Christian Nonviolence - a forgotten imperative?

To follow up on my thoughts yesterday, I reread some of Thomas Merton's thoughts on nonviolence. He was profoundly influenced by Gandhi's thinking and practice in this area, and Gandhi in turn had recognised his own debt to the Christian Gospels in his own thinking. Merton's essay, Blessed are the Meek, explores how the Christian approach to the nonviolent resistance of evil is founded on evangelical principles of justice, humility, love of neighbour, eschatalogical hope and love for the enemy. The refusal to employ violence in response to violence is based on the commitment to truth and to the wellbeing of all rather than the advancement of any partisan cause. Nonviolent methods used in the service of such partisan causes is mere manipulation.

Strikingly, Merton underlines the importance of acknowledging that we have something to learn from our enemy as a basis for commitment to nonviolence. I remember hearing the late Christopher Hitchens spitting with rage (literally) at the 'evil' Christian notion that we should love our enemy. He saw the world in rather binary terms and such a worldview inevitably leads to a constant and struggle in which no one ultimately triumphs. Christianity, on the other hand, acknowledges that our enemy may have something against us (Mt 5:23 - if your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift at the altar...). The humility to acknowledge this is the first step towards an outcome that benefits all and benefits the truth. Furthermore, if our enemy is 'one like us', do we not diminish humanity itself in seeking to destroy him or her? Merton's view is based on a more positive view of humanity than many so-called 'humanists' allow, but he is not unrealistic about the nature and depth of human sinfulness. There would be no need for nonviolent resistance in a world that was basically OK!

Merton also stresses the eschatalogical patience needed to act nonviolently. He draws on the 'Kingdom' parables that speak of seeds growing silently to show that our small actions in resisting evil nonviolently begin to make real what is already promised in the inaugurated Kingdom [interestingly, Merton was a fan of C.H. Dodd - this could explain his take on these parables!]. He describes our lust for instant results as a fetish.

Nonviolence is the ultimate recognition that means must be consistent with ends. If we use violence to overcome violence, we have already submitted to its 'logic'. As I said yesterday, the Cross has already offered us another way, and it is a costly way. Nonviolence demands commitment, faith and courage.

It seems to me that the Christian insights into nonviolent resistance that were developed in the wake of Gandhi's leadership of his people and during the civil rights movement and the Vietnam war have receded from the churches' consciousness, at least in the Northern hemisphere. Have we turned our backs on the violence in the world? Have we bought into a secularist myth that we are so much nicer than we used to be? Have we become so wedded to the power interests of rich elites that we no longer know how to speak prophetically? Or have we withdrawn into a cosy spirituality that has become disconnected from the suffering world? I don't know, but it does seem to me that we would do well to recover a deeper commitment to nonviolent resistance of the violence that still surrounds us.

Justluckie

A curious reader

07/09/2013

Christian Nonviolence - a forgotten imperative?

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