what God has deemed right.


To say war in and of itself is wrong does not seem to be biblical, so to say a Christian has to be anti-war is legalistic at best.