I watched Andrzej Wajda’s film, Katyn on DVD the other night – the story of the cold-blooded massacre of thousands of Polish officers by Stalin’s secret police during the last war. I have also been reading a book about a Japanese woman who lived through the firebombing of Tokyo by American planes under General Curtis LeMay during the same war. They, like the regular stories in the newspapers, are reminders that violence, death and destruction are all around us.
How should a Christian respond to this appalling and seemingly relentless carnage, historical and current? It so happens that I get sent The Plough, the quarterly journal of the Bruderhof Community and their summer issue, which I have just read, is called Peacemakers. The Bruderhof, for those who haven’t heard of it, is an evangelical Protestant movement of communities, a fellowship of families and single people who, as their website states, practise “radical discipleship in the spirit of the first church in Jerusalem.” Its members “gladly renounce private property and share everything in common.” They see their vocation in lives of service to God, to each other and to their fellow man. Having visited the Bruderhof Community at Robertsbridge in East Sussex some years ago, I can testify to the living spirit of the Gospel which imbues its residents’ lives.
The Plough – you can find it here – is ecumenical, reaching out to other Christian churches, notably the Catholic Church, for articles about all aspects of Christian discipleship. In this issue they include an article by RR Reno, editor of First Things online magazine, on Waging Peace in the Culture Wars; The Children of War by Cat Carter who works for Save the Children; The Future of Christian Non-violence by Tom Cornell, a veteran peace activist, Catholic Worker and friend of Dorothy Day (a “radical pacifist” as he describes her), and many other contributions. It is very thought-provoking; a challenge to defeatism and despondency.
I ask The Plough’s editor, Peter Mommsen, who lives in the Bruderhof Community in Walden, New York, why the movement has always espoused non-violence? He replies, “For the same reason that many Christians throughout history have been non-violent, starting with the early church and including St Francis of Assisi, George Fox, Dorothy Day, Oscar Romero and Martin Luther King Jr. We’re committed to non-violence because of Jesus, who lived and taught non-violence.” He reminds me that Jesus rejected political power when it was offered to him and that he refused to defend himself with force, rather letting himself be killed; “We must do the same”, he adds.
How does non-violence differ from pacifism? Mommsen explains, “If by pacifism we mean an abstract moral rule or philosophical position, then yes, it is different. Christian non-violence isn’t a rule – it’s about living in the spirit of Jesus; it’s simply about discipleship.” In case this sounds too otherworldly, Mommsen agrees that in the present world “the innocent do need defending. Non-violence doesn’t call for the abolition of government or the police force.” He believes that we have much to learn from history’s great peacemakers, such as Gandhi: “In any movement for peace and any protest against violence and injustice, I believe something of the spirit of Jesus is at work, even if it’s sometimes distorted or one-sided.”
I raise the theory of a “Just War”. Mommsen reminds me that this concept doesn’t come from Scripture so much as from theories developed notable by Saints Augustine and Aquinas, “with the purpose of not justifying war but of limiting it.” Pointing to Tom Cornell’s survey of the Just War tradition in the current edition of the magazine, he adds that “pacifists should respect and even be grateful for Just War theory. To the extent that its requirements are actually observed in practice, they can for instance protect civilians and preserve at least some measure of humanity and proportion amid the horror of war.”
Mommsen accepts that not all Christians share his conviction that it is “out of the question to deliberately harm or kill anyone”; he emphasises that, whatever their differences, “it is important that members of the armed services deserve our prayers, respect and gratitude for the sacrifices they make in seeking to maintain a measure of orderly peace in a world full of violence.”
I raise the question of the murderous behaviour of terrorist groups such as ISIS in the Middle East. Mommsen mentions Pope Francis in this respect, reminding me that “he has called for considering some kind of international police action, but also cautioned against seeing war or retribution as an answer. He knows of the suffering of the affected communities in the Middle East, including the persecuted Christian communities, who should be in our daily prayers.” He would like governments to “pay careful attention” to the Pope’s thoughts on these difficult issues.
Finally, Mommsen reminds me that it is important to ask: How should the Church respond to ISIS? The suffering of the innocent should always affect us, he says, and “turn us to the cross of Christ.” He raises the questions, “How sacrificially can we give our material resources to help women, children and refugees? How can we become peacemakers? How can the Church better become a witness to the gospel of the kingdom of peace?” He concludes, “It’s a challenging moment to be a Christian, but it’s also a very exciting one.”
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