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Kelly Denton-Borhaug argues that references to combat deaths as “necessary sacrifices” are drawn from centuries of "Christian interpretation of the death of Jesus as required for salvation.” Warfare is transformed into a “sacred enterprise.”
Religious institutions perpetrating uncritical portrayals of Christ as the ultimate sacrifice for human salvation "feed into war culture.” The model of the heroic offering of oneself for the salvation of others (by Christ) inspires the view of those who die in battle as “redemptive sacrifices.”
Just as Christ died to save humanity, so does the soldier die to save the nation. By associating Christ’s death with the deaths of fallen warriors, wars become “sacred enterprises.” Jesus’ sacrifice “bleeds into and informs the meaning of the sacrifice of soldiers in war.”
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