A Christian Non-Violence Doubleheader

Terry Dosh- April 2nd, 2002

"It is easy to get the people to go to war, and it is done the same in England, in the United States, in France, in Germany - just tell the people they are in danger, and denounce the pacifists as unpatriotic."
Smiling mischievously, Terry Dosh asked a group of St. Joan's parishioners who they thought had uttered those charming words. Someone muttered John Ashcroft, but it was Hitler's very own man Hermann Goring, we learned, and Terry gently comforted us with the knowledge that we hadn't always been so easy to manipulate. Throughout the first 150 years of its' young life, the Christian church was in fact an emphatically pacifist church, neither defending itself nor attacking others, although beset by often brutal persecution.

"Only peace can begat peace," St. Paul had written to the church at Rome, and the infant church "walked the talk." Terry threw up his hands, asking "what happened?"

Needing loyal citizens and soldiers, the crumbling Roman Empire first coerced, then co-opted the church, and by 300 A.D. it was the official state religion. Whereas previously, you could be an officer in the Roman army only if you were not a Christian, Christianity was now a requirement if you wished to be an officer. Suddenly the church was developing such concepts as the "just war" theory, with its' legalistic requirements of "proportionate" means, "good intentions" and a legal declaration. Ever the wit, Terry mused in mock innocence: "Just war, hmm. Tell me, could we by the same reasoning conjure up a "just adultery" theory?"

In just a few karate chops, Terry took out the alleged Biblical support for war. Such phrases as "obey the authorities", and "a strong man armed" are simply taken out of context. Closing, he challenged his listeners: why do we ignore the pacifism of the New Testament, and what are the obstacles that blind us to this perception?

Roy Wolf- April 9th, 2002

Roy Wolf picked up the baton a week later at St. Joan's, declaring "non-violence is the clearest single theme in the New Testament" and repeated the great words of Christ: "love your enemies", "put away your sword," "do not return evil for evil," and "forgive 70 times 70." These teachings recur again and again, he said, how can this great church with hundreds of millions of believers continue to ignore this great truth? It is, we realized , Christianity's "elephant in the living room".

"People want peace, But not the things That make for peace"
Quoting Dorothy Day, Roy gave us a our first clue as to how we manage to ignore this most fundamental of Christ's teachings. He explained further that becoming a peacemaker can make you crazy, ruin your life, or even cost you your life. All of this is explained more fully in Roy's tongue- in-cheek book on his life as a peacemaker in Minnesota, "Many Are Called But Most Are Frozen."

Chuck Collins is a 14 year parishioner, a lawyer who has worked with organized labor for 28 years. Chuck claims he is not violent about anything except when he can't find even one pair of matching socks in the morning.
"We need a new name, too," he quipped:." Pacifism is not passive." Roy asked us to look at the incredible Norwegian effort during the German occupation of 1940-45. Although offering virtually no shooting resistance, the Norwegians used a united and courageous non-cooperation, which stymied the occupiers at nearly every effort to organize production or military support. Roy prefers the Sanskrit word meaning "peace-force" but acknowledges he is still open for nominations. 'You came here tonight for some good reason" he reassured us, "find it, inform yourself, and move yourselves to action."

"Get in touch with your own capacity to be a peacemaker."
 - Roy Wolf

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