Absorbing Violence

An article by Frank    1 Comment

For some time I have been considering what it really looks like to stand with the poor and oppressed as a Christian. I believe this is something central to what it means to live the Christian life and pursue the things God cares about as demonstrated through the life of Jesus.

Through my journey of shaping my life in this direction I have found myself feeling admiration towards movements that I simply do not sit well with. It is an admiration that has troubled me.

In his book, Violence, Jacques Ellul talks of the natural human inclinations when using one’s life to stand with the poor and oppressed. He makes the point that if one follows their natural human inclinations then the instinctual response will eventually kick in and violence will be used as a tool to further the cause of the marginalised. He points to Christian perspectives that have engaged and embraced such forms of revolution and argued it to be a Christian outworking of God’s call to stand with the down-trodden.

It is my understanding that it is this natural human inclination that has endowed me with admiration for revolutionary movements even when those movements have employed violence to achieve their ends. That said, there is a tension I feel, for whilst that admiration has existed, there is another part of me that is not comfortable with it. This second part of me tells me that it is wrong to support any movement of violence no matter how justifiable it might seem in my eyes. This part of the tension doesn’t appeal to my senses so much. It doesn’t feel as glorious. It feels harder and I know that if I give it more time, it’s going to lead to a bunch of questions that I cannot answer and it’s probably going to make me look silly in the eyes of many since violence is so easily justifiable in the face of injustices and acts of evil. This part of my tension keeps telling me there is no way I can, as a Christian, justify such violence when Jesus is my standard.

You see, I think Christ calls us beyond our natural human inclinations. Christ calls us beyond the logical end of violent revolution when everything in us is given to the cause of liberating people from the chains of poverty and marginalisation. The life of Jesus and the Kingship of Jesus compels me to reject violent revolution as an answer even when every part of my humanity is telling me it is the only answer and the inevitable answer if I really want to liberate those I feel I am to serve. Instead I am called to a way forward that offends every part of my humanity, a way that works against all my logic. The way I am called to, as a Christian, rejects power and everything that would seek it; it embraces self sacrifice; it embraces service; it embraces a willingness to absorb the violence of others as we “stand in the gap” for those who have no voice.

Here me, this is not a pacifist stance where pacifism is simply a trendy rejection of violence and a limp standing aside while the poor are ripped apart by the forces that seek to push them down and abuse them, no, this is a stance that embraces the life of Christ and embraces the way of the cross. This is not a straight rejection of violence, it is an absorption of violence. It is a stance that does not view us as liberators of the poor, oppressed and those marginalised by our world, instead, it is an embodiment of a servant to such people and groups. I am not a liberator. I am not a saviour. I am a servant.

With this in mind, my thoughts are moving from admiration of revolutionary movements that seek power and violence as tools of liberation to sympathy. It is a sympathy that understands the motive and the frustration that leads to such courses of action, but it is a sympathy that looks on and realises that my calling is to something else, something that challenges and offends me far more. The way Christ offers is the face of violence and power is not one that makes sense and it is not an easy path, but it is one that must be pursued. Until we truly embrace the rejection of power and the absorption of violence as we stand in the gap between the oppressor and oppressed, the Christian voice will simply be a mute tool given to the trends of the day. Until we embrace this way we will have nothing unique to offer and the cycles of violence, destruction and oppression will continue.

May we be guided to a better way that truly offers something to this broken world.