Seth’s World View

My friend Brent Cunningham shared some thoughts on his blog about Jesus’ perspective on war and violence. He had some good things to say, but I wanted to give a slightly different point of view, and responded on his blog. I’m reproducing what I said below:

Hey Brent,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. I’ll share my perspective below.

Before discussing pacifism, it’s important to agree on a definition of pacifism. While being anti-war is a given, people too often think of hippies in the 60s and equate it with being passive and just wishful thinking. While true in some cases, this is a false assumption for pacifists as a whole. Many pacifists see violence as wrong and instead are very active in various forms of nonviolent peacemaking. I think many people would agree that pacifists like MLK and Ghandi were quite revolutionary.

I do agree that war is dreadful. Even a just war is dreadful. We do live in a fallen world, so I’m willing to concede that some level of violence is necessary to keep people in check. I think, though, that how necessary war is can be debated. For one, many people, including many Christians, don’t take non-violent peacemaking seriously as an effective means of social change and revolution. As such, I see people rushing to see war and violence as the primary solutio, rather than a last resort. I think we abandon creative problem solving for what the world tells us is the solution.

I also agree there is a difference between killing and murder. You define murder as ‘unjustly taking a human life.’ By implication, killing is justly taking a human life. The question remains though: What makes taking a life just? Just because the government or military sactions killing a person or people does not make it just.

Certainly Romans 13, among others, says that a government is to ‘bring punishment on the wrongdoer.’ And that Jesus didn’t tell anyone to resign from the military is a good point. Still, what makes a government just? And if an otherwise just government makes an unjust decision, is it still just? A related question would be, if a person considered to be a Christian leads a government, does that automatically make everything they do just and mean we should unquestionably support every decision they make?

You define capital punishment as ‘the just taking of a human life.’ Again, I question that a government taking a life is just in every instance. In a broad sense though, government-enforced punishment is supported in the Bible. Capital punishment is often used as another term for ‘the death penalty.’ While the nature of whether the death penalty is a good idea or not can be debated, many would agree that the death penalty system in the United States is very flawed.

Is there room for the supernatural? Can the Spirit sometimes work through people in a powerful way that makes violence avoidable? I’ve heard some crazy stories from some Mennonites who made violence unnecessary because of their Christ-like response to people who had the intent to harm them. I just don’t think that God would have us put aside our ideals and look for the easy answer of violence as often as we as a people do. In the end, I agree Jesus isn’t a strict pacifist, but he’s not a pragmatic neo-conservative either.

Further questions: Is modern warfare just? It’s very impersonal and very destructive. I think “Who would Jesus bomb?” is a good question. Are nukes just? What about the carpet bombing of Dresden out of spite? Would Jesus support nuking a billion people if it would save our way of life? Is bombing civilians just? Is pre-emptive way just? The Just War ideologies I’ve read would say the last two would make a war unjust. The US has dropped bombs on civilians. Maybe in the long run, this saved lives. Should we be happy about that? Or should we lament at what seems necessary? Is it just to go to war with one country because their government does evil things but have a trade agreement with another country that does evil things? Is it just to not take further steps to stop genocide in Africa?

Honestly, there is much I don’t have the answer to, but it’s important to me to keep asking questions. And in this case, thanks for putting the topic out there so we could share thoughts.

Seth