The first duty of Realists is to uphold the Sacred Principles of the Church of Reality.

The first duty of Realists is to uphold the Sacred Principles of the Church of Reality. This duty takes precedent over loyalty to your country, your military unit, your commanding officer. If the cause of war is just, you are at best a team member fighting together with non-realists towards a common higher goal. To this end Realists should set a shining example and strive for positions of leadership in the military unit in which they are fighting. A Realist who practices Realism should be in a position to realistically assess the situation and to be able to help make the realistic choices in how to best execute the war and to build the peace after the war.

If the cause is a just cause, then the Realist would be the ultimate war asset in order to maintain intellectual discipline to make the right decision and positively affect the outcome of the struggle. The Realist should set an example of personal behavior and inspire his fellow soldiers to be smart and wise and to fight efficiently and effectively and to not degenerate into committing atrocities. The Realists sees into the future and envisions the end of the war and to building of the peace and to integrating the enemy into the world's society as a productive peaceful member.

The Church of Reality doesn't prohibit its members from going to fight in a war. It does however prohibit its members from fighting in an unjust war - and it requires its members to make a personal determination if the war they are about to participate in is just or not. Members who do participate are required to adhere to a code of moral conduct that puts the Sacred Principles ahead of everything else and are required to refuse to participate in anything that is clearly immoral and to actively resists orders of superior officers who would lead troops down the wrong path. Realists are expected to think for themselves and to make wise choices in times of war.

The best way to win a war is to make sure war never happens in the first place. To that extent Realists are the first soldiers on the battlefield to make sure that the enemy never becomes the enemy in the first place. We are the ones who fight the war so that the war never needs to be fought. Our duty to the Principle of Positive Evolution is to move forward into a world where war is not part of the human experience.

To this end the Realist is involved in peace organizations who's charter is to avoid war from happening in the first place. This activity to resolve conflicts and to maintain the peace is the front line to winning war. The biggest military victories are not the ones that are won on the field of battle - but the ones that make sure we never end up in battle in the first place.

We put unjust wars first because most wars are unjust. War mentality relies heavily on using the human herd instinct to shame the soldier into fighting the unjust war. One is told that they should be a brave soldier and fight for some cause that is in fact a bullshit cause. They are promised glory and honor and that if they die, then their memory and their families will be attributed with greatness because the honorable brave soldier gave his live for the supposedly noble cause. But often the noble cause is just some oil company trying to set up an unelected puppet president in order to steal oil from a less powerful group of people.

The Realist is required to think things through and to determine as best he can what the truth is and if the war is unjust, to resist the war and to refuse to participate in it. In an unjust war the Realist is expected to fight against the war effort - to protest - and to make the truth known to as many people as possible.

Nations of the world, listen up! The Church of Reality hereby refuses to further your military cause unless we determine it is in the best interest of the advancement of humanity.

We are one planet, We are all here together. It is our duty to figure out how to live in peace and to do what it takes to make that happen.

1. Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Religious Wars - The Church of Reality declares that these wars are intrinsically wrong. Slaughtering people because of their beliefs or ethnic or genetic heritage is morally wrong. Such wars are automatically considered to be unjust and offensive to our belief system.


2. War Crimes - Although war is in part about killing lots of people, not all killing in war is equal and justified. The Church of Reality recognizes the Geneva Convention as a basis for international wartime law. If your nation questions if this law applies to them or if it applies to the treatment of a specific enemy, then it is a strong indicator that their cause is unjust. Even if your nation approves it as legal according to their own laws, a Realist is required to think things through from a higher perspective and act according to the moral constructs of the Sacred Principles.


3. Use of Banned Weapons - Realists should consider the nation's cause unjust if the nation uses internationally banned weapons or weapons that one can reasonably conclude should be banned weapons. Use of chemical, biological, incendiary, nuclear, fuel bombs, microwave, or other hideous weapons against civilian populations, makes the cause unjust. We are Realists and we do not do these sort of things.


4. Torture - Torture is prohibited. You shall not engage in torture or support any military force or nation that practices torture. This includes the practice of shipping people to other nations where torture is practiced. One doesn't have to prove whether or not the nation is shipping people to other countries to be tortured. If torture is practiced or that it is commonly believed torture is practiced, then the Realists should assume torture is occurring and responds as if it were so. The practice of torture is barbaric and is automatically considered to be without justification.
   
   Nations that have laws permitting torture or exceptions that allow torture under some circumstances such as intelligence agencies or officers, or who's laws provide immunity to torturers, or who fail to prosecute those who torture, or are otherwise known to allow torture to occur, is a nation that accepts torture. A Realist shall not further the cause of a nation that does not actively prohibit all forms of torture under all circumstances.


5. Unprovoked Aggressor - In the rare cases that a war it justified, it would be to defend against an aggressor. One should never be the aggressor. A war is unjust if it appears that one's nation started the war for questionable reasons such as religion, ethnic cleansing, to take land, for oil, mineral, or other resources, or for political gain. Being on the side that started the war raises the level of scrutiny as to the war's justification. Likewise if you are a citizen of the nation that is invade, the level of scrutiny is lowered.


6. Terrorism - Nations that commit terrorism or that sponsor terrorists who target civilian, are immoral and unjust.


7. Imprisonment Without Trial - Nations that allow people to be imprisoned without trial or due process rights, and where individuals can be held merely by being accused of a crime, are inherently unjust. If your country ignores it's own laws or doesn't have habeas corpus laws that protect all individuals in custody, then it is very likely that the cause for war is unjust. Holding people in prison without being charged with a crime or due process of law is immoral.


8. Secret Prisons - A nation that has a network of secret prisons or that ships people off to other nations where they are held in secret, are nations with suspect cause. Secret prisons are morally wrong.


9. Rape - Nations that allow rape either explicitly or through silently allowing it to occur as part of punishment or interrogation, are immoral and unjust. This is especially true of nations that order women raped as punishment for crimes.


10. Public Executions - Nations that execute people in public are immoral and unjust nations.


11. Death Penalty - Nations that execute people for crimes other than the most serious of murders are immoral and unjust, especially the execution of women for sexually related crimes.


12. Stoning / Cruelty - Nations that execute people by stoning or other means of cruel punishment are immoral and unjust.


13. Balsphemy - Nations that criminalize speaking out against religious beliefs are immoral and unjust.


14. Forced Patriotism / Political Repression - Nations that criminalize political speech or imprison people for failing to participate in patriotic symbolism are immoral and unjust.


15. Assassination - Nations that condone assassination, either of it's own people or leaders of other nations, are immoral and unjust. Possible exception in the case the majority of nations agree that a tyrant is to be taken out.

This list shall not be construed by any military or government as church law in order to compel military service. Church law is that the individual decides based upon the circumstances of the war and his individual beliefs as to how he can best serve the cause of peace.

1. A civil war has broken out in Bosnia. Serbs, Croats, and Muslims are slaughtering each other over old religious and ethnic issues dating back over centuries. The United Nations, worried that this conflict will spread to neighboring countries, has voted to send in a multinational peacekeeping force in an attempt to end the violence. Your country has called on you to serve in that peacekeeping force. This would tend to be a just war because it is a military action to stop an existing war.


2. Adolf Hitler has invaded Poland and an underground resistance force has formed to repel the invading Nazis who are hauling off trainloads of people to death camps to be tortured and executed. In a case like this it would be highly recommended that the Realist act in any way, including killing people, in order to undermine the invading force. When you are defending against an invading tyrant who is committing atrocities, it is just and moral to stop them.
   
   Conversely, if you are a German citizen and you are called upon by Hitler to participate in the atrocities, then it is moral and just to refuse to serve and act against your nation's cause to stop the insanity.


3. You are a citizen of Iraq and the United States has overthrown your brutal dictator who was using nerve gas against civilian populations, executed political dissidents, and maintained prisons where people are tortured, raped, and executed. The United Stated however after "liberating" you uses phosphorus shells against civilian targets, runs a prison allowing torture and murder to occur, and is basically there to install a fascist puppet government run by oil executives. You are called upon to be part of an insurgency to repel the liberating/invading force.
   
   In a situation like this a Realist has a right to seek to free the nation from all invaders. The Realist is thankful that the current brutal dictator was removed but is not obligated to accept a puppet government installed by the liberators. So it may be moral to take action against the same people who overthrew your dictator. However the slaughtering of civilians to accomplish this would not likely be justified.


4. You are a member of the United States National Guard and you joined in times of peace and took a military oath. During your service a new president takes power and he initiates a war based upon lies and without United Nations support, invades Iraq, overthrows a brutal dictator, installs a puppet government, and commits atrocities against the civilian population using banned phosphorus shells, setting up a network of secret prisons where people are tortured and executed.
   
   As a member of the Guard you are ordered to Iraq to be part of this unjust cause. What is a Realist to do? In this situation it would be immoral to participate in a cause that is clearly wrong to objective observers. A Realist would not willingly participate in such a situation. The oath to the military would be invalidated because the military changed its mission from a just cause to an unjust cause and the Realist has a higher commitment to the Sacred Principles to be on the right side of justice. Thus the Realist's religious commitment would take precedence to the commitment to the nation state.