Every year, more and more young people from our church sign up for the military. As I watch this unfold I ask myself why this is happening. Has the church been lax about confessing our pacifistic views? For this reason, I felt compelled to make my own confession known. You see, I, myself, am a Christian Pacifist. I have been one since September, 2001 when I studied the church's pacifistic doctrines after 9/11. I was so angry at what had occurred and anyone who knows me knows the temper I struggle with. I joined in the nation's response of outrage and found myself saying, "bomb them," even out loud. That week, at the request of our church president, I prayed and studied God's word so that I would know what the proper response was to these brutal acts, the Godly response. Our church president, asked that we spend the Sabbath morning in bible study over what our response should be. Because I was the youth teacher at the time, before the Sabbath, I attempted to prepare a bible study for them regarding the 9/11 occurrence and our stand as believers. I was sure that as I studied, I would find some indication that it was okay to respond to the attack on America
He showed me His Way and if I was to be a follower, I must deny my way and accept His as my own. Loving Jesus as much as I did and still do, I chose to obey though it was exceedingly hard. I suppressed my opinionated personality full of rage and retaliation and affirmed the church's doctrinal beliefs on war and retaliation. I believe I even sent an email to the president of the church with my conclusions of study after he sent a request to us on whether we should revisit the issue.
I know there are opinions on both sides of this stand and I, in no way, am trying to cause division or controversy. We are all brothers in Christ and I'm sure that the stand people make contrary to my own is also derived through careful study, meditation and prayer. The purpose of this confession, and that is what this is, my confession, is to bring light to who I am. We must start with confessing with our lips before we can carryout our beliefs with our lives. I have been a Christian Pacifist for 9 years in head theology alone, but not in active terms and not even verbally.
Though I am a Christian Pacifist, it does not mean I do not honor the military soldier. A soldier is willing to die for a cause and that I honor. However, a soldier also has to kill for a cause and as a follower of Christ, I cannot partake in that.
Many Christians who believe in Justified War, (“Just War”), believe Pacifists allow injustices to continue by being passive to the acts of injustice. This is a crucial misconception of what Christian Pacifism is. To define the term “Christian Pacifist,” I must first say that pacifism is not passiveness. Pacifism requires a response - to pacify. Passiveness requires no response - to let it pass. A Christian Pacifist does not let things pass but instead enacts the ways of Jesus in order to pacify the violence around us.
Also, I am not a Pacifist absent the Christian. If it were up to me, my personality and my make-up full of temper that I need to bring to Christ on a daily basis, I would not be a Pacifist. It is only because of Christ that I am. Therefore, I am a Christian Pacifist. I do not believe in violence of any form including violence as retaliation or defense. I do, on the other hand, believe we should not be passive either but active in the ways of Christ.
I find that as I type this description of who I am, Satan reminds me of the various times I wanted to punch someone in the face or even the times I’ve thrown things across the room in a rant. So let me clarify, every day I wake up, I must deny myself, pick up the cross and follow Him. Perhaps my failures in this area of my Christian walk stem from the fact that I haven’t, until now, confessed to being a Christian Pacifist. After all, if you don’t know that I am one then how can you hold me to it? So I remind myself on a daily basis, who I am. I am a Jesus following, wanna be like Him, Christian Pacifist. I choose God not guns because in God there is real power and strength that is eternal and beyond this world scope.
I remember sitting in the office lunchroom with a co-worker. Somehow my Christian pacifistic views came up and she asked me the famous question asked to all pacifists, "What if someone breaks in your house and threatens your children?" Questions such as these are not raised to affirm, deny, or reduce theology. This is a question of methodology. The question itself reminds me of those asked when we confess to being Pro-Life. Being Pro-Life affirms the theology that life begins at conception and the abortion of an unborn child ends human life. Yet someone almost always asks, "What if a woman is raped?" This question does not combat the theology of when life begins but instead questions the methodology. It asks, “how we are supposed to carry out this theology in midst of this broken world?” Nevertheless, the answer to this question is quite clear. Christ has an answer for the methodology and it is love. Love is the method by which we carry out all of the commands by Christ. Love is often mistaken for a feeling; however, Jesus defines the greatest love to be an act - the laying down of life for his friends. See John 15:13. John affirms Christ’s definition of love in 1 John 3:16, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us.” Love is not a self-satisfying act or even a feeling. Love is self-sacrificing act for the benefit of others. Love is our method.
Enacting the ways of Christ will bring about change of our circumstance in this broken world and yet sometimes it will still result in earthly death. Earthly death may still be the result of our Christian pacifistic ways as was the result of many of the early Christians. Their persecution and executions were unjust, yet they, who were taught by Jesus himself or by the apostles, did not fight back and were unanimously against violence even as a defense or retaliation. After all, even Christ himself suffered an earthly death. We must affirm the scriptures in that dying is not the worst thing that can happen to us. In fact, scripture teaches that death is better. I may be so bold as to say that the worst thing that can happen to us is to be outside the will of God, which is our disobedience. Christ was not disobedient to the will of God. He submitted to it, though it was a hard cup to swallow. In Matthew 26:39, Jesus said, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will but as you will." And with that visions of the TV show Lost come racing to mind when Jack Shepherd drinks the cup that is given to him.
But back to my confession, in Matthew 26:53, Jesus also said He could have called down twelve legions of angels to defend him from death. A legion was a military term, equaling 6,000 troops. Jesus could have defended himself with an angel military, but He chose to obey the will of God and thereby laid down His life. His life was not taken away from Him, it was freely given by Him. Because of His act, not passiveness, but his act of giving up His life, we have all attained peace with God; peace with God!
Jesus’ obedience, though it was hard, suffered Him much, and resulted in his death, which brought about God's kingdom on earth. You see, though we live in this world, we are not of it. Read the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:1-7:27. Jesus IS the new way of life, the new world order and as his followers we are signed up to be citizens of His new nation, God's kingdom on earth. In John 18:36, Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place." We are the people of this nation, the Jesus nation. In 1 Peter 2:9, we read, “But you are a chose race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” This is the kingdom we signed up for and the state we are citizens of. The flag I wave is red for the blood Christ shed on the cross and for the Living Word that He is.
I confess it now, I am a Christian Pacifist.
"Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict, a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love." - Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Prize acceptance speech,
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