{"id":504,"date":"2005-11-22T00:14:35","date_gmt":"2005-11-22T00:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2005\/11\/why-i-am-a-pacifist.html"},"modified":"2005-11-22T00:14:35","modified_gmt":"2005-11-22T00:14:35","slug":"why-i-am-a-pacifist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2005\/11\/why-i-am-a-pacifist.html","title":{"rendered":"Why I am a pacifist"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following is a slightly-adapted set of questions I used for a discussion with two others at Willow Creek Community Church’s TruthQuest event last spring. My responsibility was to take the pacifist side. I took the tack of asking questions, and I include here the outline I used that night. Some of the questions are more penetrating than others, but together they ask (for me) the right questions. This is an outline, not a full discussion. In light of my last post on the Sermon on the Mount, I thought it might be time to put this issue on the table.
\nThe Christian, the State, and War<\/strong>
\nI will offer a series of ten questions below, but first the big overarching question:
\nHow does a Christian relate to the State? What is the relationship of the Church and the State?
\n\u201cState\u201d means the \u201cgovernmental system\u201d
\nRespect for each Christian view; the number of Christians who have died on each side. Three big views.
\n1.\tThe Roman and Reformed View: Progressive Realization of Christianity
\nImage: Leaven in a lump of bread
\nMerging of the Supreme Court and the Church
\nConstantine and Jonathan Edwards
\n2.\tThe Lutheran View: Two Realms\/Kingdoms
\nImage: parallel train tracks which Christians must daily cross
\nSupreme Court and the Church in two different locations
\n3.\tThe Anabaptist (Pacifist) View: Sectarian
\nImage: candles growing in number
\nThe Church is God\u2019s concern
\nMenno Simons (Mennonites) and John Howard Yoder
\nLet me return then to the flipside of the overarching question: how does the Christian relate to the State?
\nThe Fundamental Issue: Realpolitik vs. Christo-politik (Kingdom of God)
\nDare the Christian \u201ccompromise\u201d his\/her views in the \u201cpublic square\u201d?
\nIs it ever morally justifiable for a Christian to reduce his or her moral stands in the public square in order to gain a public hearing?
\nIs God\u2019s will for the \u201cChurch only\u201d or also for the \u201cState\u201d?
\nIs the Torah to replace the US Constitution?
\nDoes \u201clife in this world\u201d\/ “public square\u201d require compromise?
\nTen Questions from the Pacifist Side<\/strong>
\nBefore I get to my ten basic questions that, if answered one way, will lead to pacifism, let me suggest you read Karen Spears Zacharias, Hero Mama <\/em>[you can find it through Amazon on the bright green button to your right]. For a variety of reasons, this book stunned me with what happens when daddys die in war. When it gets down to the bottom, we are dealing with humans taking the lives of other humans. The rhetoric of war enables us to transform the language from death to other things, but the Christian will never forget the role death plays in war.
\nPacifism and Its Challenging Questions for the Evangelical Christian
\nA long, long Christian history; 2d Century AD; Reformation \u201cAnabaptists\u201d
\nNot just an individual view: a \u201ccommunal\u201d ethic
\nVarieties of \u201cpacifism\u201d (Yoder, Nevertheless<\/em>, 17 \u201ckinds\u201d)
\nFundamental theology: God is creator; Jesus is redeemer; Jesus is Lord; the mission of the Church is to \u201cevangelize\u201d the world; the final goal of God is shalom that is characterized as \u201clove for God\u201d and \u201clove of others\u201d.
\nThe Church is universal and not a \u201cnation-state\u201d.
\nSocio-political stance: Christians are to be good \u201ccitizens\u201d without ever compromising their Christian faith.
\n1.\tWhat is Justice and Who defines it?
\nUS Constitution (JS Mill: happiness, freedom, and rights)
\nJustice: retributive, reparative, restorative
\nor
\nThe Will of God (Scripture) and the Telos of God
\n2.\tWhat does Scripture say?
\nConviction of a \u201cChristocentric\u201d and \u201cKingdom\u201d hermeneutic on how to put the whole Bible together: it climaxes in Jesus Christ. Israel is de-nationalized and therefore the \u201cmilitary\u201d apparatus is stripped.
\nContext: either \u201cfight\u201d or \u201cflight\u201d; anti-Zealots; anti-docility.
\nJesus offers a \u201cThird Way\u201d: cruciform love that absorbs and transforms violence into reconciliation.
\nLuke 4:16-30 as the starting point (with Matt. 11:2-6): a kingdom vision.
\nConcerned with shalom and justice
\nRole of Sermon on Mount for Christian Ethics
\nHence: Matthew 5:38-42; 5:43-48
\n1.\tDo not \u201cresist\u201d means \u201cdo not use violence against evil\u201d.
\n2.\t\u201cRight cheek\u201d is the absorption of humiliation.
\n3.\t\u201cSecond mile\u201d is a kindness that provokes wonder.
\n4.\t\u201cEnemy love\u201d is central to Jesus, and surely re: Rome.
\n5.\tPaul (Rom 12:17, 19, 21) and Peter (1 Pt. 3:9)
\nThe \u201cJesus creed\u201d
\nSelf-denial and martyrdom: Mark 8:28-34
\nThe \u201cCross\u201d is not just an act of God for forgiveness but the \u201cparadigm\u201d of Christian existence.
\nThe \u201csword\u201d of Luke 22:49, 50 and John 18:36!
\n\u201cBlessed are the peacemakers\u201d (Matt. 5:9)
\nRomans 13; Colossians 2; and 1 Peter 2; the Lamb of Revelation
\nWe have \u201crespect\u201d for the rule of systemic laws, but not they are not the final authority of the Christian.
\nRomans 13 condemns \u201carmed\/violent resistance\u201d.
\nRomans 13 (ought to be) and Revelation 13 (ought not to be)
\nLongstanding question: \u201cWhat would Jesus do?\u201d
\n3.\tWhat does the Cross say for how God deals with Violence? Or, how can the gospel and violence co-exist?
\nTheologians now speak of the \u201ccrucified God\u201d and a \u201ccruciform God\u201d and mean by that this: after the Cross, God is revealed to us as a God who embraces us through the Cross and can only be known properly through that Cross.
\nThe theory of \u201cmimetic rivalry\u201d: R. Girard
\nCross as the \u201cabsorption\u201d of violence and its conversion
\nHow does \u201cforgiveness\u201d subvert \u201cjustice\u201d?
\n4.\tHow can Evangelism of the World and War co-exist?
\n5.\tTo whom does a Christian \u201cswear ultimate allegiance\u201d, to Caesar (the State) or to Jesus Christ (and the Kingdom of God)?
\nMatthew 22:21: \u201cGive to Caesar what is Caesar\u2019s\u2026\u201d
\nMatthew 17:24-27: \u201cthe sons are free\u201d
\n6.\tA Practical reality: How can a Christian \u201cput to death\u201d in the name of \u201cCaesar\u201d a non-Christian who needs to be evangelized and whose death would lead that person to hell? Or, how can a Christian \u201cput to death\u201d in the name of \u201cCaesar\u201d a believer when that believer\u2019s allegiance ought to be more to \u201cChrist and his Church\u201d than to \u201cCaesar\u201d?
\n7.\tHow did the earliest Christians relate to the Roman military?
\nThe general consensus is that Christians avoided the military, and that it was not until Constantine that the Christian enlisted in the military (though this is disputed today). (Little evidence prior to 170-180 AD.)
\n8.\tHow can (so many) Evangelicals believe in the \u201cprogressive\u201d decay of the State and, at the same time, in the Roman\/Reformed view of the Church \u201cleaven\u201d in the society which claims a \u201cprogressive\u201d improvement?
\nOften a challenge to the dispensationalist
\n9.\tHow can a \u201cnuclear\u201d war, or a war with modern technology, ever be \u201cjust\u201d? Or, slightly differently, How can violence bring about a good?
\nLeads some to what his called \u201cnuclear\u201d pacifism.
\n10.\tIs it consistent for a Christian to \u201cdemonize\u201drhetorically \u201cenemy combatants\u201d? Or, put a little less forcefully, How should Christians speak of the opponents?
\nThe crucial role \u201crhetoric\u201d plays in public discourse about war and its justification: we need to avoid “demonizing” the Other.
\nResources
\nR.C. Clouse, War: Four Christian Views (Downers Grove: IVP, 1981)
\nJ.H. Yoder, The Politics of Jesus (2d ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994)
\nW. Wink, Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003)
\nhttp:\/\/www.plowcreek.org\/bible_pacifism.htm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is a slightly-adapted set of questions I used for a discussion with two others at Willow Creek Community Church’s TruthQuest event last spring. My responsibility was to take the pacifist side. I took the tack of asking questions, and I include here the outline I used that night. Some of the questions are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy I am a pacifist - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2005\/11\/why-i-am-a-pacifist.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why I am a pacifist - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The following is a slightly-adapted set of questions I used for a discussion with two others at Willow Creek Community Church’s TruthQuest event last spring. 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