US Bishops' official identifies "ethic of fear"

Post September 11 2001 jitters are leading the US to embrace a 
formula of instilling fear of the United States as a protection 
from catastrophic attacks that echoes the philosophy of the brutal 
Roman emperor Caligula, acording to the director of the Office of
International Justice and Peace at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.  

Gerry Powers was speaking at a forum to evaluate the legacy of the 
use of "preventive force" in the recent US invasion of Iraq.  

He said: "While a doctrine of preventive war may derive in part from 
an ethic of responsibility - to protect ourselves and the world from 
catastrophic attacks - it also has elements of an ethic of fear."  

Powers acknowledged that that "ethic of fear" comes from the 
understandable preoccupation of Americans with their own fears 
and vulnerabilities in the face of global terrorism.  

"Let them hate us if they will, provided only that they fear us," 
he said, chacterising the new phenomenon.  

Powers was speaking at a colloquium on the ethical issues of 
pre-emptive war hosted last week by Wesley Theological Seminary 
and its Churches' Centre for Theology and Public Policy.  

"That formula might work for the New York Yankees, but it did not work 
for the Romans and it will not work for us," Powers said. "It will not 
work because it creates a cycle of fear that fuels a cycle of violence."  

SOURCE
Catholic News Service
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/briefs/cns/20030505.htm

LINKS
US Conference of Catholic Bishops: Social Development and World Peace
http://www.nccbuscc.org/sdwp/international/index.htm

Just War and Counterterrorism: Views from the Catholic Church (Faith 
and Reason Institute)    http://www.frinstitute.org/rrjustwar.html#GP

The Churches' Centre for Theology and Public Policy | "Ethical Issues 
Raised by Pre-emptive War" Colloquium    http://www.cctpp.org/

7 May 2003


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Source: Catholic News - http://www.cathnews.com/news/305/37.php

Cheers, Steve..

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