Christian Response to ISIS a Love-Hate Approach?

How should Christians respond to ISIS? A panel discussion at Regent University addressed that topic Tuesday.

Speakers included the editors and publishers of Providence: A Journal of Christianity and American Foreign Policy. The title of their lecture was "Evil, Compassion and ISIS."

"Christians should respond to ISIS I think in two ways: We should acknowledge that they are human beings -- that in some way, even though it may surprise us, they are loved by God; they were created by Him," Robert Nicholson, Providence publisher and president of The Philos Project, told CBN News.

"But at the same time, as we're feeling that sort of sympathy, that compassion, we should be absolutely against the evil that they're doing, just like we should be against any evildoers," he continued.

"God hates evil; He calls us to hate evil as well, and we should be supportive of our state, our country, as that country seeks to destroy that evil and to eradicate it, to protect those who are suffering under their hand," he said.

Nicholson believes the American Church should speak out in thoughtful and constructive ways, but also in forceful ways about ISIS and other terror groups.

He said Americans in general have some responsibility to intervene and help those who are suffering.

"A lot of it has to do with the roles of church and the roles of state and really emphasizing the point that God not only tolerates states to keep order and to punish evil -- evils like ISIS and terrorists around the world -- but God actually ordained the state to do this job, and that we as Christians should be supporting the state," Nicholson said.

"We as Christians who are involved in state affairs should be executing the policies of the state, doing so in a way that's Christian, that's resonant with our faith and with Christian orthodoxy," he continued.

"Christians can fight in love... while we can't eradicate evil in history, we can eradicate evils, certain evils, one at a time," Marc LiVecche, managing editor of Providence, told CBN News. "The distance between the Christian church and the state, while real, isn't absolute... the Church has a role to play even in matters of statecraft and foreign policy."

LiVecche said he's frustrated by how the Church is responding these days to ISIS and other terror organizations.

"Christian understanding of love is becoming increasingly sentimental. It's become maudlin," he said. "We think that love can have nothing to do with the use of force, with anything harsh, with anything overbearing."

"We think that the exercise of, particularly the coercive power, is problematic and is un-Christian. And we either move toward pacifism, or we move toward a kind of neo-isolationism that says the problems are overwhelming; we should simply retract and take care of our own," LiVecche continued.

"Sometimes you hear that in our churches today -- this kind of moral equivalence that anyone involved in conflict is somehow a dirty-dog sinner," Dr. Eric Patterson, dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University, told CBN News.

"And that's not true," he said. "Many, many Christians throughout the years have been called to stand up for justice and for what is right."