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Christianity Today, December, 2007 |

Courageous Nonviolence

At the first Christmas, the angels proclaimed, 'Peace on earth.' Just-war and pacifist Christians together can make it happen.

Ron Sider | posted 12/19/2007 08:59AM

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If Christians with both just-war and pacifist convictions truly mean what they have been saying for centuries about war and peace, then they have no choice. Nonviolence has worked. It's time to invest large amounts of money and time in serious training and deployment. We cannot know ahead of time what will happen. But we already know that unless we do this, our Christian rhetoric about war will be both hypocritical and dishonest.

It's time to live what we preach.

Ron Sider is the founder and president of Evangelicals for Social Action, and the author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (Thomas Nelson, 2005) and The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience (Baker, 2005).

Related Elsewhere:

CPT and Witness for Peace have more information on their missions on their websites.

Christianity Today articles on peacemaking and Christian Peacemaker Teams include:

Blessed Are the Peacemakers | Quotations to stir heart and mind. (December 17, 2007)

The Peacemaking Process | A call to evangelicals to respond to a significant Muslim overture. (October 25, 2007)

Nepal's New Peacemakers | Christians become voice for freedom after national crisis. (February 9, 2007)

Peace Be with You | Christ's resurrection not only frees us from death, but also frees us from using it. (April 18, 2006)

Mercy in Baghdad | North Americans endure bombing to chronicle the war's effects on civilians. (May 1, 2003)

Peacemakers Seek to Show War from Point of View of Iraqi Civilians | Six Christian Peacemaker Team members remain in Iraq as bombs drop. (March 1, 2003)

Weapons of the Spirit | "Regardless of their positions on Iraq, Christians have much they can do" A Christianity Today editorial (March 1, 2003)

Standing for Peace on the Eve of War | Christian group seeks nonviolent solution in Iraq. (March 12, 2003)

Risking Life for Peace | Caught between rebels, paramilitaries, and crop-dusters, peacemaking Christians put their lives on the line in violent Colombia. (September 7, 2001)

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December 2007, Vol. 51, No. 12

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Alex	Posted: December 28, 2007 10:09 AM

Thank you Mr. Sider. I have been impressed with the CPT for a while now and have thought if we (as a global or local church) could only get organized to do this kind of "standing in the gap" on a massive scale, imagine the impact. Let's get this going. Keep us updated on how we can help financially or otherwise. I hope Christianity Today will help to provide a mouthpiece for such a large scale ongoing operation.

Kozak

Posted: December 27, 2007 11:30 AM

I see way too much naivete and historical ignorance in the CPT's. In Iraq the violence is perpetrated by Muslims who think of Christians as contemptible inferiors. Teams that think that "all people are basically the same" will get nowhere, or will be cynically used, or will be martyred. In a place like Nicaragua, stopping the guerrilla war on these grounds just ratifies the status quo, unless you also get a commitment from the leaders to pressure the government. Also, Christians may be united in opposing bloodshed, but may differ 180 degrees in their desired outcome. In Palestine some Christians want Israel to rule the entire place, others want a Palestinian state. Even if you manage to stop the fighting, what then?

ScottR

Posted: December 27, 2007 10:40 AM

We must also stop to consider if we are waging a "just peace". Are we using the absence of war as a masquerade for gross injustice and oppression (i.e. Salt Treaties, Hitler, North Korea, UN "sanctions")? I think Ron Sider underestimates the nature of evil and has been too strongly swayed by the peace-at-all-costs movement He also seems to overlook parts of Scripture. Ecclesiastes says it most simply: there is "a time for war and a time for peace." Exodus states clearly, "The LORD is a warrior; the LORD is his name." Also, the image in Revelation 12 of the baby slipping past the mouth of the dragon --and the ensuing battle-- is hardly a peaceful one. The Kingdom of God does not always come so peacefully -- just war can reap a harvest of wholeness and healing. Having said that, Ron Sider made me stop and think -- Do we wage war too easily? Have we learned from our mistakes? Can we better reconcilers? How do we follow a God who calls Himself both Lion of Judah and Prince of Peace?

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