Mike Cosper, David French and War Crimes

The two men sat down to explain war crimes. They asked the wrong questions.

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Last month, Mike Cosper sat down with David French to talk about what’s happening in Gaza for Christianity Today’s “The Bulletin” podcast. Lots of you may remember Cosper as the guy behind the “Rise and Fall of Mars Hill” podcast. French is one of the New York Times’ “Reasonable Republican” op-ed writers. 

Both of these guys occupy a spiritually similar place in the Christian social zeitgeist. They earned their stripes by taking principled stands against some sacred subcultural cows. Cosper, of course, by interrogating what actually went down with the whole Mark Driscoll fiasco. French, by going after Trump. You might have some critiques of where these principled stands actually end up but it does take some real moxie to do what they’ve done.

That’s why I found their conversation around Gaza so frustrating. And, after listening to it a few times and sitting with it for a while, I think it might be instructive to really take a look at the contours of their chat, because it illuminates not only a lot of how the American debate around The Whole Israel-Palestine Thing goes wrong, but how partisan assumptions can derail even well-intended efforts to inform and explain.

The episode is titled “Hamas and the Laws of War.” The episode description reads: “Why war has certain rules and how Hamas is breaking them.” Sharp-eyed readers might be sensing a certain tilt to the framing here.