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Peace and Justice

War and Peace - Pacifism

Looking at Jesus' teaching ('Love your enemy', 'Turn the other cheek' etc) you might be convinced that Christians should be against war. Many are, and they are referred to as pacifists, who believe it is never right to fight.. However, this is certainly not the position in the Old Testament. Also, if you argue that Jesus told Peter off for using his sword when Jesus was arrested, you might ask why Jesus had never mentioned the sword before - he was obviously happy for Peter to carry it around with him. Jesus himself used a whip to drive people out of the temple.

Christians are divided on the issue of war. Read through all of the Bible Quotes on this section, and write them down in two columns - FOR and AGAINST war. Look through the following revision pages for Christian teachings and add them to each column:

Bitesize War and peace
The GCSE RE Site The morality of conflict
BBCi on War, particularly the pages on Pacifism and Christianity and War

You may be asked a specific question [1996 Q4]:

(a) What Christian teaching might a pacifist use to support their views?

These would be the teachings in your AGAINST column. When using them in an exam, DESCRIBE the teaching (say what it is) and EXPLAIN the teaching (say what it means).

You may be asked about how Christians work for peace. For example [1998 Q5]

(b) Describe how and explain why some Christians work to make peace. [7]

To answer this choose one of the following and find out more:

Some questions are more vague, and allow you to talk about pacifism, teaching that supports war and the Just War criteria (see next unit). Now try and answer the following question [2000 Q1]:

(a) Describe and explain Christian teaching about war. [8]

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There was a lot of ground to cover - you should take less than 15 minutes in the exam on section (a). To see the areas you might have covered, have a look at a sample answer (you couldn't have written it all in the exam - I include it all for your information only)