UNCREDIBLE: Broke Out
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SPRING 201620162016 ••• NUMBER 333 A JOURNALJOURNALJOURNAL OFOFOF CHRISTIANITYCHRISTIANITYCHRISTIANITY &&& AMERICANAMERICANAMERICAN FOREIGNFOREIGNFOREIGN POLICYPOLICYPOLICY THE MORALMORAL UNDERPINNINGSUNDERPINNINGS OFOF JUSTJUST RETRIBUTION:RETRIBUTION: JUSTICE && CHARITYCHARITY ININ SYMBIOSISSYMBIOSIS BY JJ DDARYL CCHARLES MORAL MULTILATERALISM:MULTILATERALISM: SPONSORED BYBYBY THE OBAMAOBAMA DOCTRINE’SDOCTRINE’S CHRISTIANCHRISTIAN REALISMREALISM BY MMATT NN GGOBUSH SPRING SPRING SPRING UNCREDIBLE: OBAMA && THETHE ENDEND OFOF AMERICANAMERICAN POWERPOWER 2016 2016 2016 BY MMARC LLIIVECCHE • • • ALSO:: MMARK TTOOLEY ON TTRUMP && THE INADEQUACYINADEQUACY OF “A“AMERICA FFIRSTIRST”” •• BBRIAN AAUTEN ON JUSTJUST NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER SURVEILLANCESURVEILLANCE •• FFREDERICK DDOUGLAS ON CHOOSING RIGHT FROM WRONG •• AANDREW T.T. WWALKER ON A BBAPTIST VIEW OF WOMEN ININ WAR •• AAUGUST LLANDMESSER FOLDS HIS ARMS •• AALAN DDOWD REFLECTS ON THE NATION STATESTATE && INTERNATIONALINTERNATIONAL ORDER •• SSUSANNAH BBLACK && THE CCALIPHATE •• GENERAL GGEORGE MMARSHALL’’SS VISION FOR AAMERICA •• GGIDEONIDEON SSTRAUSS ON POLITICAL HOPE FOR 3 3 3 AFRICA •• RROBERT NNICHOLSONICHOLSON ON IISLAMSLAM,, CCHRISTIANITY,, && THE END OF PPALESTINE Providence_spring16_final_cover_spine.inddProvidence_spring16_final_cover_spine.indd 111 5/31/165/31/16 8:368:368:36 AMAMAM It is worth touching on two men who had killed him to a and puts us instead on a foot- points. First, and surprisingly parley, and put to them the case ing for war. Hardheaded realism perhaps, Dayan does not call that they would be better off be- must always trump soft-hearted for vengeance. This is because, ing a part of Israel than of Syria. sentiment. in part, Dayan disciplines his This petition was received by PROVIDENCE anger by recognizing Israel’s those Druze tribal warriors as Jewish strength, for Dayan, was SPRING 2016 | NUMBER 3 enemies as fellow human be- a shock—blood-for-blood was found first in a willingness to ings and because he concedes their eternal law and, Dayan yield, when yielding serves the FEATURES intelligible cause for Jewish knew, “they could not believe long-term good of all. “We must hatred by the Arabs. A man of that one whose brother had be strong enough to see the oth- profound compassion, Dayan, been shot down only days earlier er fellow’s side,” he urged, “to J. DARYL CHARLES the paradigmatic Jewish war- could extend the hand of ami- act with clemency, to extend rior, one whose name is counted ty to those who had taken that the hand of friendship.” At the THE MORAL UNDERPINNINGS OF with Joshua, David, and Gide- brave man’s life.” But extend same time, our enemy’s impla- on, was a man who warred for the hand Dayan did, and “those cability means our open hand JUST RETRIBUTION: the sake of peace, and absent men became my friends.” If I’m must sometimes be closed to a 04 implacable hate. Born in the right, this is what enemy-love fist. A friend who has long served JUSTICE & CHARITY IN SYMBIOSIS land, Dayan’s disposition was looks like. with courage and decency in the surely assisted by a childhood Israeli Defense Force comment- At the same time, point two, to spent among Arab neighbors. ed that, in the tough neighbor- acknowledge the reality of ene- His enemies had faces he knew. hood in which Israel resides, Bedouin children were his ear- my-love is to acknowledge the MATT N. GOBUSH lambs are eaten with pita and ly playmates. He boasted of his reality of an enemy. Because the hummus—they do not lie down deep respect and affection for his Arabs hate the Jews, Dayan in- MORAL MULTILATERALISM: with the wolves. And so strength Arab friends. “We took our lunch sisted the Jews cannot ignore then, in the last resort, must take THE OBAMA DOCTRINE’S CHRISTIAN REALISM together among the furrows,” he their hatred. We can clamor on the guise of Samson, and goes 18 said, “I danced at their weddings for peace all we want, he says, forth to break apart the strong- and they danced at mine.” At the but our adversaries’ intentions same time, those very Bedouin will have much to say regard- holds of our adversaries. playmates, in occasional mo- ing whether our longing is re- Sixty years ago Moshe Dayan ments of strife between Jews quited. When those intentions reminded us that strength is a MARC LIVECCHE and Arabs, sometimes became are manifest in the murder his enemies and vicious fights and mutilation of Israelis, it is two-edged gift. It is as true today UNCREDIBLE: broke out. Dayan always sought clear that Jewish ears must be as it was sixty years ago. OBAMA & THE END OF AMERICAN POWER reconciliation. stopped up against those who call for Jewish peace. Aspira- Marc LiVecche, PhD, is man- 30 Indeed, during the War of Inde- tions for an end to conflict can aging editor of Providence. pendence, Dayan’s own broth- be enervating and lull us away The text of Dayan’s eulogy is taken from the translation by Mitch Ginsburg er was killed by Syrian Druzes. from our senses. Dayan’s eulogy found at The Times of Israel, April 28th, Nevertheless, Dayan called the jolts us from our somnambulism 2016. Cover Image: Justice & Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime by Pierre-Paul Prud’hon, 1805-06. A corpse is sprawled across the ground while his murderer flees with his victim’s belongings. Above him, personifications of justice and vengeance are in pursuit. Vengeance illuminates the villain while it is justice, scales in hand, that will strike the retributive blow. Within the Christian intellectual tradition, Christian realism affirms that justice and retribution act in unison. Source: J. Paul Getty Museum, via Wikipedia Commons. 87 Providence_spring16_final_pages.indd 87 5/31/16 7:25 PM PUBLISHERS MARK TOOLEY ROBERT NICHOLSON EDITOR MARK TOOLEY MANAGING EDITOR ESSAYS MARC LIVECCHE BRIAN AUTEN DEPUTY EDITOR JUST INTELLIGENCE, MARK MELTON JUST SURVEILLANCE, & THE LEAST INTRUSIVE STANDARD 40 SENIOR EDITORS KEITH PAVLISCHEK JOSEPH LOCONTE AndREW T. WALKER SOUTHERN BAPTISTS, GENDER ASSOCIATE EDITOR IDEOLOGY, & FEMALE COMBATANTS 48 SUSANNAH BLACK GIDEON STRAUSS CONTRIBUTING EDITORS MARK AMSTUTZ IS THERE HOPE FOR AFRICA? 54 FRED BARNES NIGEL BIGGAR SUSAnnAH BLACK PAUL COYER CALIPHATE & COSMOPOLIS 58 MICHAEL CROMARTIE DEAN CURRY THOMAS FARR ROBERT NICHOLSON MARY HABECK REBECCAH HEINRICHS ISLAM, CHRISTIANS, & THE END WILL INBODEN OF PALESTINE 62 JAMES TURNER JOHNSON HERB LONDON TIMOTHY MALLARD MARK TOOLEY PAUL MARSHALL DONALD TRUMP & THE LOST ART OF FAITH MCDONNELL WALTER RUSSELL MEAD NIEBUHRIAN STATECRAFT 68 PAUL MILLER JOSHUA MITCHELL ALAN DOWD LUKE MOON A BANNER FOR THE NATIONS: ERIC PAttERSON MACKUBIN THOMAS OWENS PRESERVING INTERNATIONAL ORDER GREG THORNBURY & THE NATION-STATE SYSTEM 72 DESIGN & LAYOUT JA COMMUNICATIONS PRINTED BY LINEMARK REVIEWS BASIC SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE $28 FOR A YEAR, FOUR ISSUES. GERALD R. MCDERMOTT STUDENT RATES AVAILABLE. FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: CHOOSING TO MISREAD? 78 [email protected] MARK MELTON WEBSITE: THE RUSSIAN PUZZLE 82 PROVIDENCEMAG.COM MARC LIVEccHE ISSN MOSHE DAYAN’S EULOGY 24713511 FOR ROI ROTBERG 85 Justice & Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime by Pierre-Paul Prud’hon, 1805 – 1806. A murderer flees with his victim’s belongings in his arms. Above him, Divine Vengeance illuminates the villain as Divine Justice, sword in hand, pursues him. Prud’hon made this study for a monumental painting destined to hang behind the judges’ bench in the criminal courtroom of the Palace of Justice in Paris. Source: J. Paul Getty Museum. 4 Providence_spring16_final_pages.indd 4 5/31/16 7:25 PM FEATURE THE MORAL UNDERPINNINGS OF JUST RETRIBUTION: JUSTICE & CHARITY IN SYMBIOSIS J. DaryL CHarLes hree generations ago Dorothy Sayers chided the Chris- Ttian church for its indifference toward theological foundations. The result of this deficiency, she lamented, was a church devoid of substance. Ethically, as she saw it, this dearth ended up paring “the claws of the Lion of Judah.”1 It is difficult to understate Sayers’ burden, by professional (religious) ethicists as well as for if the church’s condition in her day was at the popular level. unhealthy, in our own it may well be anemic. But this essay concerns itself neither with This opposition, of course, is by no means ecclesiology nor formal theology per se. Its confined to religious thought. The notion of burden, rather, is to identify a key deficiency retribution or punishment,2 which is foun- in the way that much of the Christian commu- dational to any construal of justice, has long nity thinks about ethics and ethical issues. It been the scourge of social science. For several is concerned to address the perceived opposi- generations, social scientists (including not tion between—when not the outright divorce a few criminologists) have viewed punish- of—justice and charity. This perceived tension ment in general as detrimental to human can be measured both in the literature written beings. Alas, it was only a matter of time 5 Providence_spring16_final_pages.indd 5 5/31/16 7:25 PM before religious ethicists and theologians responsible social policy. Thus, we may speak began imbibing this prejudice and promoting of punishment or moral retribution, properly it—in both academic and popular discourse. construed, as that which is just and not at odds with charity, properly construed. Part of the task, then, of serious Christian thinkers, for whom culture and the common I begin with an argument for the unity and social good are to be taken seriously, is to symbiosis of justice and charity on the basis of develop the distinction between retribution— theological and moral-philosophical assump- which is an intrinsically moral entity and tions rooted in the historic Christian tradition which is lodged at the heart of justice—and and natural law. Against this proposal, I ex- revenge or retaliation. We shall develop this amine influential voices that have contribut- important distinction later in the essay, but ed in substantial ways to posing opposition suffice it to say that a failure to understand between justice and charity.