At 07:39 PM 12/12/01 -0500, [Don Kelly] wrote:

I appreciate these emails. I assume we swapped addresses at the peace college -- which I also appreciated.

And, having been to a Mennonite Seminary, I appreciate the idea that if Jesus calls us to non-violence and if we are to follow Jesus -- then we should not use violence.

But, personally, I am not convinced that is exactly what Jesus calls us to.

There are a lot of thoughtful theologians and other thinking types that do not believe Jesus calls us to "pure pacifism" as I call it. (A pure pacifism would rule out a Christina being a police person, and fighting in any war).

And, personally, I am not so sure about Jesus himself. Maybe he was a great teacher and some kind of good fellow -- but should we take his (probably garbeled) statements to run our lives by? A lot of you would say yes, but I am not sure.

As my uncle (a theologian by the way) said once, "if we all adopted pacifism -- who would defend the helpless" (loose quote). A USA that all became pacifist might soon (probably) be over run by another country and then there might be loads of killings and torture.

Sure, at least then we would not be doing it to others. In this the Mennonites I talked with speak true. But, the total volume of human suffering might increase.

This is not to say I support what we are doing in Afghanistan or what we did and are still doing in Iraq (OH SHIT!). I just want to say that there are some among us that are not quite convinced of the pacifist method of getting to peace. We might propose a more balanced method to acheiving peace (if I were more educated - for now I will just raise questions).

For the record, whatever this means to you. Thanks for reading.

Don Kelly

Don, thanks for the reply. The type of pacifism that arose out of the Anabaptist tradition was the nonresistant type of pacifism. However, if one looks closely at Jesus' ethic, that was not what he taught and lived. The type of pacifism Jesus exhibited and taught was active nonviolent resistance to evil, and he clearly preached against homicidal violence, discrimination, economic oppression, the power of wealth or military power.

His love was agapeistic, and he taught very clearly the unconditonal love of friend and enemy -- and lived that way! The success and power of those truths were proved by the resurrection, which is the act that convinced the disciples about what Jesus' ministry was all about.

The act of being willing to suffer by interposing our bodies or risking suffering by speaking up for the oppressed, but doing so without resorting to violence is the key. Doing the preventive acts of nonviolence, with such Christlike acts as mercy, love, forgiveness, healing, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, releasing the captive, etc is practical since one is creating friends out of potential enemies rather than ignoring them and creating enemies who one may have to kill later.

Christian nonviolence is very practical stuff, but it has to be done deliberately and consciously and only then will the reality hit: living as Jesus lived and teaching as Jesus taught is preventive and our nation's committment to eye for an eye retaliation is a recipe for disaster, which may only affect your and my children and grandchildren when the retaliation against us warmakers comes home to roost.

This is such a huge topic, and the bibliography is so vast that I had better stop here. I would suggest checking out the Every Church A Peace Church (ECAPC) website at http://www.ecapc.org for more, but if you really want the greatest testimony to Christian nonviolence (History, Theology and Spirituality) purchase the very affordable audiotape set entitled "A Thorough Introduction to Christian Nonviolence" from the Center for Christian Nonviolence in Baxter, MN by emailing for ordering information. The email address is doyscher@brainerd.net, and tell them Gary Kohls sent you. Of course Walter Wink's book Engaging the Powers is excellent, as are many of (the Mennonite scholar) John Howard Yoder's books. John Stoner, the coordinator of ECAPC (jstoner@ecapc.org), from Akron, PA would be helpful to you too in recommending appropriate readings on active nonviolence from a Christian faith basis. A couple of articles that I have written on the subject are attached.

Godspeed. Gary G. Kohls, MD, 1306 E 8th St, Duluth, MN 55805

Christian Nonviolence and The Church
Christian Nonviolence -- Heresy? Or The Peace Plan Of God