2008 Woodie Awards
Professor, class discuss war in Iraq on PBS
Courtney Kohloff
Issue date: 3/30/06 Section: News
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Professor Stiltner, in his eight years as associate professor of Religious studies, teaches numerous ethics courses, and was asked to voice his opinion on national television on his feelings towards war and just war in Iraq. Recognized for his research concerning issues of war and peace for the past three years, Professor Stiltner was approached by PBS with a chance to voice his opinions and views publicly.
The show, Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, is a syndicated PBS program that is based out of Washington D.C. For the segment featuring Professor Stiltner, PBS visited the SHU campus and first interviewed Stiltner privately, then interviewed his Faith & Justice class to capture student's opinions on the war as well.
Throughout the personal interview, Professor Stiltner discussed issues such as his feelings at the beginning of the war opposed to his feelings three years later. Although he was in favor of war at first, his feelings on the issue definitely did not stay the same.
In the interview, aired on PBS, Stiltner says, "I've come to have misgivings and second thoughts. I think the just war criteria is a great framework for thinking about whether a country should, or must, go to war. Whether or not war can be just doesn't always mean that it's going to be absolutely right, without problems, but that it is urgent and necessary and the most ethical thing to do under the circumstances -- the lesser of the available evils."
"On the other hand, we do learn and change as time goes on. We learn more information, and so I think it's really appropriate with this complex war and long engagement to keep looking back at what we knew then, what we know now, and asking whether we'd have made the same decisions. I personally came to the position that if I'd known more information, like much of the world, I would have made a different decision on my own personal opinions."
Throughout the segment, Professor Stiltner was also asked his opinion on issues such as the humanitarian concerns and the plight of Iraqi people, the criterion of proportionality and if it is ultimately fair to reassess the fact of his original views on the Iraqi war. One of the most intriguing questions asked was how Professor Stiltner would summarize the evolution of his thinking on the ethical issues. Because of his extensive knowledge and background research on this subject, Stiltner was definitely qualified to answer this question.