Please join me in praying for
the people of Minnesota in the light of the recent tragic shootings
there. Regardless of the political views any of us may hold,
violence in the name of law enforcement is a practice that must be employed
very carefully, lest it become brutal oppression.
Throughout history -- including in
Jesus’ own day and time -- violence has been used by those in power
as a suppression tactic to silence those who disagree. As examples, one
need only reflect on the military violence used by the British government to “suppress"
the “radical” patriots during the American Revolution, or the enforcement of "Jim
Crow" laws in the late 19th and early 20th century against black
Americans, the violence used both by protestors and law enforcement during the
American race riots of the 1960s, of the crackdown and killing of protestors
by the Soviets in Czechoslovakia in 1968, or the brutal violence used by the Chinese government in Tiananmen
Square in 1989 to suppress the Democracy movement there.
Yet, our American nation was
built on the right of its people to protest what they feel is
unlawful, unjust and/or immoral. So, whether or not we agree with what is being protested,
both violence used in protest and violence used simply
to silence those protests is un-American and
un-Christian. At its core, our Christian faith is based on Jesus’ teachings
and practices of non-violence (for example, read Matthew 5:9 and 38-48, Luke 22:47-53,
and others), and non-violent protest movements such as those of Mahatmas Ghandi
in India in the early 20th-century and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
in America in the 1960s are faithful examples of this.
Speaking against the oppression of
the Nazis in Hitler’s 1930s Germany, pastor, author and anti-Nazi dissident
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote this now-famous challenge to people of Christian
faith, “Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against
violence, arbitrariness and pride of power and with its plea for the weak
Christians are doing too little to make these points clear rather than too
much. Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power.
Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are
doing now. Christians should take a stronger stand in favor of the weak rather
than considering first the possible right of the strong.” (cited
from https://brianmclaren.net/more-on-violence-from-bonhoeffer/)
I’m not asking you to agree with
me about all (or any) of this -- unlike much of today’s world, you and I can choose
to be civil and “agree to disagree,” if needed -- but I do hope and pray that
you will join me in praying for peace in Minnesota and anywhere in our nation
or world where violence is being used to either to protest or enforce any
“law.” Lord in your mercy, hear our prayers for peace!
