Essay on Battle Against Injustice

Samantha Sonke
Applied Ethics PHI 324 AE
October 23, 2009
Dr. Scott Key

Battle Against Injustice
Final Exam
Gary Haugen recounts a case in the Philippines, the Lupao massacre; this case involved the military and a small remote village. The Philippine army 14th infantry battalion killed seventeen innocent villagers, included in the massacre were six children and two elderly. The army also wounded eight others. The country was at war with the New People's Army guerillas. There was a small group of guerillas that had spent the night in this remote village. And in the morning, as an army patrol approached, the guerillas shot and killed the leader of the patrol. Before reinforcements arrived, the guerillas escaped into the mountains. The army soldiers were angry and out of their frustration they gathered the villagers from their hiding places in the rice paddies and shot them down.
The soldiers reported the incident by lying about the situation and saying that they had killed eleven guerillas, captured five and wounded two more. The truth was that not one guerilla was shot or wounded, much less killed. The dead and wounded were well known villagers, their children, and grandparents. The army continued the lie, by later saying that the villagers were killed in the crossfire of the battle with the guerillas when the houses were destroyed by grenades.
The story from all of the survivors told a different version of the story. The physical evidence and the witness accounts showed that they were shot at close range, proving that this story was also a lie. "The army's provost marshal concluded, the villagers ‘were deliberately killed by the soldiers of the 14th IB’ (Haugen 133).
The biblical understanding of the importance of Covenant in this case is shown first through the Ten Commandments. Lewis Smedes in "Mere Morality" says the commandments are useful to look at morality because "of all the places where God's voice may be heard, they speak it most urgently and clearly" (Smedes 5). Smedes gives us four reasons that the commandments are important in our look at ethical/moral problems facing us today. First, "the commandments fit life's design.” God has given us the intellect to mold our lives to the "needs and visions of our time" (Smedes 7). Second, the "commandments tell us all what God expect us to do." Some of the commands are direct and abiding laws. The commandments were written to a specific group of people. However, it is clear that they can be translated "everyone ought” (Smedes 8).
Smedes further points out God’s role in our lives when he says, "The commander is the Creator; what he expects all of us to do fits what he created us to be. This is what I mean by an abiding moral law of life" (Smedes 8). He further points out that some of the commandments are abiding moral laws. "The identity of the commander: the God who commanded is the same as the God who created... and some of God's commands simply force us to see that they are for everyone on his earth" (Smedes 10). Next, Smedes tells us "the commandments tell us to do what we already know we should do." The commandments were not anything that would have surprised anyone. They were simply natural, common sense, moral laws. Finally, Smedes points to the fact "the commandments are the way of life in Christ" (Smedes 12). He goes on to point out that "Jesus... was not a moralist: he was a Savior... he came with grace and truth" (Smedes 13).
The commandments are the guide, but we have to come to the realization that "justice and love cover every conceivable human situation. They are the be-all and end-all of the moral life" (Smedes 15). We have to ask the following questions. First, "what does the commandment ask or forbid us to do? Second, why does the commandment ask or forbid us to do it? Then, how should we obey the commandment in the complex and ambiguous situations of our lives?" (Smedes 16).
God makes it clear in His

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