At the gym yesterday I finally finished watching Prince of Peace/God of War on my Zune.
The documentary shares the views of folks who subscribe to Christian pacifism and those who subscribe to the Christian Just War Theory. I think it became clear which side the producer/director came to side with, but I think both sides were presented fairly.
Towards the end of the movie there’s a great contrast. Is violence justified at any time? (starts at 52:10) Is there a need for violence over Love Your Enemy?
At 55:42 in the movie Dr. Victor Shepherd, Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto, ON, says he wants to be a pacifist with all his heart until he hears of the horrors of the holocaust and the horrors of those being oppressed around the world. And I was agreeing that yeah, that makes sense. I think we should be on the side of the oppressed and the hurting. We should be willing to stand up for them.
But then at 56:41 Dr. Tony Campolo, Professor at Eastern University at St. Davids, PA, shares a story that almost brought me to tears on my exercise bike.
Despite Bulgaria’s alliance with Germany in World War II, the leader of the Orthodox church in Bulgaria comes walking up to a train station in the middle of the night, where countless numbers of Jews were waiting to be taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The leader of the church is followed by 300 members of his church.
He walks to the fenced in area where the Jews are being kept and the guards tell him, “Father you’re not allowed in there.” He laughs and brushes their machine guns aside as he walks into the gated area. The Jews gathered around him, waiting to see what the Christian leader in Bulgaria would say in their moment of despair.
As they cried and begged for help the leader of the Bulgarian church quoted a simple verse from Ruth.
Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. (Ruth 1:16)
The Jews cheered. The Christians outside the fenced in area cheered. The noise became so loud that it woke up everyone in the community and they came to the train station and heard the news. Quickly the hundreds grew to thousands.
The Nazi soldiers suddenly realized there was no way they could overcome everyone there. There was no way they’d be able to get away with carting off the Jews to the concentration camps. The train left a short time later with none of the Jews on board and never returned again. And after that point, no Jews from Bulgaria were taken to a concentration camp of any sort.
“Because the Church of Jesus Christ boldly stood up and said we’re not going to kill the enemy, we’re going to identify with the suffering and suffer with them. This is Jesus’ way.”
Shaun Groves has an amazing blog. If you’re not follow it – you should be. Monday he wrote a post that shook me. It took my ideas of pacifism and really made me rethink my ideas — and more importantly God’s ideas.
“I’m a pacifist because I’m a violent son of a bitch.”
What in the world?
Let’s look at that again….
“I’m a pacifist because I’m a violent son of a bitch.”
OK. Really, its OK to go back and read that a couple more times. Think on it. Chew on it. Wrestle with it.
Shaun writes that while he doesn’t particularly care for his choice of words but he’s a big fan of Stanley’s honesty.
His brief explanation gets directly to one of the most convincing (at least for me) reasons I, a follower of Christ, must embrace non-violence: I am, by nature, violent.
He continues…
I am sinful so I must embrace virtue.
To be more specific…
I lust after women who are not my wife, so I must embrace monogamy.
I covet your cell phone and your neighborhood and your jeans, so I must embrace simplicity.
I lie to get a laugh or make my life easier, so I must embrace honesty.
I think I’m smarter than you, so I must embrace humility.
I need to be in control, so I must embrace submission.
I’m a loner, so I must embrace community.
I want to ruin your name, so I must embrace forgiveness.
I want to be served, so I must embrace service.
And I want to harm when I’m harmed, so I must embrace non-violence.
As Christians aren’t we called to put away the selfish and old way of doing things? Aren’t we called to take part in this upside down Kingdom of God?
Isn’t the Kingdom of God really about the great reversal? Where the last will be first and the first will be last? Isn’t the Kingdom of God really about serving the meek and loving our enemies — no matter how many times they’ve hurt us or ignored us in the past?
The sinful nature of mankind is often cited in arguments against Christian non-violence. Violence, it’s said, is sometimes necessary to slow or even stop sin’s march across the world.
Mankind’s nature? What about my own?
Non-violence stops my sinful nature’s march from within me into the world. Into your world.
