“You have heard it said of old, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you; do not resist the evil person. If he strikes you on the left, turn to him on the right”. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5 verses 38-39 not to contribute to further violence by retribution, but rather to tolerate the insult and abuse, and to indicate to the abuser that he is not your enemy. He knew that mortal violence, retaliation, retribution or vengeance did not resolve any issue. War has often been used to resolve issues, but are there other ways to solve problems?
The answer is “yes”, but they are not always successful. The use of economic sanctions is one method, but in many cases it is a failure. When applied against Saddam Hussein after the first Gulf War or against Rhodesia during the era of white minority rule, or against South Africa during apartheid, the result was hardship and poverty for the common people, not a change in attitude or government. The United States has had economic sanctions against Cuba and the Castro regime since the early 1960s, but the regime is still in power, perhaps because the Soviet Union was a major ally of Cuba during the Cold War and gave economic support to Fidel Castro.
A better way to deal with evil is through passive, peaceful resistance. This is what Jesus meant when he said that we are to resist evil in all its forms. Jesus encourages us to wage spiritual warfare against the dark forces of Satan and his followers. Woodrow Wilson, who was the President of the United States during World War I and its aftermath, saw this spiritual warfare as extending into all aspects of life. In his mind, there was no such thing as neutrality. One must choose to serve either Christ or Satan (Magee, 2008) . Unfortunately, as his presidency progressed he became persuaded of his own divinely-appointed role in implementing God’s will as he saw it. The subsequent rigidity in his dealings, particularly in leading the Covenant of the League of Nations through the ratification process in the United States Senate, left him unable to compromise. It was his belief that comprise was an act of unfaithfulness. Partly as a result of his rigidity, the United States did not join the League and pursued an isolationist foreign policy until shortly before it entered World War II.
Peace can and does overcome evil, especially through peaceful, passive, active resistance. The church can and does have a role to play by spreading the word of Christ’s love through its own actions. Even by doing simple things such as relieving poverty, Christian-based organizations such as Samaritan’s Purse and the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund combat the evil forces of poverty and hunger. Unfortunately, sometimes the lack of peaceful resistance by the church and theologians contributes to the forces of evil.
A good example is German Theologian Martin Niemoller. He was a U-boat captain in the German Navy during World War I and became a theologian and ordained minister in 1929. He argued that the Nazi Party’s program was “a renewal movement based on Christian moral foundation”.He also supported Hitler’s views on race and nationality. His views did not change until Adolf Hitler refused to revoke the appointment of Ludwig Muller as Germany’s Reich Bishop of the Protestant Church. Along with Karl Barth, professor of theology at Bonn University, and other supporters, Niemoller formed the Confessional Church.
Niemoller and fellow German theologian Dietrich Bonheoffer also formed the Pastors’ Emergency League and published a document opposing Hitler’s religious policies, especially the policy that Jews who converted to Christianity should be expelled from the church. Niemoller did, however, remain a member of the Nazi Party. He later admitted that the Pastors’ Emergency League “acted as if we only had to sustain the church” and did not take “responsibility for the whole nation”. When members of the Protestant Church were arrested, Niemoller finally spoke up. For this he was arrested and held in various concentration camps.
Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels urged Hitler in 1938 to have Niemoller executed; however, Hitler, fearing that Niemoller’s execution would provide an opportunity for foreign theologians such as George Bell, the Bishop of Chichester in England, to attack the German government, allowed him to live. Eventually Niemoller and other political prisoners were to be executed; however, they were rescued by the Allies just before the end of the war.
Niemoller went on to become an opponent of both the Cold War and nuclear weapons. He argued, “The church has to serve the communists as well as all human beings…communism must and can only be fought and defeated with spiritual weapons. All other powers will fail”. He also upset the American government in two ways:
1. By stating that former President Harry S. Truman was the greatest murder in the world after Adolf Hitler for his decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
2. By visiting North Vietnam in 1965 and meeting with North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh.
Niemoller later came to regret his early support for the Nazis, as expressed in the following quote: “In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I was a not Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up”
Why were the churches silent? They were silent for the same reason that many churches are often silent in regards to evils in our own society. They had much to lose if they “rocked the boat” by making too many waves. We must act as though everything depended on us. We need to assume responsibility for what goes on around us if it lies within our power to do so. If we do, God will be with us. He might not save us from death, but he will raise us from the dead as Jesus was raised.
Contrast this, if you will, with the more active resistance role played by Dietrich Bonheoffer. In his 1939 book, “The Cost of Discipleship”, he argued that real grace is the grace that will cost a man his life, the grace made dear by the life that Christ sacrificed to purchase man’s redemption from sin. He went on to argue in a paper on the Sermon on the Mount that the meek are those who believe that only the reign of Christ can bring true peace and paradise. Those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake are willing to suffer for the cause of Christ.
Bonheoffer heeded Christ’s words in John 15:13: “Greater love hath no man than this, but that a man lay down his life for his friends “. Bonheoffer was arrested and executed by the Nazis. He was one of the few Christian leaders to actively resist the Nazis (Braun). For Bonheoffer, peace and justice was impossible without truth (Hauerwas), and he was willing to lay down his life for truth. His letters and books have inspired readers throughout the world. During the struggle for democracy, human rights and freedom of religion in South Korea in the 1970s, many Christians were arrested, tortured and imprisoned. To them, Bonheoffer’s words were like pages from the New Testament and gave them courage for face punishment. (Kreilkamp, 1984)
The contrast between Bonheoffer and Niemoller is an example of the mixed and ambivalent character of human nature as emphasized by Reinhold Niebuhr, a renowned North American Presbyterian minister, theologian and political philosopher. His belief was that human nature consisted of creative impulses matched by destructive impulses and regard for others overruled by excessive self-regard. He said, “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary”. This argument had the dubious honour of accounting for Hitler and Stalin and for the necessity of standing up to them. Although he was a pacifist, he also realized that “a democracy cannot of course engage in an explicit, preventive war”.
The current war on terror has brought Niebuhr’s ideas back into focus, particularly the struggle between realism and idealism and the debate over the place of religion in our sense of ourselves. Niebuhr justifies war for all the right causes by arguing “Our idealists are divided between those who would renounce the responsibilities of power for the sake of preserving the purity of our soul and those who are ready to cover every ambiguity of good and evil in our actions by the frantic insistence that any measure taken in a good cause must be unequivocally virtuous”. Our virtues and vices are inextricable joined. In other words, we can’t have one without the other. We are to take any necessary measures to defend freedom against tyranny (including morally hazardous actions), but we are to do so in cooperation with other like-minded Christians and nations. In other words, we are not to be like former United States President George W. Bush, who ordered the invasion of Iraq without support from other nations and then, once American troops were in Iraq, asked for help. In the words of Martin Luther King, “…groups tend to be more immoral than individuals…Freedom is never given voluntarily by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed”.
Reinhold Niebuhr’s younger brother Richard, who was an ordained minister and professor at Eden Theological Seminary and Yale University, echoed his concerns. In his treatise entitled, “The Responsible Self”, Richard Niebuhr argued that human beings are always responding to some influence, whether it be another human being, a community, the natural order of history, or God. He elaborates on this in an article entitled “The Reconstruction of Faith” by stating that “We do not doubt our fellow men when they tell us of the loyalty of Jesus Christ. We are not inclined to believe that they are deceiving us. What we doubt is not the possibility of such goodness, but we are skeptical of its power…”
Richard Niebuhr argued that the church is responsible for the society and which it lives. Many churches today share the same belief. Christianity is called upon to address the injustices of our modern society as it has been since the beginning of its history. Many of the early hospitals in this nation were run by churches, and many universities such as Saint Mary’s, Kings, and Mount Saint Vincent owe their creation to the church. Many churches operate local food banks. In fact, our local food bank was originally started by the now-defunct Queens County Association of Churches. If we want to have a society where people can live in peace, the church must do its part to create and promote peace.
In order to do its part, the church must be proactive, not reactive or isolationist. The isolationist church knows that it is accountable to God for its deeds and values, but it only shows concern for itself and not for society as a whole. In order to preach and promote peace, the church must promote the peace of Christ-the good news of Christ combined with the bad news of God’s justice. God will deal with the evil people of this world who do not repent and turn from their evil ways. We as members of the church are not to judge but are to be shepherds of the sheep, seekers of the lost, friends of sinners, the poor and brokenhearted. The church cannot be responsible to God for individuals without becoming responsible for society.
