Begone, Violence! vs Beyond Violence
I can think of two kinds of nonviolence. One is pacifism born out of the fear of violence from within and without. The other is confidence in a way that is stronger than violence. The former hides from violence. The latter faces and overwhelms it. The former is actually a natural part of systems of oppression and domination. The latter transcends those systems and is a result of facing and mastering one’s own violence.
25 November 2012
tags: non-violence
Comment or share
That nasty Old Testament Hate Your Enemies thing
Ever since Marcion was declared a heretic, a lot of smart people have done a lot of work trying to reconcile the violence of the Old Testament with the love of the New Testament. Peter Rollins now offers his take. In typical Rollinsy style he ignores the dilemma that most people have been wrestling with and drops in a clever gem of an idea: the violence is in there because we need it. It helps us acknowledge and defuse our own anger. Click, read and ponder, dear friends.
28 July 2012
tags: non-violence,
peter rollins
Comment or share
Page 16: that could have gone better
This little plot development will start to make sense next week. Probably.
19 June 2012
tags: non-violence,
rev and amy
Comment or share
Sharing the good news
Scott Maynard makes very funny and clever comics about mythology and religion.
27 April 2012
tags: non-violence
Comment or share
Changing the church water
I have posted links to a couple articles the last few days about misogyny in our culture. It is obvious to me that terrible attitudes and behaviours toward women are part of the church as much as they are part of the culture at large. It seems that rather than take seriously the good news of the destruction of the dividing line between men and women through Jesus Christ, we have tried to redeem misogyny. We can do better. Here is a list of a few suggestions:
- Change any rules that prevent women from becoming pastors, priests, bishops and popes. And then get rid of any rules that allow just one gender to decide who gets to do what.
- Hold fewer conferences and events just for men or just for women and replace them with conferences and events for humans, especially events where everyone participates fully (think food, serving others, enjoying nature).
- Dump the cartoon masculinity that so many evangelical churches are using to try to attract men. It looks and sounds like a bible-versified version of the rapey lads mags. There is a wide spectrum of ways to be. Top Gear for Jesus isn’t the only one.
- Stop glorifying violence. Just because portions of the Old Testament do, that’s no reason for us to.
- Focus our teaching more on the way the good news of Jesus challenges us to live towards others and less on getting our definitions right.
- Lose our obsession with keeping our teenagers individually pure and teach them about the inestimable worth of each person and how to truly love and respect people, i.e. replace a focus on self and sex with a focus on others and love.
- Radically disempower the institutional church. A church that has no control over its adherents must lead by love rather than coercion It must rely on the Holy Spirit to change people. A church that has no traditional earthly authority (or, more likely, earthly power dressed up as spiritual authority) has no vested interest in keeping certain groups pushed down.
- Celebrate the new humanity through Jesus Christ. Marital status should not have an effect one’s status within the church.
- Recognise that men and women are different, but different doesn’t mean that because women have the babies that men are entitled to be in charge of everything.
I’m sure there is more. What other positive things would you add?
31 March 2012
tags: men,
non-violence,
women
Comment or share
I made a Christmas gift for the kids in my class at church: a book of advice
17 December 2011
tags: books,
design,
illustration,
love,
non-violence,
questions
Comment or share
In which I show that Remembrance Sunday would be better named ‘Collective Amnesia Sunday’
On Sunday our nation will stand in silence to remember those who died fighting for our country, as will I. But we Christians, in our rush to remember one thing often forget many other things.
We forget that while our young people were fighting the bad guys to protect our way of life, the bad guys thought we were the bad guys and were fighting to protect their way of life.
We forget Dresden, Abu Ghraib and extraordinary rendition.
We forget shooting deserters, shell shock, nightmares and PTSD.
We forget that we ask teenagers to kill people for the sake of oil or ‘national interests’ or ‘terrorist threats’ and then expect them to come home and live normal lives.
We forget that war disproportionately kills the poor, uneducated and the oppressed of every nation while the rich and the privileged disproportionally sit at home and talk about noble sacrifice.
We forget that the ‘freedom’ we claim our soldiers fight for is often little more than a marketing strategy designed to make us continue to live as good little consumer cogs in a machine creating obscene wealth for a few.
We forget that our ‘Christian’ nation is responsible for the death of thousands of people who called themselves Christians and thousands more who never heard about the love of Jesus.
We forget that we Christians are citizens of the Kingdom of God, called to live as strangers and aliens in the kingdoms of this world. We forget that the Kingdom of Great Britain is included in ‘the kingdoms of this world’.
We forget that the weapons God has given us are mighty for pulling down the strongholds of this world’s systems and instead we choose to fight with the weapons of this world, spreading death in the name of life. We forget that our unquestioning participation in remembrance Sunday is an endorsement of the system that will one day send our children to die.
We forget that Jesus calls us to put down our swords and take up our crosses.
We forget that God so loved the whole world – not just the white, English speaking portions of it – that he gave his one and only son.
We forget that Jesus came so that humanity might have life to the full. We forget that Jesus personified the antithesis of his coming as a thief who steals, kills and destroys. We forget that the main business of war, no matter how noble we suppose it to be, is to steal, kill and destroy. We forget that war is inherently anti-Christ.
We forget that the two great commandments are to love God and love our neighbours with everything that we are. We forget that patriotism will always ask us to compromise our love for God. We forget that we cannot love our neighbours while we are killing them. We forget that Jesus closed every loophole that might allow us to categorise another human as Not My Neighbour.
We forget that even if a nation insists that they are not our neighbour but our enemy, we are called to love our enemies.
We forget that the lesser of two evils is still evil and that the bible tells us to overcome evil with good.
We forget that the greatest of these is love.
On Sunday, remember those who have died, and as you stand silent, remember the bloodthirsty system that killed them. Remember that you have stepped out of that system and taken the side of Jesus who loves all people with an unstoppable love.
12 November 2011
tags: holidays,
kingdom of god,
non-violence
Comment or share
Ekklesia: Telling the truth on Remembrance Sunday
The truth that cannot be spoken on Remembrance Sunday is that many lives lost in war have been wasted. Actually, we are allowed to say that, but only when the events concerned are safely in the distant past, and it’s too late to do anything about it. It’s fine to appreciate the poetry of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, and deplore the slaughter of World War One, but asking whether those killed in Afghanistan have had their lives squandered is condemned as insensitive and disrespectful. If we don’t ask such questions though, how do we avoid more young men and women being sent to die for a dubious cause?
8 November 2011
tags: grief,
non-violence
Comment or share
This is what the talented and attractive Jim LePage has to say about nonviolence
In my opinion, responding to evil with evil is one of the least creative things we humans can do. In a very literal sense, it is dumb. If someone is abusive towards me… my instinct is to do the same thing to them. You hurt me, I hurt you. It’s a repeating pattern. That instinct and pattern are so strong that it doesn’t even occur to me that there could be any other options… I think the reason I often think there’s only one response to evil (more evil) is because I don’t allow the creativity of Jesus in on my situations.
See what Jim did there? Nonviolence causes creativity. Read the full post. (The creativity bit is toward the bottom.)
29 September 2011
tags: design,
non-violence,
quotes
Comment or share
A crucifix for now
Inspired by the fact that 48% all the money that the world spends on its militaries is spent by the United States, more than all its potential enemies combined. One little thought: a four dollar apple pie will do a lot more to sort out problems with your neighbour than a 400 dollar AK-47. (High resolution version here. Jet photo by Rob Shenk. Image of Christ: The Crucifixion, painted in 1627 by Francisco de Zurbarán)
4 August 2011
tags: jesus,
kingdom of god,
non-violence
Comment or share
The greatest power is no power
—Ooh! Look at Jeff going all zen on his bloggy blog.
—No, but seriously, think about it. It is a deeply Christ-imitating statement.
22 May 2011
tags: abundance,
giving,
non-violence
Comment or share
Easter winning
This comic strip was my text for my Easter Sunday class of 10-13 olds, mostly boys. I think it brilliantly explains an aspect of the mechanics, if not the love, of Jesus work on the cross. It’s also good at showing how a nonviolent response a la Matthew 5:38–48, Gandhi, MLK actually works.
29 April 2011
tags: jesus,
non-violence,
silly
Comment or share
I'm special, so special / Gotta have some of your attention / Give it to me
I’ve been thinking about what it is that makes Christianity unique, because everybody wants to be special. I came up with a lot of things that aren’t unique to Christianity: community, a strong moral code, monotheism, heaven, hell, our own music, a linear understanding of history, instant healings, ecstatic experiences, prophecy, a historic human founder, a resurrection story, a proselytising impulse, a paradigm for understanding all of life, nonviolence, scripture (Plus fundamentalism, being Right, tribalism and killing for your god.) Etc. All this stuff is quite common in and out of Christianity.
Note: Could this be why denominations, religions, organisations and tribes are so intent on focussing on their differences? If you start noticing how much isn’t unique, you may become aware that you fear a loss of your identity. And your audience. And your income.
But there is something that I think is unique, or at least exceptionally rare: living and dying for the sake of, not just your friends, but also (especially!) your enemies. This is what Jesus did. This is what he invites us to do.
Lots of people will kill for what they believe.
Many people will die for what they hold dear.
Very few people are willing to die for someone who stands for the opposite of what they love.
Please tell me if I’m wrong. Tell me that there are a lot of things unique about Christianity. Tell me that there are other religions/philosophies/tribes for which suffering (with abandonment, with no guarantee of success) to save the life of an enemy is a core value.
?
25 March 2011
tags: church,
community,
jesus,
non-violence,
questions
Comment or share
Mind if I ask a few questions while they are reloading the Tomahawk cannon?
- Once a shooting war starts, the greatest number of casualties can always be found among civilians. So us dropping bombs on Libya is helping ordinary people how?
- I’m reading stuff in the mainstream press about Cameron working on his foreign policy chops, Sarkosy rebuilding his image after backing the losers in Tunisia, and Obama showing off his backbone. That’s not why we’re doing this, is it?
- If Britain is so broke that the government is cutting around 20% from nearly everything, why is David Cameron leading the charge and not saying ‘Sorry guys, we’re broke, but be sure to give us a call next war’?
- Why aren’t we also bombing Yemen and Bahrain and asking Saudi Arabia some really probing questions about why people with awkward ideas are going missing?
- What is a good nonviolent response to Gaddafi’s regime? I’m new to this. Sitting around clucking about being nice doesn’t seem to be any use, but I don’t actually have any good ideas.
- Operation Odyssey Dawn? As in, ‘Operation Tor Shezada was pretty hot, but you Odyssey Dawn!’?
20 March 2011
tags: non-violence,
questions
Comment or share
All that you hate, all that is wrong – I can put it right.
The lying voice of the gonne (gun) from Terry Pratchett’s Men At Arms
13 March 2011
tags: books,
non-violence,
quotes
Comment or share
Success of imagination
While we are all still feeling impressed with the fall of Mubarak it is a good time to read Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea. It’s short, jaunty and good fun (unless you don’t enjoy Founding Fathers being raked over the coals of truth.)
23 February 2011
tags: books,
non-violence
Comment or share
Have you heard of this whole non-violence thing?
Guys! Guys! There’s this guy called Leo Tolstoy and he’s written a book* about Jesus and non-violence and resisting evil. Apparently it’s a huge influence on these other guys called Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Anyway, it’s like a Christian anarchist thing, and it’s a bit dodgy in some places, but also super-good. Also, there’s this theologian guy called Walter Wink. He’s written a book too.** It’s called The Powers That Be, and it’s got this whole thing in it about The Myth of Redemptive Violence that says good must use violence to defeat evil. He thinks that’s totally the opposite of Jesus, and I think he’s right or whatever, but the implications of that are like, whoa! So that’s the latest from me, Jeff Gill, your source for everything on the bleeding edge of the zeitgeist.
*in 1894
**in 1999
17 June 2010
tags: books,
jesus,
non-violence
Comment or share
Things that are hard to do while carrying a cross
- Kill people
- Defend yourself
- Adjust your hairstyle
14 May 2010
tags: jesus,
non-violence
Comment or share
When viewed through the lens of Jesus's revelation of God, the end of Psalm 139 is pretty hilarious
If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
(TNIV, emphasis mine)
Of course, we have to cut David some slack – he was before Jesus – and that level of devotion and eagerness to please should not be disdained.
9 October 2009
tags: humans,
non-violence
Comment or share
Everyone should watch this video...
…especially those of us who are American Christians.
Yes, but it’s too naïve and idealistic.
Oh, you mean kind of like that guy Jesus Christ was when he thought he could save the world by dying for it? Isn’t he the one we’re supposed to be following?
20 July 2009
tags: kingdom of god,
music,
non-violence,
video
Comment or share
Faith like a child
Since Easter, in my Sunday School class we have been talking about the garden of Eden.
Yes, that is a long time to talk about a garden, maybe. But… God’s plan for the world, for people, for animals – I found it quite amazing and I’m glad the kids seemed to feel the same way, but, So many questions!
Jesus said,“I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”
I have been told that the meaning of this is that you have to have un-questioning faith. That you just accept.
Ummm… Have you ever spent any time around children? Starting at toddler-hood a favourite word is ‘why’.
The ball is round
Why?
Because in order for it to roll smoothly and in the direction that you want it to roll it needs to be.
Why?
Because, if it wasn’t round then when you kick it it would just go a way that you didn’t mean for it to.
Why?
Umm – I just told you why. Twice!
Why?
Because you asked me to
Why?
Because you are very curious.
Why?
Because you are a child, you want to know all there is to know and you want to know it right now and apparently you want me to tell you!
Why?
I don’t know, But I don’t have all the answers.
Why?
Cos… I’m not God!
My own kids, and my church kids have so many questions. Often I just don’t have the answers, and I won’t pretend to either. But I will do my best to encourage them to keep asking questions, keep looking for answers.
Whoever seeks shall find. They will know so much more than I do. Thank Goodness.
Maybe also Jesus was talking about the enthusiasm of a child. I watched their faces light up as they learned about this perfect place before sin. I showed them a drawing of the garden, one child piped up, ‘That’s silly! there’s a fox lying down beside a rabbit. That wouldn’t happen.’
‘There was no death in the Garden of Eden, the rabbit was perfectly safe to lie with the fox.’
‘Wow!’
The rest of our short lesson consisted of the kids talking about which animals they would put together if life was like it was then. Their imaginations were going nuts!
We came back to that many, many times over the next few weeks. I shared stories of the exploits of my cat Max, whose favourite thing ever is to devour small animals, and I have heard many stories of their own pets and the blood and gore they get into!
If only life could be as it was at the beginning. You can see the longing in them – for perfection, for freedom, for that ability to walk in the garden with God.
Last Sunday we talked about how the people were sent from the garden, we talked about bloodshed and shame and him blaming her and… it was very quiet in the room.
At craft time we had clay Snakes and pictures of Adam and Eve sad and shameful with their leaves and furs. One boy just looked at his paper and said, ‘I want to draw but I don’t know what to draw’
‘What part of the story sticks in your mind from today?’
‘I don’t know’
‘Okay, just take a little time and go over the story in your mind and as you are doing that, ask yourself how you feel and try to see if you can get that feeling onto the paper.’
This is his picture:
15 July 2009
tags: children,
faith,
kingdom of god,
non-violence,
shame,
stories
Comment or share
Hooray for violence
I can’t get away from violence. The universe is full of it. It is hardwired into everything. That’s a bad thing, right?
I’ve been reading and listening to a lot of Christians recently who believe that Christians should eschew all violence. The covenant that a follower of Jesus Christ has with God is not one of violence. Jesus’s blood sealed our covenant in a once-for-all act. Our assignment is one of reconciliation, not one of purification.
Yes. But what about the violence?
Keep reading
20 January 2008
tags: non-violence
Comment or share