Perhaps the most fascinating part of the debate over pacifism in Christian circles is how little of it is made on the basis of the context of the entirety of scripture. Almost without fail, the argument falls to contextual abuse, cherry-picking verses and attempts to make logical constructs that ignore scriptural support altogether. I'm not saying that Just War Theory doesn't have a very good logical case to make, but I have yet to hear (and not for a lack of searching) a serious and successful attempt to make Just War Theory dovetail with the whole Bible in anything other than a purely defensive context.

In short, I, like you, am relatively frustrated at the ... well, for lack of a better term, bloodthirstiness of Christians without a well-reasoned doctrinal support for that sort of attitude. Not sure that this really raises anything new other than staking out a claim to an argument, but there it is.

Having been brought up in a Mennonite church...drifted to the opposite stance...now swimming back upstream, I think this will be very, very interesting.

I look forward to each installment.