What do you think?
Tuesday November 24, 2009
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Advertisement
Advertisement
Search This Blog
Recent Posts
About Jesus Creed
Scot McKnight is a widely-recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. He is the Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University (Chicago, Illinois). A popular and witty speaker, Dr. McKnight has given interviews on radios across the nation, has appeared on television, and is regularly asked to speak in local churches and educational events. Dr. McKnight obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Nottingham (1986). Click to continue reading Scot McKnight's Bio...
Subscribe
Featured Books
Tag Cloud
Advent, Bible, Creation, Evangelicalism, evolution, Faith, Faith and Politics, Faith and Spirituality, Generation Me, Genesis, Genesis 1, Gospel, Heresy, Homosexuality, iGens, James, James Brother of Jesus, James Epistle of, Jean Twenge, John Walton, New Perspective, Obama, Politics, Prayer, science and faith, Science and Faith, Spirituality, Third Way, Universalism, Youth Ministry
Calendar
Blogroll
Daily Prayers:
- A. Book of Common Prayer
- A. Book of Common Prayer 2
- A. Divine Hours
- A. Evening Prayer (Anglican)
- A. Morning Prayer (Anglican)
- Celtic Prayer
- Creeds of Christendom
- Eastern Orthodox Prayers
- Lectionary
- Liturgy of the Hours
- Missio Dei
Emerging Movement:
- Andrew Jones
- Andrew Perriman
- Anthony Stiff
- Art Boulet
- Bob Robinson
- Br. Maynard
- Dan Kimball
- David Fitch
- Dogwood Abbey
- Ecclesia Network
- Emerging Women
- Eugene Cho
- Henrik Holmgaard
- Jamie Arpin-Ricci
- Jazz Theologian
- John Frye
- John Lagrou
- Jonny Baker
- JR Briggs
- Leonard Hjamarlson
- LeRon Shults
- Lukas McKnight
- Peggy Brown
- Sivin Kit
- Stephen Shields
- Steve McCoy
- Steve Taylor
- Tamara Buchan
- The Practicing Church
- Tim Miekley
- Todd Hiestand
- Tom Smith (RSA)
- Tony Jones
Other sites I frequent:
- Allan Bevere
- Andy Rowell
- Attie Nel
- Barna
- Brad Boydston
- Chris Ridgeway
- CC Blogs
- Don Johnson
- Ed Gilbreath
- Erika Haub (Carney)
- Faith Blogging
- Falsani
- Fr. Rob
- Hummers
- iMonk
- James McGrath
- Jim Martin
- John Stackhouse
- JR Woodward
- Karen Spears Zacharias
- Laura Barringer
- LaVonne Neff
- LeaderFOCUS
- LL Barkat
- Luke/Annika
- Mark Galli
- Mark Roberts
- Michael Kruse
- Nexus
- Owen Youngman
- Ted Gossard
- Tom Wright
Recommended Online Readings:
Scholarly Books I've written:
- Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels
- Hist Jesus Anthology
- Interpreting the Synoptic Gospels
- Introducing NT Interpretation
- Jesus and His Death
- Jesus in Memory (ed.)
- New Vision for Israel
- Synoptics: Biblio
- The Face of New Testament Studies
- Who Do They Say I Am?
Scholarship Online:
- Apollos
- Books & Culture
- ChristianityToday
- CS Lewis
- EAC
- Early Xian Writings
- Euaggelion
- Gospels
- Jesus and His Death Blog
- Karl Barth Online
- Mark Goodacre's Weblog
- Online Journals Access
- Online Pseudepigraph
- Pete Enns
- Prime Time Jesus
- Theopedia
- ThinkTank
Stuff online:
- 5 Streams
- Big Muddy
- Catalyst Scripture
- Catching the Wave
- DaVinci Code
- Forgiveness
- Future or Fad?
- Gospel of Judas
- High Calling
- Interview on Emerging
- Interview with LL Barkat
- IVCF Eikons
- IVCF Gospel
- John Bunyan
- Keys of the Kingdom
- Lake Emerging
- Mary in CT
- Missional in Seattle
- Missional Matrix
- Nativity Story
- Never Alone
- New Perspective
- Pepperdine Interview
- Professor as Scholar
- Recl Mind Mary 1
- Robust Gospel
- Social Justice
- Trojan Horse 2
- WiredParish Mary Interview
- Word/World NPP
i think, again, we have people articulating a problem with "hard" pacifism...that's not where most pacifists/peace-makers stand...
For practical non-violence see the recent movie "Pray the devil back to hell" available through netflix. It is about the interfaith group of Liberian women (Christian, Muslim) who banded together to force an end to a civil war that began in 1989 and often made use of child soldiers. A key moment comes when they surround the building where the men are fooling around with peace talks. They link arm and arm and say, "We're not letting you out until you have negotiated a settlement." When threatened with arrest, they threatened to strip naked, thus shaming the security guards. Guess what? The men got to work and hammered it out.
Please... let us do some research and see the many times when conflict was ended after the LONG FAILURE of violence. C'mon folks, let be practical!
MatthewS - You're right. From a practical standpoint, in those extreme situations, nonviolence seems to leave one wanting for an option. This is precisely why the nonviolent teaching and life of Jesus is one of his hardest teachings. Many of Jesus teachings are flat-out impractical (beatitutdes).
It seems that, when threatened with torture and execution, of themselves and others, Jesus and the early Christians did not consider violence an acceptable response.
i can't bring myself to a point where i can imagine Jesus shooting a gun. is there any situation in which we can imagine Jesus shooting a gun, wielding a sword? as long as i can't imagine Jesus killing someone, i find it hard to believe he would ask his followers to IMITATE him by killing someone. even in self-defense.
I'm absolutely astonished that there have been 75 comments on this post without one mention of John Howard Yoder. Instead of recounting his arguments here, let me simply direct one *seriously* interested in Christian pacifism to his works:
(1) On personal/family protection from a violent intruder, see his book: WHAT WOULD YOU DO? (Herald Press)
(2) On how the Old Testament DOESN'T support war, see his essay, "From the Wars of Joshua to Jewish Pacifism" in his book THE WAR OF THE LAMB (Brazos)
(3) On how Jesus' life and death DOES serve as a pattern for Christians, see his book THE POLITICS OF JESUS (Eerdmans)
(4) For his criticism of just war theory, see his book: WHEN WAR IS UNJUST: BEING HONEST IN JUST WAR THINKING (Wipf & Stock)
(5) For his critical historical discussion of Christian views of war, see his book: CHRISTIAN ATTITUDES TO WAR, PEACE, AND REVOLUTION (Brazos)
(5) For responses to the many other pithy ways Christians dismiss pacifism (including comments made above), see his: THE ORIGINAL REVOLUTION: ESSAYS ON CHRISTIAN PACIFISM; DISCIPLESHIP AS POLITICAL RESPONSIBILITY; THE CHRISTIAN WITNESS TO THE STATE; and others.
If after reading any of the aforementioned texts, the reader is still willing to quickly dismiss pacifism as sub-biblical or sub-Christian, then by all means...
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.