Email to Gregg Easterbrook

I listened with great interest to your presentation last night on CS Lewis and the Moral Imagination. As I understand your argument, you think Aslan fails as an allegory for Christ because Aslan never attempts to love his enemies, preferring instead to attack and kill them. Later, in your response to the question from the woman in the back, you asserted that we are nonetheless correct to confront and defeat the evil of Hitler and al Qaeda without recourse to negotiation.

It seems to me that a faith in Christ that is larger than a mustard seed would compel someone to love his enemies, even in the face of seemingly implacable hostility and even in the face of certain death. Given your view of the primacy of the Gospels, is the recourse to arms a failure of faith?

I wrestle with the question daily, especially given my profession as an officer in the Marine Corps. I see my service to the Corps as a troubling lack of faith since I trust not in Christ to deliver us from evil but instead take up arms myself. Daily, I pray for forgiveness. I would be interested in hearing your view of this.