Column on violence

“Please be peaceful. We believe in law and order. We are not advocating violence, I want you to love your enemies... for what we are doing is right, what we are doing is just -- and God is with us.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

I was out early this morning and spotted a headline in the St Louis paper. Murders have increased this year in St Louis county, and the rate is n the city is unacceptably high. While so many religious organizations rightly oppose abuse of police discretion in the use of force, most will be silent on this headline. My denomination, the Presbyterians, will hold its General Assembly in two years there, and we have been silent on security matters. In our own community, folks were outraged that the crime rate in Alton prompted it to be ranked low as a desirable place to live.

I want to be careful here. The present crime rates have a disturbing uptick, but the violent crime rate is far, far better than it was in the 70s and 80s. In many places, murder rates are in the rates of my childhood. It seems that now we are content to accept the opening of new stories of assault and murder, as long as it is not in our own neighborhood.

I am sinfully amused at how so many Christians flaunt their Bibles like talismans but apparently are quite adept at picking and choosing what to follow and what to ignore.

What could be clearer than the consistent New Testament’s consistent opposition to human violence? We are willing to engage in exegetical gymnastics to justify the use of force. The Sermon on the Mount is a pacifist passage. Non-violence is its goal and its method. After all, Jesus was the victim of capital punishment. Jesus led no insurrection. Jesus healed victims of violence even as he faced arrest. For Jesus, non-violence was a step toward inner peace and social peace. Should not all Christians be conscientious objectors toward the use of violence?

Many folks draw a bright line between the Old Testament and new on violence. Yes, it does reflect the reality of war in its time. I cannot abide the easy equation of violence in the Bible to either justify violence or to make it comparable with other faiths who are more condoning of violence or those who run in more decidedly pacifist veins.

At the same time, the Old Testament/Hebrew bible issues clarion calls for peace, especially after the territory of the people of Israel was under assault and defeat through force of arms. Psalm 85 looks forward to a time when peace/shalom/well being will kiss justice. Its vision of the new age looks toward a time when even violence in nature would be erased, where the wolf will lie down with the lamb (Is. 11:6). Look at the succession of pictures of the “peaceable kingdom by the Quaker artist, Hicks, for the inspiration of this vision. Even the blood soaked apocalyptic vision of the book of Revelation draws upon the Is. 25, where neither death, nor pain will afflict us (21:4) In other words, the vision of the New Testament for peace has its roots deep in the Old Testament. How do we honor the One we dare call Prince of Peace?

“What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause has ever been stilled by an assassin's bullet. No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled or uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of the people.” Robert Kenne