Christian Pacifists
Keeping it real, with the peace deal
Peace through nonviolent means is neither absurd nor unattainable. — Martin Luther King Jr.
Back in 1974, a fella called Nick Lowe wrote a song called “What’s so funny about peace, love and understanding?” When the subject is Christian Pacifism, it is certainly no laughing matter.
Perhaps the mention of Martin Luther King Jr, one of Christian pacifist’s most famous sons, immediately brings this into focus. To adopt the ethical demands of active pacifism has never been an easy option, or indeed a mainstream one, for most Christians. This is especially true, since Christianity linked arms so thoroughly with the war machine of Pax Romana in 380 CE. ¹
Since then, there has been an endless river of innocent blood taken in the name of God under the Christian banner. During all this devastating bloodletting, there has been no shortage of handwringing by philosophers and theologians, particularly regarding just war theory. ²
This unenviable and blooded Christian legacy stands in stark contrast to the credo of the Jewish pacifist par excellence God man, who Christians call the Christ. His teaching of peace through other-centered love is unequivocal. As Stanley Hauerwas shows, Jesus lived and died as a pacifist in pursuit of the “Peaceable Kingdom, of God” on earth in the now. ³
Folks who claim that non-violent activism is at the core of Jesus’ life and teaching have always been on the margins, but they have always been with us. For them, and for me, the gospels demonstrably confirm this central point.
Of particular interest to Hauerwas is the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7), parts of which he quotes to prosecute his argument: ⁴
You have heard it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. You have heard it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,’ so that you may be children of your father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust, (Matt 5: 38–46).
Make no mistake, there are plenty more pacifist affirmations where that came from. It is not incidental that, among others, Mennonite Christians have been following the code of peace for centuries. It is precisely because it is so overt in the gospels.
Neither is theirs a lone voice in emphasizing Jesus’ pacifist credentials. None other than Mahatma Gandhi, a Hindu, and arguably the father of modern non-violent activism, extols Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount as a contributing factor to his own pacifist ideals, especially in the spiritual practice of renunciation. ⁵
Any man can start a war, but it takes real courage to become a person of peace. That it is men, not God, who are the instigators of war should surprise no one. Nor should it that history shows that very often these men claim their war in the name of God. ⁶
Shalom, comrades, may peace be with you. It is a hard path to walk with many stumbles along the way, but the peace deal is the real deal.
¹ John Howard. Yoder, The War of the Lamb: The Ethics of Nonviolence and Peacemaking, ed. Glen Stassen, Mark Thiessen Nation, and Matt Hamsher (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2009), 45.
² Lisa Sowle. Cahill, Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Pacifism, Just War, and Peacebuilding (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress Press, 2019), 91–137.
³ Stanley Hauerwas, The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1991), 72–95.
⁴ Hauerwas, The Peaceable Kingdom, 75.
⁵ Mohandus K. Gandhi, An Autobiography Or: The Story of my Experiments with Truth, trans. Mahedev Desai (Washinton, DC: Public Affairs Press, 1960), 92–93.
⁶ Cahill, Blessed Are the Peacemakers, 213–245.
— Cormac Stagg, author of The Quest for a Humble Heart
