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Following Jesus in nonviolent struggle for justice and peace, we love our neighbors and enemies as God loves us all, becoming a peace church to share in Gods work to save the world.

Peace to This House: Human Nature

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      Last week I suggested three elements of recognizing persons of peace when we enter a house carrying the gospel of peace. The first is to believe that there could be a person of peace in the house.

      It cannot be assumed that we believe this. It has to do with our view of human nature, our anthropology, if you will. There is widespread belief, and teaching, in our culture and churches that human nature is fundamentally and genetically violent. From this belief flows the idea that only superior violence can restrain the natural propensity of humans for violence. From this flows our addiction to war, and on smaller scales, our use of coercion in parenting and irrational belief in policing as a pillar of social order.

     This is a very big subject, but briefly, one simple reality gives persuasive and pervasive evidence that human nature is not fundamentally violent, and more specifically, not homicidal. That is, that we are not wired to kill other people. And that simple reality is the massive, expensive, protracted and utterly reprehensible reality which is so innocently called "boot camp."   Parris Island.

    People have to be trained, retrained, programmed, brainwashed and coerced into becoming killers of other people. That is what boot camp is designed to do and what it does. This, admittedly is a counter-cultural description of boot camp. The gospel is a counter-culteral message, Jesus was a counter-cultural messenger.

     As peacemakers, as ambassadors of the reign of God, when we go with our message and encounter other people in search of allies in the task of peacemaking, we can and we should do it with a Jesus-like expectation that human nature is wired to respond to loving acts, to commit loving acts, and to heal the world with loving acts. That is the way Jesus approached people, it can be our way of approaching people.

John K. Stoner jstoner@ecapc.org

Comments

John:

Who is the "we" in your essay? Is it Christians or people in general? What is the widespread belief you mention? The doctrine of original sin or some form of Dawkins 'violent gene?' Thanks for clarifying..

Posted by: michael

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