A few years ago some friends and I during an international Peace conference hosted by Marquette University watched an academy award nominated documentary film called Soldiers of Conscience. Although it was made in 2008 during the Iraq war, with the cooperation of the U.S. military the film revealed something few Americans knew about, the military teaches reflexive killing, Killing without Conscience. One friend purchased a copy that night and since that time we have purchased a few more copies. We have shown the film at a number of private events but cannot get the film shown again at Marquette University.
The Center for Peacemaking at Marquette will not show it as well as the Theology Department at Marquette University. The film shows the Army and the conscience objectors view of killing. Individual students, teachers and administrators at Marquette who have seen it say it is a great movie or our quiet on their views yet none will sponsor a showing of the film on campus.
Why the censorship of this film on a Jesuit Catholic campus when it has been shown on public television, at schools all over the USA, at military sites and is now is available free on YouTube? If you watch the film I think the answer is simple. There is a scene in the film from a ROTC class at a university, like Marquette University, where the reflexive killing is explained to the students. The Catholic West Point ethics teacher who narrates a good part of the film might believe it is alright to kill human without conscience but the Catholic faith condemns it. The Catholic Catechism states: “The citizen is obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order, to the fundamental rights of persons or the teachings of the Gospel. Refusing obedience to civil authorities, when their demands are contrary to those of an upright conscience, finds its justification in the distinction between serving God and serving the political community.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2242).
When meeting with the President, after a sit-in, at his office I gave the President of Marquette my copy of the film and asked him if he would each it. He said he would and probably did. The film was returned without any comment. One teacher I know shows it to his class but no group will dare show it on campus.
In last night’s posting, Power of Fear or Love we quoted Gandhi as saying “Power is of two kinds, One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love.” M.K. Gandhi CWMG, Vol. XXV, p. 563 The failure to show the film is fear of punishment. The film, like the leaflets we give out today again to over 120 plus students in 20 minutes, simply states a bit of the truth of why Marquette hosts the ROTC training for all branches of humanity. Speaking truth to power is an act of love. Marquette officials cannot allow the showing of the film “Soldiers of Conscience” on campus because Marquette fears the truth of what it teaches.
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