Shaun Groves
It happened a few months after 9/11. A friend, assuming I would agree, complained that Christians in America were overwhelmingly in support of going to war with whoever was responsible. He was a Southern Baptist. He didn’t sew his own clothes out of hemp, live in a commune, grow a beard or dreadlocks. How could he be a pacifist?
I made three arguments against pacifism:
1. What about Hitler?
2. But there’s war in the Old Testament!
3. If someone broke into your house…
Each question was a revelation about myself: Specifically, how I really decide what I believe.
What About Hitler?
I asked “What About Hitler?” believing the truth is practical. Pacifism can’t be true, I reasoned, because pacifism doesn’t work: It’ll get me or someone else killed.
And that’s correct. Pacifism does not always or even often stop violence and injustice immediately or permanently…which is what I think I meant back then by “work.”
Now, some pacifists say violence doesn’t work all that well either. But that argument too assumes truth is pragmatic, the thing that works best.
Today I believe the truth is the truth no matter the outcome.
But there’s war in the Old Testament!
I said “but there’s war in the Old Testament” because I didn’t think context mattered: the truth for one group of people in one place and time is true for all people in all places and times. (Except when God outlawed bacon. That was different. Somehow.)
I reasoned that if God commanded His people to do violence against their enemies in the Old Testament then God’s people are permitted to do violence against their enemies today.
But context does matter.
And our context is very different today. There is no military on the planet now made up entirely of God-followers – Israel’s was in the Old Testament. Our wars are declared by politicians – not by God. Those politicians do not claim to have heard from God or to be acting on His behalf. Unlike the Israelites, we kill godly and ungodly alike. We are not outnumbered and outgunned as the Israelites were, so it is our might and not God’s which gets the credit for victory. In the end it is the national anthem sung in celebration – not “Glory to God!”
Today I believe that many truths are tied to context.
If someone broke into your house…
I asked what my friend would do if someone broke into his house and did unthinkable things to his wife and children – because I must have believed truth was determined by my ability to obey it always.
I was talking about non-violence with a man I greatly admire many years ago. He said,”If that’s what Jesus is really teaching about violence…then I can’t follow Jesus.” He was being honest, saying out loud what I too believed but was afraid to speak. This can’t be what Jesus is teaching because I don’t think I can do it.
The theologian Stanley Hauerwas once said he believes in Christian non-violence because he’s a mean son of a… In other words, the truth is not often what comes easily or naturally to us. The truth is given to us by God to correct and contain what does come naturally to us.
Truth is not determined by my obedience.
The Truth About Myself
I’m not certain today whether or not pacifism is true. That’s not the point of this article either. The point is that God has used my questioning of Christian pacifism to teach me a great deal about myself. Namely, that so often I’ve gone about getting at the truth all wrong.
The truth is not practical. It is not always the thing that preserves my life or solves a problem quickly and permanently.
The truth is tied to context. What is true then and there for them is not always true at all times everywhere for everyone.
The truth is not determined by my obedience. If the only commands of God are the ones I can always and easily keep then God’s not asking much of us.
While searching for the truth I’ve learned the truth about myself.
What have you decided is untrue because it’s impractical or impossible?
Skokie says:
Love this!
It seems that the most important thing we obtain in the pursuit of truth is not the actual truth, but what we discover about ourselves.
Jonathan Blundell says:
Excellent to see how you’ve been working through all of this. These are the same arguments I tend to hear against pacifism as well.
I joked with a friend that now that I have a baby girl – I might have to re-consider my stance of pacifism.
But as you point out – even if I did alter my stance in a moment of time – that doesn’t make it less true (as we see in the case of countless other issues we deal with on a daily basis).
Sandy says:
I really like what you said about truth being tied to context. Given how fallen the world is, and how great the grace of God is, why do we imagine God is lining us up with a list of rules and just waiting until we (inevitably) break them?
Maybe if we learned to look at things with grace we wouldn’t be so quick to condemn and to hurt one another.
katie says:
It sounds like something very important to think through, and I agree completely that the truth is the truth no matter what the temporary condition of an individual may be. But, I wanted to bring up a question about the second point–all the people fighting for Israel and all the people of Israel were definitely not God-followers. The first half of Romans 9 is all about how God blessed Israel with all sorts of honors, but didn’t save all of them. So, I was wondering how that affected the second point. I was also looking at the difference between sending them out to destroy a people and defending themselves. Nehemiah 4:14 says Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.” and 2 Samuel 10:12 says Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him.”
Psalm 82:3-4 says Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
I think it also bears mentioning that we as humans take an awful lot of leeway with what God was really serious about in the bible and what we don’t have to listen to anymore–not that seriously searching Christians will always agree on those things, but that these issues take bible searching, people processing and prayer –like you are doing–instead of just an intrinsic sense about what was cultural only or what God isn’t concerned about anymore just because we couldn’t imagine God intending or desiring a certain thing.
Thanks for all the thought-provoking. My hope is that God will preserve us from evil, but in the case that He decides to allow something to happen to our family, it is my one secure hope that His holy spirit will be able to lead our hearts into an action and preserve our souls…sometimes when things aren’t entirely obvious to me, that is what I cling to.
Shaun Groves says:
I stand by the claim that all of God’s army were in fact God-followers. But I’m learning, so I’d love to see any verses that contradict that.
Carmen Hall says:
Thanks for writing, Shaun, about your perspective.
For a couple of years, I’ve been writing an article in my mind: Why I’m not a Pacifist…and why I’m glad you can be. Even the opportunity to be able to ponder and discuss this topic is a liberty that not all share. In many areas of the world, soldiers are conscripted against their will. Tragically, the easiest to coerce our vulnerable children living in poverty.
According to crf.org (Council on Foreign Relations):
Children are combatants in nearly three-quarters of the world’s conflicts.
Nearly half a million additional children serve in armies not currently at war, such that 40 percent of the world’s armed organizations have children in their ranks.
Child soldiers in Colombia, a quarter of which are girls, are often forced to commit appalling human right violations.
Children are so often over-looked in any discussion. However, God does not forget. That is why I stand with you and others for the work of ministries like Compassion International.
In countries like Colombia, children are protected through sponsorship with Compassion. We can make a difference, one child at a time.
~Carmen, xenophileathome.wordpress.com