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Conduct of Nations and Military Organizations |
In evaluating the justification of participating in a war or refusing to participate in a war, one must look at the conduct of the nation and the army of that nation to determine if the cause is worthy of participation. The Church of Reality has some guidelines to help determine if your country has the proper moral standing in the conflict.
Wars have at least two sides and it can be assumed that realists will be citizens of all countries involved. The Church of Reality considers blind faith in one's nation to be a bad thing because it will lead to Realists fighting against Realists. In theory if Realists think things through and use the Sacred Principles as guidance, then most realists of all countries should agree in the right path of action. A Realist's first duty is to the Church of Reality in its quest to promote the Sacred Principles. If a Realist is a citizen of a criminal nation, it is the duty of the Realist to act against the criminal causes of their own government.
Here are some principles that a Realist should consider when evaluation one's country's conduct and to determine if war is justified:
- Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Religious Wars - The Church of Reality declares that these wars are intrinsically wrong. Slaughtering people because of their beliefs or ethnic or genetic heritage is morally wrong. Such wars are automatically considered to be unjust and offensive to our belief system.
- War Crimes - Although war is in part about killing lots of people, not all killing in war is equal and justified. The Church of Reality recognizes the Geneva Convention as a basis for international wartime law. If your nation questions if this law applies to them or if it applies to the treatment of a specific enemy, then it is a strong indicator that their cause is unjust. Even if your nation approves it as legal according to their own laws, a Realist is required to think things through from a higher perspective and act according to the moral constructs of the Sacred Principles.
- Use of Banned Weapons - Realists should consider the nation's cause unjust if the nation uses internationally banned weapons or weapons that one can reasonably conclude should be banned weapons. Use of chemical, biological, incendiary, nuclear, fuel bombs, microwave, or other hideous weapons against civilian populations, makes the cause unjust. We are Realists and we do not do these sort of things.
- Torture - Torture is prohibited. You shall not engage in torture or support any military force or nation that practices torture. This includes the practice of shipping people to other nations where torture is practiced. One doesn't have to prove whether or not the nation is shipping people to other countries to be tortured. If torture is practiced or that it is commonly believed torture is practiced, then the Realists should assume torture is occurring and responds as if it were so. The practice of torture is barbaric and is automatically considered to be without justification.
Nations that have laws permitting torture or exceptions that allow torture under some circumstances such as intelligence agencies or officers, or who's laws provide immunity to torturers, or who fail to prosecute those who torture, or are otherwise known to allow torture to occur, is a nation that accepts torture. A Realist shall not further the cause of a nation that does not actively prohibit all forms of torture under all circumstances.
- Unprovoked Aggressor - In the rare cases that a war it justified, it would be to defend against an aggressor. One should never be the aggressor. A war is unjust if it appears that one's nation started the war for questionable reasons such as religion, ethnic cleansing, to take land, for oil, mineral, or other resources, or for political gain. Being on the side that started the war raises the level of scrutiny as to the war's justification. Likewise if you are a citizen of the nation that is invade, the level of scrutiny is lowered.
- Terrorism - Nations that commit terrorism or that sponsor terrorists who target civilian, are immoral and unjust.
- Imprisonment Without Trial - Nations that allow people to be imprisoned without trial or due process rights, and where individuals can be held merely by being accused of a crime, are inherently unjust. If your country ignores it's own laws or doesn't have habeas corpus laws that protect all individuals in custody, then it is very likely that the cause for war is unjust. Holding people in prison without being charged with a crime or due process of law is immoral.
- Secret Prisons - A nation that has a network of secret prisons or that ships people off to other nations where they are held in secret, are nations with suspect cause. Secret prisons are morally wrong.
- Rape - Nations that allow rape either explicitly or through silently allowing it to occur as part of punishment or interrogation, are immoral and unjust. This is especially true of nations that order women raped as punishment for crimes.
- Public Executions - Nations that execute people in public are immoral and unjust nations.
- Death Penalty - Nations that execute people for crimes other than the most serious of murders are immoral and unjust, especially the execution of women for sexually related crimes.
- Stoning / Cruelty - Nations that execute people by stoning or other means of cruel punishment are immoral and unjust.
- Balsphemy - Nations that criminalize speaking out against religious beliefs are immoral and unjust.
- Forced Patriotism / Political Repression - Nations that criminalize political speech or imprison people for failing to participate in patriotic symbolism are immoral and unjust.
- Assassination - Nations that condone assassination, either of it's own people or leaders of other nations, are immoral and unjust. Possible exception in the case the majority of nations agree that a tyrant is to be taken out.
Nations are judged on what they do, not what they claim they are supposed to do. A nation might have progressive laws but routinely ignore the laws. In the Church of Reality it's not what you believe in, it's what you do. What a nation actually does reflects what they believe in.
The above tests are examples of the kinds of issues that Realists are to consider in fulfilling their religious requirement to determine if a war is justified or not. One is required to take everything into consideration to weigh the circumstances objectively and determine the best course to achieve Peace. It is our duty to see through the fog of war and to take a leadership role to move the situation back to peace. We are a religion of wisdom and it is up to us to see the big picture and to craft a course of action that is likely to resolve the conflict and end the bloodshed.
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