David your take on this topic is interesting, like I said before I read your blog I will get back to you later with scripture. I do have a few comments, and I am still in the process of refining what I am going to put on the wiki. First we must remember that in order to take care of those who are being oppressed we do not need to fight (Christ did not fight the Roman solders in order to feed the five thousand). Secondly our fight is not with flesh and bones it is with the spirit world. In loving those people who are our enemies and those who oppress others we plant seeds to the witness of Christ, thus fighting the real battle. In other words we take care of both the oppressed and the oppressor because they are both lost, both are people who need the forgiving love of Christ. To say that if we do not act when people are being oppressed is not an act of love is true, the way in which we choose to act is the key difference between Christians and non-Christians. I truly believe that if Christians throughout the world lived a life for Christ and His kingdom, the question of whether or not we go to war over oppression would not even be at hand. The Ethic that Christ set before us in the sermon on the mount was not one which would allow for an American way of life, (I take care of me and mine, and you take care of you and yours). If we lived out the words spoken by Christ our circumstance would be different, but because we do not we have the question of should we go to war looming. The answer in scripture I believe was then, and is now a resounding no. (I do differentiate between nations at war and whether or not we as Christians should be in the military - if the leadership of a nation is professing to be Christian they should make the desision to follow Christ's words and not go to war or not be in government. God will use the governments that He has set up for His purposes, and that is His vengeance, but our duty as Christ's followers is to do what He has said as God.) We should talk later about the Old Testament wars, I have a little bit different perspective than most I think.