The Claims of Conscience

Abstract

Abstract Two traditions spoke directly to the moral stakes of colonial war: Christianity and humanitarianism. While some churches, missionary groups, and aid organizations raised their voices against violence, most found reasons to keep quiet and keep working with the state. For Anglican and Quaker institutionalists, deference and discretion overrode the claims of conscience. The logic of casuistry—applying ostensibly universal principles to murky real-world cases, spinning out the myriad consequences of alternative choices, and accepting the necessity of accommodation with an imperfect world—offered an ethically respectable alibi for inaction across denominational lines. What kept the British Red Cross quiet in the face of counterinsurgency’s horrors was not the humanitarian principle of neutrality but rather the nationalist outlook of the organization, which behaved in fundamental ways as an arm of the British state.