Writes Ellen Finnigan and Doug Fuda:
4:12 pm on March 13, 2015We are writing to call your attention to a disturbing article which appeared recently in the National Catholic Register. It is yet another story about “American Snipers,” with the “clever” attention-grabbing headline of “Catholic, and Killing for a Living.” Here’s a link to the article.
The article is deficient on many different levels. It is full of logical errors, non sequiturs, and straw man arguments. It misuses Catholic just war theory and disparages advocates of non-violence.
One particularly insidious feature of the article is that it attempts to portray killing for the US government war effort in Iraq (an unjust war of aggression) as some kind of a “prolife” enterprise. Yes, that’s the same US government which is one of the most aggressive promoters and defenders of abortion in the world.
This article should not go unchallenged and we intend to write something about it on our blog.
We think however the article should be discussed widely and scrutinized with great care by Catholics other than ourselves. We are not in a position to make that happen due to our small size and newness on the internet. We hope that you will read the article and help get a discussion going in Catholic circles. There are many good people out there who can present a more serious challenge to this kind of thinking than Michael Moore can. The problem here is not “blind pacifism” as suggested in the article but rather blind state worship and militarism with a Catholic cover.
You can help by drawing attention to the article, commenting on the NCR website, writing a response on your own website or blog, writing to the editors of NCR. Also please consider commenting on our blog or emailing us directly with your ideas and suggestions.
