Last week, I was in a conversation with a friend over non-violence and the Christian. He took the stance it is morally right and obliged to defend his family when threatened with violence. It churned my thoughts for days while I should have been focused on other things. Here are my thoughts a week later.
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The question of whether non-violence is the Christian approach should not be decided within the context of a question in which we ask is it better to let people die or shoot someone with a gun. We should never be debating on what the lesser evil is. As a Christian, we take the hard and irrational stance of doing nothing if all we have are evil options.
So the debate comes full circle to whether it is right to harm anyone, ever. We avoid the fictitious and newsworthy situations because situations do not define the truth when there is a clear teaching of Scripture. The debate is always framed with the argument that killing someone is better than allowing a member of my family or another innocent to be killed. I do not see inflicting harm on another person clearly taught as a Christian practice in the New Testament. I have yet to hear a good argument on how killing someone is loving to the individual being killed. I see the teaching of loving our neighbor, enemey, and those who persecute us spread throughout the New Testament in a clear and unquestionable manner. We are to turn the other cheek, which taking down a shooter is not even doing on a personal level. If the New Testament does not clearly teach that we are to be violent when our back is against the wall, then I will choose nothing when left with only two evil options even if one is a lesser evil.
However, after saying that, I do believe that most situations can be solved by physical restraint without inflicting harm on the violent offender. There are those cases that can't. Those situations would be the ones where my faith would cause me to be persecuted. We need to be willing to die, not willing to kill. Although we do not strive to be persecuted and pray that we would live in peace, we should not be ashamed if our faith causes us to die. The world might think it is crazy, but it is a tradition of our faith that weaves throughout the history all the way back to the founding Apostles and culminates in our savior Himself. It seems to be a clear teaching of Scripture. Although difficult and irrational, this is the way I will live until convinced through Scripture otherwise. I am willing to submit to clear teachings of Scripture.
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2 comments:
I continue to be undecided on this issue. I do want to probe you on this argument, though:
"As a Christian, we take the hard and irrational stance of doing nothing if all we have are evil options."
One cannot do nothing. Passivity is a choice. You stand still. You withdraw. You choose not to intervene. You chose not to save and protect.
That does not necessarily mean that it is the wrong choice. But it is not nothing.
Consider this line:
Anyone who knows the good he ought to do and does not do it, sins.
I would argue that a lesser evil does not make a good that I ought to do. It is still an evil that I ought not do.
I really do not believe there is a situation where all the options are evil. People try to create these fictitious scenarios where I have to choose between watching my wife get raped or kill the guy. I can go over there and pull the guy off. There are always a multitude of actions available. The nonviolent person chooses to allow themselves to have harm inflicted on them rather than harm another.
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