ABSTRACT
The Lutheran social statement from 1995, “For Peace in God’s World,” declares that Lutherans draw from the principles of Just War in order to make decisions about “permitting recourse toward war in exceptional circumstances.” In this chapter, first I explore post-9/11 developments in U.S. policy concerning rhetoric of “the illegal/unlawful alien enemy combatant” from the George W. Bush administration. This language played an important role in legal justifications to isolate certain humans from the protections of longstanding treaties and federal/international law such as the Geneva Conventions and the Convention against Torture. It enabled mis-description of torture, justification of extraordinary rendition and dismissal of detainees’ right to legal recourse. Second, I place these developments within the wider frame of U.S. war-culture, and ask how the 1995 ELCA statement may assist Lutherans (with other citizens) in the important ethical task we have to increase awareness of our reality, and shape our response.
