BoppWeBlog

Ultimately, someone declaring themselves a Christian must hold their world view against the teachings of Christ. What I feel I must do as a Christian is take each element that I stand by in my world view, each piece I claim as truth, and hold it against what is central to my life, my faith in God. So with this said, what does it mean for a Christian (in this case myself) when it comes to issues of war and violence?

I’ll start with Jesus, referring to possibly his most popular teaching , ‘The sermon on the mount’. He says “In everything, treat people the same way your want them to treat you, for this is the law.” Throughout his life, Jesus taught that the first priority of a Christian is to love God, the second, to love fellow humans. Jesus also said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” It seems to me that Jesus did not teach against the Old Testament, or the ‘Old Law’, but rather he took what was the most important ‘laws’ of following God, and emphasized that they should be more rigorously observed. He affirmed the notion of loving your neighbor, being against killing, but he took it much further. He maintained there was no room for violence, or even anger at times was wrong. His message was to love everyone, even your enemies. When Jesus was arrested and Peter drew his sword he scolded Peter saying that whoever lives by the sword will die by the sword. Jesus lived the ultimate life of peace even forgiving his torturers at his death.

Jesus also says, “Your have heard it said: An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, resist not him that is evil.” This is particularly interesting since this was opposing a quote from Exodus. Not only this but great men of God like Samson, Joshua, and Gideon, where military men. Despite this Jesus and his followers maintained that Jewish law should be held to a higher standard. And that even though war and violence had been tolerated in the past, they would be no longer. This kind of teaching was one of the fundamentals of Christianity for the first several centuries following Jesus’ time on earth. Christians rejected warfare in all its institutions. The ‘original Christians’ were devoted to anti-militarism.

Jesus never explicitly called out the issue of war that I can tell, but that doesn’t make it any less important in my mind. After all, to use this kind of logic by saying it was never addressed and therefore permissible would be to do the same as those who advocated slavery.

I’ve read about many early Christians who taught along these lines of non-violence. First century Christian writer Ignatius called for an abolition of warfare. Second century writer Origenes Adamantius said that a Christian must refuse warfare even if mandated by the state (in his case the emperor of Rome). It was because of all this that Christians became so troublesome to the Roman empire and were seen as such a threat. Those who are anti war are often seen as anti-state, and a menace to society. Mozi, a first century Christian, said that it was wrong to put your loyalty of your own country above your loyalty to God. I this this is an awesome statement. I love America, but my first and foremost allegiance is to God.

Many people in the history of the church who have been made saints got there by their life of strong anti-violent stances and teachings. (unfortuntely, there are some saints who acheived recognition by the opposite in later church history).

I feel strongly that Jesus came to teach us that peace and love (sounds a bit hippyish) along with our allegiance to God is to be our ‘Golden Rule’ - Even if this is contrary to how we feel, and what we see from fellow humans, and even Christians around us.

One time I was having a conversation with a friend of mine, and we were talking about what it meant to be a trustworthy person. I considered myself trustworthy. If someone told me something in confidence I wouldn’t blab it around to others. I didn’t revel in the misfortune of others… most of the time. I didn’t talk negative about people… unless they did something really negative… or funny. So here I am thinking I was doing OK. After all, the way I am is what I expect from others whom I have average respect for. All in all, I am at a median of trustworthiness. Hmmm… I didn’t like the sound of this. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that just because I didn’t ‘backstab’ someone often didn’t mean I was all that trustworthy.

I tried to think of others in my life. How trustworthy were they? What does it look like to not say ANYTHING bad about anyone, ever?

Well, I had myself a new goal. It didn’t seem that hard. I could do it. No more badmouthing others, no matter what the circumstance. But it proved harder than I thought. I occasionally found myself talking negatively about others in casual conversations, typically about people I really didn’t know that well and done in an indirect fashion. I talked with friends about my new goal, and everyone seemed as though they were in the same boat. Snap! It’s tough to actually live this out, every minute of every day. I was beginning to think my new goal was pretty rare to find.

I began thinking about how this may have been perceived by others around me. And I came to this conclusion. The people I am close to for the most part have nothing to worry about and can really put their trust in me. People I don’t know too well might be at more risk for some ‘badmouthin’, but these people don’t give a crap. After all, they don’t know me that well. I found that the people who are in the ‘risky zone’ are those that I know, and interact with regularly, but aren’t really close to me in terms of friendship. Hmmm, I’m feeling pretty rotten bout now.

So I continued to work through this process of becoming a better more trustworthy person, and at times it felt pretty heavy. Then, a few months ago, I experienced the tragic loss of my Dad to a unexpected heart attack. In my time of mourning I created a blog as a tribute to him. I used the blog to talk about how wonderful he was and how much he meant to me. It was through this process that I discovered something. Dad was the man! Not once in my life could I recall him ever speaking anything remotely negative about others. He ALWAYS gave people the benefit of the doubt. He saw the good in people when it was pretty tough to see.

Now I have a model of what I am aspiring to be like. I’m sure Dad had his moments that I’m not aware of, but I like it that way. I’ve always respected my Dad and dreamed of being the man he was, but this was a big deal to me. Up until now I was beginning to think it was an unattainable goal. Everyone confided in my Dad, and respected him so much. I know for a fact this wasn’t easy for him, but it was worth it. And this is who I want to be.

I’d like to think that I have progressed over the months and days. And hopefully others will see me one day as I saw my Dad. A rare, trustworthy, admirable man.