Land says jury out on whether war in Libya ‘just’

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) – Southern Baptists’ top public-policy expert
said April 2 that whether or not President Obama’s action in Libya
meets moral standards for a “just” war depends in part on approval by
Congress.

Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist
Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said on his weekly
radio program that military action underway against Libyan leader
Muammar Qaddafi would appear to meet many of the “just war” criteria
used by Christians for centuries that recognize war is sometimes a
necessary evil that can be moral if carefully waged to prevent a greater
evil.

But Land said the president thus far is “way off the
reservation” in at least one regard. In order for a war to be morally
just, he said, it must be fought with legitimate authority.