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Friends United Meeting |
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Quaker Life
April 2003
A Christian Pacifist
By Lloyd Lee Wilson
I am a Christian pacifist. For 300 years following the resurrection of Jesus that would have been a redundant statement: it was understood that all Christians were pacifists. We know that some Christians even allowed themselves to be killed rather than join the Roman army. But that belief is rare today.
Becoming a Christian is not an intellectual declaration, but a transformational experience. In that transformation Christ breaks the shell and the bonds of our old life, and gives us each a new life, with a new spirit and a new heart; a new desire to do God's will and a new strength to do it.
It is the shared experience of the Religious Society of Friends, that as the transformation progresses, one discovers the guidance and companionship of Christ within. Christ's "Behold, I am with you always" has become literally true. When we examine ourselves in this new life, we discover that among many other blessings, we are now living in that life and power that takes away the occasion of war—all the reasons and excuses for fighting other human beings have fallen away.
As a Christian, there are at least four reasons why I "utterly den" all wars and preparation for war and fighting with outward weapons.
1. Lusts. We usually think of lust as involving intense sexual cravings, but when the Epistle of James tells us that wars come from lusts (James 4:1), a broader meaning is intended. Lust is the intense desire for those things that I do not have and which it would be wrong for me to possess. As a Christian I've been redeemed from my bondage to the lusts, in all their multiple forms. The freedom Christ gives me from the covetousness of my old life frees me from the urge to fight to fulfill those desires. There is no longer an occasion, or reason, for me to make war.
2. An explicit command—Christ my King has by command (Matthew 26) and example disarmed me. Peter attempted to defend Christ by violence, cutting off the ear of the servant of the high priest. What better justification could there be for fighting: the defense of the perfectly innocent and defenseless against a violent enemy with evil intent? But Christ said to Peter, "Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword." When Christ disarmed Peter he disarmed all Christians.
3. War is counterproductive. As a Christian, I yearn for and work for the coming of the Kingdom of God; but the Kingdom will come not by might or the power of the outward sword, but by the spirit of God (Zechariah 4:6). I can't hurry the kingdom by waging war. It is impossible to "fight for peace." The cessation of outward fighting at the end of any war already contains seeds for the next war.
4. Transformation. As a Christian it is no longer my aim to replace one earthly government with another, but to speed the day when all the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of God (Revelation 11:15). My task as a Christian in this regard is to continually examine my life and remove the seeds of war and injustice wherever I find them. The most and best I can do to bring about the Kingdom of God is to live myself as if it were already here. I may be called to witness to others, but never to force them to change.
When we rely on our national military force to protect us rather than placing our faith in God, we become idolators.
The first great commandment is to love God totally. Therefore my first loyalty is to God, not to my country. Christ calls us to love our enemy, to pray for them and to do good to them. I cannot do these things and also take up arms against them.
The second great commandment is to love our neighbor. Therefore my second loyalty is to my neighbor, helping those who need help as the Good Samaritan did.
My third loyalty, then, can be to my country—but no higher than third. We are told to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's. But like Dorothy Day, I find after I render unto God what is God's, there is nothing left for Caesar.
Is this a risky position to take in life—to place all my trust in an unseen God, rather than military defenses I can see and touch? Of course it is; it places me and people like me in a very vulnerable position. But that is the nature of faith: to put ourselves at risk on behalf of what we believe to be true. Discipleship is costly. The standard for Christians is always faithfulness, not success. In God we really do trust.
Lloyd Lee Wilson is a member of Rich Square Monthly Meeting, North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative) and a member of the administration at Chowan College where this message was presented on February 13, 2003.
Copyright (c) 2003 Friends United Meeting
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