What I cannot understand is [the] sort of semipacifism you get nowadays which gives people the idea that though you have to fight, you ought to do it with a long face and as if you were ashamed of it. It is that feeling that robs lots of magnificent young Christians in the Services of something they have a right to, something which is the natural accompaniment of courage--a kind of gaity and wholeheartedness.
I have often thought to myself how it would have been if, when I served in the first world war, I and some young German had killed each other simultaneously and found ourselves together a moment after death. I cannot imagine that either of us would have felt any resentment or even any embarrassment. I think we might have laughed over it.
I think that phenomenon --of being robbed of a certain gaity and wholeheartedness-- applies to much more than military service; the culture where feelings trump all becomes ennervated of courage and gaity in confronting everyday situations too (so that instead of Hail, fellow, well met, all you hear is I'm so stressed). But I'll let that be. Let the idea sink in a moment and turn to the next page where Lewis writes:
. . . Even while we kill and punish we must try to feel about the enemy as we feel about ourselves--to wish that he were not bad, to hope that he may, in this world or another, be cured: in fact, to wish his good. That is what is meant in the Bible by loving him: wishing his good, not feeling fond of him nor saying he is nice when he is not.
For a nice article on the different ways Christians reason about war, try this, where I was reminded of these passages.
