Two lay Christians justify war against Iraq, Pope, churches do not support 'just war' argument

President Bush has been trying for months to make the case forusing force against Saddam Hussein, but he has won little supportfrom leaders of American and European churches.

Yet after heavy, perhaps unprecedented, church agitation and peaceappeals from the likes of the pope and archbishop of Canterbury, twoprominent lay Christians have emerged to provide intellectual supportfor those who believe war with Iraq would be moral.

Jean Bethke Elshtain, a Protestant professor of social ethics atthe University of Chicago Divinity School, and Michael Novak, a RomanCatholic philosopher at the American Enterprise Institute, eachopposed the Vietnam War.

But each has …