• Mission Week's keynote panel discussion, "War, Peace and People of Faith," was held Thursday, Feb. 7 at the Varsity Theatre
• Four panelists discussed different views of how faith affects our decisions concerning conflicts and justice
• CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien moderated the discussion
• About 400 people attended

The keynote event of Mission Week 2008 kicked off Thursday at the Varsity Theatre with the panel discussion "War, Peace and People of Faith." Four panelists discussed different views about how faith influences decisions regarding conflicts and injustice.

Soledad O'Brien, news anchor and special correspondent for CNN, moderated the conversation by directing different questions to the panelists. About 400 people attended the event.

Before introducing O'Brien, University President the Rev. Robert A. Wild said the purpose of the discussion was not only to conform minds but also to influence people to take concrete action. He said after the discussion the audience should leave asking the question, "How does my faith compel me to work for justice?"

The Rev. John Dear, former executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter, spoke first out of the four panelists and supported nonviolent action.

"As a Christian, as a Jesuit, it all comes down to Jesus," Dear said.

Dear said there is no such thing as a just war, that the military should be disarmed and abolished everywhere on the planet. By following some of Mahatma Gandhi's principles, he said people need to become "nonviolent warriors" to make a difference by being active, engaged and confrontational.

He said one cannot be a good Catholic and support the Iraq War, which he believes is about stealing oil. At the end of the discussion, he even called upon Marquette to get rid of military training programs, such as the Reserve Officers' Training Corps.

Toward the end of the discussion, five people held up signs protesting Marquette's department of military science and ROTC programs. They passed out pamphlets after the event urging people to go online and sign a petition to get rid of military training at the university.

Panelist Nicholas Coddington, former senior U.S. Army intelligence officer with NATO's southern region, said a military is needed to protect social order.

"The Holy Father is telling us that we have a duty to protect the vulnerable," Coddington said. "We can sit here today because we have a military."

Coddington said he feels the Iraq War fulfills the requirements of a just war. Force can be necessary when the military can no longer stand and watch when evil is being committed, he said.

The Rev. Drew Christiansen, editor-in-chief of America magazine and former head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office of International Justice and Peace, and James Turner Johnson, professor of religion and associate member of the graduate department of political science at Rutgers University, took a more middle ground approach to the issue.

Christiansen said he believes in Christian nonviolence but that force may be used in a limited way. He said the military can be peacemakers and there can be a just war in the risk of imminent attack.

Christiansen said the United States has a short-term political culture that will resort to military force too quickly.

"We have to build a culture in the U.S. and elsewhere that will accept nonviolent initiatives in order for nonviolence to work," Christiansen said.

Johnson said one can be a good Catholic and support the war. He said Catholics are not bound together by their views on different social issues.

He said universities would be giving up a great deal by getting rid of ROTC programs becausemany ROTC members become outstanding, moral human beings.

O'Brien said the discussion went well and she was pleased to be asked to moderate it. She said the four different approaches did a good job illuminating the issues.

Throughout the discussion, audience members often applauded strong points made by their favorite speakers, despite O'Brien's requests to hold applause until the end.

The conversation became heated at times, and O'Brien said Wild made a great point by saying that a discussion like this could not happen in a lot of places.

"News stories are not black or white and people are not good or bad," O'Brien said. "One person's just war is indefensible to another person."