New Dordt Diamond Column: What Pacifism Means

(Uncut.)

(Not that the Diamond editors did a bad job of cutting it. The Diamond editors rawk. But when I post these columns here, I just copy and paste from the saved version I have on my computer.)

(More than you cared to know, eh?)

Pacifism might seem like a heavy topic for a Diamond column, but lately I feel like it’s been popping up everywhere. One of my best friends recently gave me a copy of Jesus for President, a pacifist manifesto by Christian activist Shane Claiborne. I read Claiborne’s earlier book, The Irresistible Revolution, as my optional book for CORE 300 last spring. Two springs ago, Tony Campolo argued for pacifism in a lecture at the B. J. Haan. And an increasing number of my peers at Dordt are pacifists.

This column is addressed to them. I hope that it will be a starting place for a vital conversation.

Coherent pacifism is a rejection of any kind of violence, by anyone, anywhere. Claiborne refers in his books to the “myth of redemptive violence.” He denies that violence can ever be a good or necessary thing. What are the implications of this belief?

The defining characteristic of government is a monopoly on violence. Whatever else it does, the state must be able to protect its people and maintain order, with force if necessary. If a state cannot stop armed groups within its borders from attacking the innocent, we call that state “failed.”

Therefore, the logical extension of Christian pacifism is a refusal to participate in the state – a kind of nonviolent Christian anarchism, if you will.

This is exactly what Claiborne is out to convince Christians to do – leave the government, the voting booth, the police force, and the military. “God isn’t working through places of power,” he writes in Jesus for President. “I don’t believe that God needs a commander-in-chief or a millionaire in Washington,” he wrote earlier in The Irresistible Revolution.

To which I would say: Of course he doesn’t. God doesn’t need anyone, anywhere. That’s not the issue. The issue is, what is God calling us to do as his followers in the world?

Does the Bible support Claiborne’s attitude toward government? I do not believe so. The Bible says that government – founded as it is on violence – is a good institution, an institution specifically set up by God. I Peter 2 says that the governors “are sent by [God] to punish those who do wrong.” Romans 13 says, “The authorities that exist have been established by God. The one in authority...is God’s servant to do you good. ...he does not bear the sword for nothing.”

So if the government and the government’s sword are good things, why should we separate ourselves from them? Doesn’t Jesus’ command to be the “salt of the earth” apply to politics?

When John the Baptist first began his ministry, a group of Roman soldiers came to him and asked, “What should we do?” John did not answer, “Lay down your weapons and desert the army!” He told them, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely – be content with your pay” (Luke 3:14). In other words, “Be good soldiers.”

I’ve reached my word limit. What say you?