The weakness of retaliation
Violence and retaliation are not things in a Christian's toolbelt
As someone who teaches in an inner-city school where every student gets free breakfast and lunch and where I’ve known kids actually in gangs, I daily encounter a violence mindset. Many of my kids are in survival mode and this unfortunately produces, more often than not, a tendency to react quickly and with force.
Recently I had an eye-rolling situation where kids were throwing crumbled-up paper balls at each other. So cliche. Sometimes I’d only catch the retaliation and not the initial attack. But the students would protest—they threw it at me first, so it’s okay that I throw it back! I was even told, as I am almost weekly, that their parent says they can always fight back if someone antagonizes them.
That situation was just paper. But there have been so many other situations where fighting back was excused because “they started it” and “my mom said I can beat anyone up who threatens me.” Last year I had to physically restrain a kid attacking another as retaliation for a “yo mama” comment. Half the fights we have at school are because “I heard from so-and-so that so-and-so said something bad about me".”
This is the violence mindset. While school policy is that fighting and throwing is always bad no matter who did it first, the kids don’t see it that way. In their minds, they get free range to punch, kick, and throw paper balls. All in the name of revenge. All in the name of showing they aren’t wimps. All because they believe violence is necessary.
I teach my kids all the time that true strength is actually not reacting so strongly against slights against them. It actually shows incredible weakness if you just give into the first firey feeling that sparks inside you! Strength is self-control (a fruit of the Spirit, don’t forget!) I try to train my kids to solve problems in other ways—one of the most effective tactics is often to just ignore it.
Yet I wish I could blame this all on “kids being kids” and I wish I could say that none of this applies to Christians… but….
Trust me when I say that though I have a long history of controversial options and engagement in debates that I never see so much anger than when I explain to someone that I believe in nonviolence and that hurting people is bad.
People’s emotions boil to the surface because nonviolence flies in the face of our biological need to protect ourselves and to be protected by others. Because of a commitment to nonviolence, I’ve been accused of being the type of person who would sit idly by while my family is being slaughtered. I’ve been accused of wanting rapists and murderers to wander the streets because I won’t shoot them on sight. I’ve been accused of being unloving for daring to suggest that even the worst monsters don’t deserve the death penalty, as everyone has a capacity for redemption.
[For more on this, see my article “Sympathy for the Devil: Jeffrey Dahmer and the Tension of Redemption” published in Pop Culture and Theology]
But to me there are few things more central to my faith than a commitment to nonviolence. I can’t see Jesus any other way.
If anyone had a “right” to be violent, it was Jesus. He knew people’s hearts and he was arrested and sentenced to death in a sham trial. With his God-powers, the dude could have jumped off the cross and seriously whipped some Roman gluteus maximus. But, as much as we hate it, not resisting violence is key to his character.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructs his followers to react revolutionarily to people forcing them to do stuff. The NRSV heading even helpfully sums the whole section up as “Concerning Retaliation.” He begins by recognizing that worldly wisdom says “strike back!” but that’s not what he commands.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you: Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also, and if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, give your coat as well, and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.”
-Matthew 6:38-42
Sound pleasant? Not really. Trust me, I’m a stubborn guy who doesn’t like to be told what to do. I’m not the type to just roll over when commanded. But I can’t ignore Jesus’ instructions, no matter how uncomfortable they make me. And while I get there is some complexity in the passage that needs to be parsed out, the key nugget of truth that can’t be glossed over is that our reaction should not be one of violence!
It’s not a coincidence that Jesus follows up that lesson about not retaliating with a lesson on loving our enemies. He again notes what the world believes and then he says the opposite.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
-Matthew 6:43-48
As a history teacher, I can tell you that most of the atrocities of the world are committed because a group of people has determined another group of people are not quite as human, are underdeveloped as a society, or are just plain evil. We only carry out violence on someone whom we deem as “less than.” So it makes great sense that Jesus would connect not retaliating violently to loving our enemies. Loving our enemies forces us to recognize that they are children of God too, no matter how astray. They are deserving of life and health simply because they are fellow humans.
Again—is this an easy pill to swallow? Nope.
In his book on nonviolence, New Testament scholar Preston Sprinkle helpfully notes the tension of the practice:
Were it not for the life, teaching, death, resurrection, and universal lordship of King Jesus, I would not advocate nonviolence. No way. It doesn’t make any human sense to me to let somebody beat me up. Apart from Jesus and the good news of His atoning death and life-giving resurrection, nonviolence seems ridiculous.
-Preston Sprinkle, Fight: A Christian Case for Nonviolence
Nonviolence makes no earthly sense. But neither does the Gospel. The Gospel Way is so often less “efficient” and less immediately satisfying. I understand why we want to punish and retaliate when unspeakable crimes are committed against us—it might seem the most prudent and pleasing option—but there is no room for violence in the Kingdom of God. God’s Kingdom has a different set of rules.
This topic spurs a whole lot fo “Whataboutisms” that are often conversations we should have. However, for the purpose of this newsletter, let’s just keep in mind that Jesus’ rules for society would have violence play a nonexistent part.
Question of the Week
Leave your answer in the comment section below or reply to this email.
What does practicing nonviolence look like in your Christian walk?
My “Goings On”
I went to Canada recently and finally finished writing book two of Super Jake!
Fight ya later,
Jake Doberenz
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