Must Christian Pacifists Reject Police Force?

Schlabach Must Christian Pacifists Reject Police Force?

5

immediately offered forgiveness to the family of a troubled man whohad shot ten girls in a one-room schoolhouse near the village of NickelMines, killed five, then committed suicide. As media descended on thecommunity not only to cover the gruesome killings but also to try tounderstand such forgiveness, non-Amish neighbors were protective of"our Amish;' while Amish leaders expressed gratitude for the way thatthe state police helped shield them from relentless scrutiny. J Even thismost "separatist" of Christian pacifist churches, after all, was in fact in-termixed and interdependent with a larger society that does not shareall of its ethical commitments and practices. At the crucial moment ofthe shootings, in fact, the Amish woman who managed to escape theschoolhouse in order to seek help had called 911.2

As we turn to ask whether Christian pacifism entails a rejectionof police force, readers may quickly realize that this is where thosepractitioners of nonviolence are often ambivalent. Frankly, Christianpacifists have not had a consistent answer to this question. Historically,(he historic peace churches have differed among themselves in theirassessment of whether to depend upon or participate in police forces.I,:thically,they have not always been sure how to square actual practiceswith their peace theology. Regretfully, puzzlement seems to have lefteven leading Christian pacifists as surprisingly mute on matters of po-Iicing as they have become increasingly vocal on matters of war.

The challenge is not simply the usual difficulty that all human be-ings have in living up to their highest ideals. The challenge is that soIllallYother questions converge around the question of policing-abouthow the community of Christian disciples ought to situate itself in so-«icty, and about how it ought to live in time. For if our eyes must beIIxed for guidance on the Lord Jesus Christ who has already inaugurated( ;od's Reign, our hands must be sensitive to both the pain and the aid oflJ('ighbors right around us. For we can finally only practice hospitality,IIHIlove of neighbor nowhere except in our present time and place, theI,n'sellt in which God's Reign is breaking in but has not yet fully come.

l'olicing. (hell, is unfinished agenda for Christian pacifists. But,I< IILllly,(hal IILlk,',;il 1';1rt icularly instructive. For to examine the chal-

Must Christian Pacifists Reject Police Force?

Gerald W. Schlabach

IT IS (lNE (II' (he most subtle but significant and moving scenes in theI()il,) movi« Witll!'ss. As they come over the crest of a hill in response10 a shool -ou! ill one of their barns, a half dozen or so Amish farm-ns ill Lallcas(er County, Pennsylvania, cast aside their pitchforks ors( ick them into (he ground. It is their community that is protecting thePhiladelphia detective in hiding among them, not the other way around.Now his corrupt police superior has hunted him down. An altercationhas ensued. The swelling group of peaceable Amish farmers respondswith what is about to become a spontaneous action of nonviolent ac-companiment or shielding. But first they block any last-minute, last-resort temptation to turn their farm implements into weapons. Thescene is fiction, of course. Nonetheless it offers a vision of the possibilitythat making a prior commitment to thoroughgoing nonviolence mightunleash the creativity needed to find nonlethal responses to violence-perhaps even to do nonviolent policing.

In October 2006, just a few miles away from where Witness wasfilmed, the rolling hills of Amish country prcscII('(IIIIC' w: '11(1wit h reallife scenes that were often just as movinj: .. 11I11Illn'll-doil 1'1"1", 011 I1'1('X ,

IIIa way virtually IIllkllOWIIill Au u-ri. ,III '.1" 111\ II" \"",.11' IlIllllllIllilyI hl"l'l>lII,II,,11,,,,,11\',,1\,, /.."IWI,!\lIIis/I(;mc(',,\1 .1'-""11.

11,,,1, 'I

(iI, /,1

-----._---_. -- ---

A Paith Not Worth Fighting For Schlabach Must Christian Pacifists Reject Police Force?

lenge that policing presents to Christian pacifists is to explore nothingless than their continuing vocation.

God would have believers rule either themselves or others.' But shouldbelievers never avail themselves of police protection? Schleitheim andRomans 13 do not really address that question, and so would give littledirect guidance to the Amish woman from Nickel Mines about whetherto call 911 at least in such an extreme situation.

In fact, the very location of substantial Amish and Mennonitecommunities in eastern Pennsylvania is a direct result of divergenceconcerning policing among Christian pacifists. Mennonites first beganto settle in the region precisely because they knew that they would en-joy religious toleration and protection from the Quakers-Christiansfrom another historic peace church!-who then governed colonialPennsylvania. To be sure, any constables of the period would at mosthave been lightly armed in comparison even to small- town police of ourown day, to say nothing of militarized police forces in large cities. Orthey might often have been unarmed, serving more as neighborhoodconflict mediators than modern cops. Furthermore, the Quakers couldgovern Pennsylvania in relatively peaceable ways because they hadsettled the colony in more peaceable ways than others, through treatiesof friendship with Native Americans. Still, govern they did, and this hascontributed to a different attitude among the Quakers toward policing,even in international affairs. In the twentieth century, some Quakerssuggested that while they must continue to be conscientious objectorsagainst participation in the military of any nation-state, they might beable to participate conscientiously in United Nations peacekeeping op-erations that model themselves more along the lines of police forcesIhan aggressive military operations."

Difficulties

The teaching of Jesus about love of enemies that is so foundational forChristian pacifism is not the only teaching in Matthew 5, the first chap-ter of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus also taught his followers there tolive lives of such integrity that they would not need to swear oaths inorder to seal their claims to veracity, but instead could let a simple yescommunicate a trustworthy yes, and a simple no, a reliable no. Thosein the historic peace churches who would claim to follow Christ as dis-ciples, therefore, must honestly admit:

Some pacifists, in some circumstances, do call the police. A few oftheir number, in fact, serve as police officers. To be sure, we should notconfuse the descriptive with the normative. In other words, what is is notnecessarily what should be. So among Christians who call themselvespacifists, some will admonish others that to call the police is problem-atic at best, and that to work as a police officer must surely be unfaith-ful. Still, we must be transparent about the fact that even if Christianpacifists should have a stronger consensus around policing, they do not.And we must see what we can learn by asking why not. After all, simplyin taking up this question we face at least four difficulties:

No one pacifist consensus exists. Diversity of practice amongChristian pacifists is nothing new. Those Amish of Lancaster County,Pen nsylvania, and many of their Mennonite cousins, have traditionallyheld to a "two-kingdom theology" that their early Anabaptist forebearshad articulated in 1527 in what is known as the Schleitheim Confession.Schleitheim and its adherents have quite consistently concluded thatthey could no more be police officers than soldiers. Christ's own rejec-tion of the sword led to the conviction that all true Christians must fol-low him through defenseless suffering. If Romans 13 said that God hasnonetheless ordained "worldly magistrates" to wield the sword in orderto punish the wicked and protect the good, t his W;IS ;!«ording 10

Schlcirhcim-i-how Cod rules "outside III<' II("I "", l ic u i "I ( '1111';1," 1101 how

j. Yoder, Schleitheim Confession, article VI.

'1, For further background on the diversity of Christian pacifist stances towardp"licing, see the surveys that Tobias Winright has provided in "From Police OfficersI" l'cacc Officers," in Wisdom of the Cross, 96-108, and "Challenge of Policing:',(,> ()'I· Winrighl (intis (our or five basic stances: 1. Rejection of all forms of violence,"" 1".1 i"1',Ih.u olp"lici"l'" ». Rejection of policing for Christians, while recognizing,I:; I<')',ilim:« y 1(., ", It 11'1\';11 1;11')',(', ,\, Rejection of war hut endorsement ofinternational11t·1i·illl'" ;11,01 I,), IItll,I" .,1 'till cI""l<',lic policing, 4. l.xplicit endorsement of the lcgiti-111.11)".d IlclllllilJ', III ',I" I. I, .11 I.II/',r, .uul j'l SOliI(' (";IS(,S, or( :I,risliall participation as

IH"II (' t dill I I", " ,\.,' I" tit., • .! I Ii "I, It I)', I" II t II II}I if iI to' lid I}(" 11111del 11;".

II

i I

(, r,

!, i1

!

iii

I

; I

I,I,.I!

li'i!

A l'aitl! NIII Wild" fo'i,r,lllill,r, For Schlabach Must Christian Pacifists Reject Police Force?

/'n'<'('dellis (1/1' luin! 10 I race. A further source of difficulty begins10 l'IlHTgl' even in this brief sample of divergent positions on policing;lIl1ollg pacifists: Only since the nineteenth century has the role of po-licing come to be conceptually distinct from that of soldiering. Whenwe look to the Christian tradition for examples that might cast lightupon our question, therefore, it is not entirely clear what constitutesa historical precedent. In medieval and early modern periods, princesand "magistrates" had responsibility for regional military self-defense,but also domestic rule and policing. Anabaptists who said faithfulChristians could not serve as magistrates, therefore, were not objectingto exactly the same thing as modern cops who walk the beat or try topull over drunk drivers before they kill someone or intervene to stopdomestic abuse.

This is not to say that the modern distinction between soldieringand policing renders police forces benign. The modern era can put quitelethal military technology into the hands of domestic police. And thenit often charges them with maintaining order in societies that are quitestratified, economically and racially. The result is that to maintain "or-der" often means to cement in place a quite unjust disorder. Still, a mod-ern distinction between roles has the potential to subject police officersto the rule of law in ways that more easily break down among soldiersamid far-flung warfare.

Surprisingly little theological attention. One might think that his-torical diversity and conceptual fuzziness would invite contemporaryChristian pacifist thinkers to take up the challenge of policing. Butsurprisingly, they have not really given systematic attention to the eth-ics of policing. Even the work of leading peace church theologian JohnHoward Yoder, for example, is suggestive but contestable. As part of hisargument against Christian participation in war and militarism, Yodersometimes distinguished warfare from policing. Warfare was far tooindiscriminate to qualify as the sort of legitimate practice of the statethat Romans 13 authorizes, amid its realism about how God maintainsorder in a fallen world. To make that point Yoder noted that by contrast,localized police action can be accountable to legislative regulation and

judicial review in ways that mean it at least stands some chance of pun-ishing only the guilty while protecting the innocent.'

Did this mean that a faithful Christian could serve as a police of-ficer? Only very gingerly and skeptically was Yoder willing to entertainthe possibility that "the Christian can by any stretch of the imaginationfind his calling in the exercise of state-commanded violence:' Thosewho claim a calling must subject themselves to the most strenuous ofscrutiny in a Christian community schooled in practices of moral dis-cernment and mutual admonition:

Long enough we have been told that the position of theconscientious objector is a prophetic one, legitimate butonly for the speciallycalled few;in truth wemust hold thatthe nonresistant position is the normal and normative po-sition for every Christian, and it is the use ofviolence, evenat that point where the state may with some legitimacy beviolent, that requires an exceptional justification."

If Yoder was contemplating the possibility of Christian participation inpolicing here, he was being extremely guarded. Furthermore, his dis-cussion of policing is short and he made it in passing, amid a largerargument. That argument was not really about what the Christian ethicought to be, but rather about how pacifist Christians can call peopleworking within other moral frameworks to at least live up to their high-est ideals. The take-home lesson of the passage is therefore contestable.'1 he one thing that should be clear about it is that it does not add up toa systematic pacifist ethic of policing.'

s. Yoder, Christian Witness to the State, 36. Yoder continued: "The use of forcemuxl be limited to the police function, i.e. guided by fair judicial processes, subjectto recognized legislative regulation, and safeguarded in practice against its running"w<lYwith the situation. Only the absolute minimum of violence is therefore in anyw<lyexcusable. 'Ihe state has no general authorization to use the sword indepen-d(,lItly of its commission to hold violence to a minimum:' See also 5 and 46-47 ofI Iuistiun Witness to the State; Yoder, Original Revolution, 74f.; Yoder, "Peace WithoutF:;<i'<ltology?:' in Royal Priesthood, 159-60.

h. Yoder, ( ..uristiu« Willll'SS 10 the State, 57.

r . 1'r u ,,,"ILI·.IIII),. ,,·.ldill!,.S of Yoder on policing. see Schlabach (with Drew1'111 ".11,11,· .•.• ,. '01 .• I .d l. /1/'./ ",,1;. ill!:. No! W"r. Xi X"I: .uul i\kxis-I\<lkcr, "Uubinclinj;

YHtin IIIHII 111".11'01., III)' III ",'11',-, 1111'/ I',,,dif '",,1.1/ {It.,

101 (I',

A Faith Not Worth Fighting For Schlabach Must Christian Pacifists Reject Police Force?

Call the police for what?-and other reality checks. The reason toname all these complexities surrounding the question that policingposes for pacifists is to be honest, not to evade the question. In fact, forthe attentive reader, one lesson may already be emerging: Policing is notjust one single thing. Police officers play multiple roles and Christiansrelate to their neighbors in multiple ways. We have already had reasonto mention a continuum of reasons that police might intervene-to stopa mass murderer, to stop domestic abuse, to prevent drunk drivers fromkilling anyone, including themselves, or to mediate village or neighbor-hood conflicts." Yet, lest we portray police institutions too benignly,we also have had reason to hint at more complicated realities: Simplehighway patrols to promote safe driving practices can become the oc-casion for racial profiling. The more an urban neighborhood mightbenefit from ordinary cops on the beat, the tenser it is likely to be andthe more its dangers may tempt police officers to develop an adversarial,us-versus-them relationship with the local population. Police may thentake their operational models from warfare after all. And if that localpopulation is largely a minority population, some may then feel tar-geted for what amounts to repression. But on the other hand, if policereduce their presence, still others within those very communities mayfeel that municipalities are neglecting them.

In the face of these complex realities, some radical Christians ar-gue that to look to the police to secure order and justice in the first placeis a mistake. They argue that justice- minded Christians and other socialactivists should put their trust and energy into organizing local com-munities capable of dealing with conflicts through grassroots processesthat rely less and less on the state-and its top-down intervention, or notat all. This, at its best, is the goal of Christian anarchism-where an-archy does not mean "chaos" at all but doing without what the Greekscalled "arky" or overarching rule. Here's another reality check, though,and it does not even involve the dismissive worry of critics that such

a vision is simply unrealistic. No, the reality check is this: The successof any radical Christian or anarchist vision for community would notmean dispensing with the police function at all, but would rather meanperfecting it through humane, communal, nonviolent means.

No community can do without some kind of police function. NoChristian community. No human community. The Amish men in themovie Witness who stick their pitchforks in the ground so that they cannonviolently protect their guest are not simply fiction. Whether or notsuch a dramatic instance of nonviolent accompaniment has ever actu-ally happened among the Amish themselves, I do not know. But Amishpractices for maintaining communal cohesion and standards are wellknown. Instead of going by the name of "nonviolent policing;' however,they go by the name of excommunication or "shunning:' Even thoughthis has its basis in Matt 18:15-20, modern Christians (including manyin peace church traditions) are often shocked or embarrassed at the waythat the Amish and some conservative Mennonites deliberately ostra-cize those they believe to be sinning. Yet once we recognize shunningas one nonviolent alternative to potentially violent forms of policing,two striking conclusions begin to dawn. First, the less a community orsocial movement seeks to depend on state-run apparatuses to exercisethe police function, the more it will actually need to develop its own."

Second, once Christian pacifists lose their reluctance to use thewords "policing" and "the police function" for naming these models,they will not be without resources. It will obviously take much work totranslate older models of communal governance into wider advocacyfor social justice, police reform, and alternatives to the criminal justicesystem, but they do have precedents from within their own traditions.Iwen while arguing vehemently that faithful Christians should have aslittle as possible to do with the police, for example, Christian anarchist1\ndy Alexis-Baker has cited alternative models from premodern Europeill which villages organized themselves to raise a "hue and cry" to gatherill order to defuse conflicts and prevent altercations.'? Though not well8. Dave Jackson has noted further distinctions that can be relevant to Christian

pacifist discernment concerning when to call the police: "1. Juvenile versus adultcrime ... 2. Crimes against persons versus crimes against property ... ~. 'I he rationalcriminal versus the insane person ... 4. Crimes against others verSIL" lillH'S agaillsiourselves ... s. Deadly or ollcusivc (tree versus reslraining or .IiY"11 1111',1"",' .. SCl'l;l,ksOII, /Jilll 'i I I, .1(' '; ,',.

I). 1\11011"'1 "'.lIIII'I<': Social movements organizing nonviolent protests have gen-..,.t1ly ", -r ' ,kd 1,,11,1111 II",il OWIlmarshals in order 10 main lain nonviolent discipline.11 Ii I j,,;ol,lIi 1110\'11, .11· 111

h'

I

; ~11 r

II: r

1(1'If III :I ,I

i .il.',.1I : /:

! ! 'I, ,

:11

I

! "I,,:,I

, :1

I,A Faith Not Worth Fighting For Schlabach Must Christian Pacifists Reject Police Force?

documented, early-twentieth-century Mennonites settling in coloniesin the Paraguayan Chaco reportedly appointed members known tohave good conflict-resolution skills to intervene in local disputes; thesechurch-led colonies did not have weapons, and the central governmentof Paraguay was far too distant to provide police, so Mennonite com-munities exercised the police function themselves, unarmed."

One cannot expect to transfer premodern or isolated exampleslike this directly into complex contemporary societies, of course, butcontemporary peace churches also have fresher raw material for offer-ing and witnessing to the possibility of nonviolent policing. ChristianPeacemaker Teams now has decades of experience developing strategiesof nonviolent accompaniment and shielding in conflict zones aroundthe world. Peace church practitioners have played leading roles in therestorative justice movement that offers alternatives to dominant ap-proaches to criminal justice.

So does Christian pacifism entail rejection of police force? To an-swer that question, it seems, we must ask a more precise one: What kindof policing must pacifists reject, and when and where?

any moral discernment about "what to do" within the when of God'sunfolding action in history, and the where that maps the place or sociallocation of the church in the world.

In other words, there are two key variables for understanding howChristian pacifists have dealt with the question of policing, as well as fordiscerning how they should deal with the question of policing.

Variable 1: Where are we in time? In other words, howhopeful are Christians that they can "already" live accord-ing to the promise of God's inbreaking Kingdom? Do theysee themselves forced to adjust to the reality that God'sKingdom has "not yet" fully arrived? Or do they see them-selvesliving "between the times" where "already"and "notyet" overlap?

The Gospels present Jesus as inaugurating God's Kingdom orIZeign.It is, as he proclaimed, "at hand!" -palpable, touchable, breakinginto our lives even as we speak! The hopes ofIsrael and the promise that( .od's Spirit would anoint God's servant to bring good news to the poor,release the captives, heal the blind, set free the oppressed, and proclaim;1 new year of Jubilee were being fulfilled right now, in the very presenceof Jesus' listeners (Luke 4:16-21). If even John the Baptist could harbordoubts, well, look around, said Jesus, at all the tangible signs of heal-Illg and resurrection that are confirming good news to the poor (MattI I:2-6). To be a Christian is to trust that in the very person of Iesus the( .luist or messiah, God's Reign has already come!

And yet, in a world of exploitation, poverty, violence, and geno-.ide, we would be utterly foolish to claim that God's Reign has comeIII ils fullness. From where we stand, God's Kingdom often appears as.1 distant horizon, to which we have not yet arrived, and which seems10 n-ccde whenever we approach it. Like a distant horizon, it may still•Id lilt' ou r journeys and shape our present by beckoning and pulling usI"l ward 10 itself. But we will only arrive at the fullness of God's Reignwhe-n il arrives as Cod's gift, at the end or "eschaton' by which Godhi III)'.:;hislory 10 il:;pllrposeful completion.

'I hu.. W" liv.: .. 10.-/11""<'1/ IIII' I iII/lOS:' in a tense and overlapping zone inlVIII'I, II••.1-,III! ,..1"1 II "I (; .•.] i-. 1> •• 111 '';.In·;,dy'' ;"HI "uot yeln

0111' moral

I1·1

"[ Analysis

To ask about the what, when, and where of policing for Christian paci-fists is not to fall back upon a relativistic "situation ethics:' but to placeour discernment within the overarching narrative of God at work inhistory, patiently calling out a people of witness. Theologians call thisnarrative "salvation history" The plot of any narrative, as well as thecomplex unfolding of events in any history, always requires the author,teller, reader, or listener to keep their bearings in both time and space.So just as authors occasionally speak of "the time/space continuum:'Christian theologians and social ethicists do well to locate the what of

, I

'i

with Faithfulnessin Peacemaking:JustPolicing:'at the PeaceAmongthe Peoplesconferenceat AssociatedMennoniteBiblicalSeminary,Elkhart, Indiana, in July2010, Alexis-Bakerreadfroman unpublishedpaper that includesa furtherclahor.itionof"hueandcry"practicesasa positivealternativetomodern I'0li,'illg,

11. Thispatternhad roots in the experienceof Mcnnonitr .'••1••111''', III 11".',,,i;,illthe l'ighteenthund nilll'tel'llth<cntllries,SOIlIC('vid'-I"\'i-. 11111. .r v . •• I..I.I, ,•• hl,clllI,"t ;()V(TIIIIH'III or lVl('IIiIOllilt':; ill 1~lls.<;i.I," ',',(1 '-.;

1. I.

'IIi,iII

j:, I!

1 'I=ES , :lliI, "

·'11,1

:I!I1 ,I

I'.,

i

d II: :,

'(I


challenge is to discern our specific callings or vocations amidst this in-between time, leaning into God's "already" even while recognizing theworld's "not yet:' The "already" by which Jesus has inaugurated God's

Reign must guide us. And the "not yet" realities of suffering, injustice,and violence-to say nothing of simple mortality-provide the messy

and complex occasions in which we meet our needy neighbors evenwhen we offer the most Christ-like of solidarity and service, or find our-selves needy and indebted too. Theologians use a technical-soundingterm, "eschatological tension:' to describe this in-between existence.But for any Christian who both lives in trusting hope that God is work-ing to bring history to its fulfillment, and lives in loving solidarity withthe pain of the world, the concept is altogether and profoundly familiar,

with or without the name."

off as irredeemably lost or evil. The story may then move on without us,leaving us the ones who are disoriented and lost in self-righteous pride.Still, to keep our bearings, we do need to make some moral judgmentsabout where to invest our time and vocational energy. A Christian withfinancial skills, for example, might serve an inner-city neighborhood

by working at a locally owned bank or credit union committed to so-cially responsible urban development favoring the poor-but not if itIurns out to be a mafia front operation set up to launder drug money.Distinctions matter! Not every moral locale is equal!

The language of "kingdoms" that we have already encountered has

heen one traditional way of mapping our moral and social geography."Two-kingdom theology:' in particular, marks out life according to(;od's Kingdom as though it were a clearly distinguishable moral terri-

IOfY,in contrast to the kingdom or kingdoms of this world. Lutheran and1\nabaptist versions of two- kingdom theology differ in significant ways,10 be sure. The Lutheran version authorizes Christians to act accordingto quite different ethics as their roles in life take them back and forthbetween the two kingdoms by which God rules the realm of faith andthe realm of the sinful world. The Anabaptist version expects Christians10 live always according to the rule or Lordship of Jesus Christ, thus

marking the border between kingdoms pretty much on a line betweenIhe church and the world. Either way, the territorial metaphors that

come with the language of Kingdom, kingdoms, Reign, and realms tendto result in some kind of dualism. Whatever the problems of dualism,

il does provide a device for realistically recognizing that vast realms ofhuman life do resist God's Reign and refuse to recognize the paradoxi-

(al Lordship ofJesus Christ, who rules not by domineering over othershut by bearing the cross of suffering love even on behalf of his enemies.

Still, there is much about the Christian faith that must chafeagainst any rigid or ultimate dualism. For if the one God created allIhillgs with purpose and pronounced them good, evil cannot claim anyrx istcucc or occupy any territory independent of God's rule or care.( .luixl inn hope ill 111m must trust that God never gives up on any corner,II (IC;' IiOI', howrvcr rciwll ious, To do so, in fact, risks the ancient heresy0\ Mvuu 11.11'1'.111, 11'111, II :;aw good and evil as two independent reali-111·:; 1,11 1",'.1 III "'111,.1 ,""11'.11 All)' lwo killgdlllil Ihcology Ihal st.irk ly

Variable 2: What is our social location and how do werecognize it? In other words, do Christians map their livesand identity within one universal social geography that ex-pects everyone to live according to a single standard? Dothey mark out a separate territory for the life of the churchwhile harboring little expectation that unbelieving societycan even approximate the ethic of Jesus? Or here too dothey find some way of saying "both/and"?

In this meantime in which we live as Christians-this overlap"between the times" -it sometimes seems necessary to pause the story,pull off to the side of the road, and check our maps to see where we are.Stories always unfold in space as well as time, after all. So where exactly

is God at work? Where are the pitfalls or temptations we ought to avoid?Indeed, where might we in fact have already strayed from our path?

Pausing the story in time in order to examine spatial locations isboth dangerous and necessary. The danger is that we will forget thatGod's work is dynamic and continuing to unfold, so that we prematurelylose hope that God's Spirit can yet transform some place-some com-munity or institution or culture or society-and judgmentally write il

12. For a further exploration of how Christian positions Oil w.u "".I II", possihly

exceplionaluse ofviolence track with their respective (,1ll!,1",,; •.,; "" II•..",.II,-_"ly" .,,"1""01 yet" of< ;od's Ikigll. SIT Friesell, '"I'C;),clIJ:lki"l".:lS "" I'll". ~oI' d, ,'''' \

'I

,I1

iI i

Ii:11

i

I' :I~:I

I i

Ii ; Ii II I,

I IIii,"1

III,i1,1

lrij 'I"

'j

i' I'!,I,

i' I"

n

I

I

:1II ~I

I'il

,


cements in place the distinctions between those parts of life in whichJesus' teachings do and do not apply will risk sliding into that heresy,

The philosophical opposite of dualism is "monism;' the insistencethat all reality is one. The truth of monism that is relevant to issues ofwar, violence, and policing is this: If God has purposefully created onegood creation (however richly variegated it may be, both ecologicallyand culturally), and if God has revealed its ultimate pattern and pur-pose in Jesus Christ the Logos (John 1:1-4), then Jesus' ethic of non-violent, self-giving love must ultimately apply always and everywhere.Yet monism does not quite seem right either, at least when it fails toacknowledge the gap between those places where we currently knowhow to apply Jesus' ethic and the places where we ultimately hope to doso. Arguably, monism too risks heresy insofar as it may tend to under-estimate the grip that sin continues to have on us."

If there is something right about both dualism and monism, yetboth are inadequate, is there any way to resolve or split the difference?Starting instead with the temporal dimension of the Christian narra-tive by situating God's people "between the times" -within a dynamic,unfinished story rather than on a static map of our moral and social ge-ography-already gives us our most important tooL14 For if maps haveobvious value they will nonetheless mislead us if we fail to recognizehow the realities they point to change through time. We might thenspeak not so much of two kingdoms versus one (monistic) kingdom, ortwo ethics versus one ethic, but one missional ethic. For if God's workis to transform the kingdom of this world into the Kingdom of the Lordand Messiah (Rev 11:15), then the overriding moral obligation and pri-mary vocation of the Christian is to participate in God's own dynamicand transformational mission. As soon as we begin claiming to partici-pate in God's transformation of the world we will have crucial questionsof power, means, and ends to discern; Christian pacifists will insist thatwe can only get these right if we follow God's lead by trusting in the

preeminent yet nonviolent power of the cross. But it is this dynamiccombination of the temporal and spatial elements to God's saving workin history that John Howard Yoder once encoded in his own alterna-tive to both dualism and monism: "duality without dualism."> Whatthat phrase captures is this: We must recognize that believing trust inJesus Christ and his way makes a decisive difference in the "logic" ofhow communities order their lives, but do so without speaking of thatdifference as though it were a static metaphysical difference. Frank andrealistic recognition of diverging ethics thus names a "duality" but nota Manichaean dualism.

Already-between the times-not yet. Monism-duality withoutdualism-dualism. Combining these two key variables, we can chartwhy Christian pacifists have moved back and forth among a varietyof approaches to the question of policing (see page 74). We may alsonote how Christian pacifism sometimes becomes problematic, when itstresses one ethical impulse or biblical truth in isolation from the fulldrama of God's saving history (IA and i C). Finally, we can identify theborder zones where Christian pacifists may rightly and charitably en-gage with non-pacifist Christians about the challenges they share, butshould recognize that pacifists verge on adopting some form of just warIhought if they actually reside in those zones (3A and 3C). We can thus/ind guidance not only around the issue of policing, but for discerningIhe ongoing vocation of Christian pacifist communities.

Guidance

'J() recognize ourselves as living "between the times;' in a social geog-raphy that cannot be static precisely because God is at work to redeemhuman history and transform our lives, is to locate questions such aspolicing within a theological framework that has a center (2B on chart).( :hrisl ian pacifists may and should find ourselves pivoting from that'('lller into various modes of pacifism as we debate how hopeful to be,tillHII the transtormnt ional possibilities opening up before us in theworld. .un l .Ii:;, "111 I)(IW (;od is calling us to respond. It is from this

13. This, in effect, was Reinhold Niebuhr's argument for why the optimistic liberalpacifism of the early twentieth century was heretical, even if not all forms of Christianpacifism are heretical. See Niebuhr, "Why the Christian Church Is Nol P;lei/isl," ill

Christianity and Power Politics, 1-32.

J -1. Schlabach, "Itcyoud Two Vcrxu» ()II(, Kill)',d()111 '11"'"1,,,·,\

. \

1'1

A Faith Not Worth Fighting For

1. Live thepromise

of the"Already"

"'"~a

!t: 2. Discern:5 Vocation,§ "between8 the times"m.~.Q12OJ

g'"1

3. Acceptthe reality

of the"Not Yet"

1A:"All we are saying is givepeace a chance." Mindand heart reject war andpolice violence for allpeople everywherealways. Often serves asstarting point for commit-ment to nonviolence. Butwithout "saying" moreabout how, it seems toignore the realities of sin.(idealistic pacifism)

,- continuum of social geographies (spatial) -->

3A:Christians who refusemilitary service for anynation-state mightnonetheless serve in aUnited Nationspeacekeeping force as aform of internationalpolicing (even if they aremembers of pacifistchurches, their ethic = avariant of thejust war tradition)

Schlabach Must Christian Pacifists Reject Police Force?

1C:War and potentiallylethal policing seen asGod's will for the state,but forbidden forChristians (starkversion ofAnabaptist-MennoniteTwo-KingdomTheology)

That vocational center is the one that Jeremiah urged upon theHebrew exiles in Babylon (Jeremiah 29). They should not be afraid toengage the societies in which they live (building houses, planting gar-dens, and raising families, as Jeremiah put it). But neither should theyforget that they were exiles who must remember their true homelandand know how to pick God's voice out from among the cacophony ofturbulent events and false prophets around them. For their own wel-fare/peace/shalom was inseparable from the shalom of their host city,and their calling was to seek the shalom of that city during the interimof their exile. Interim was their in-between place in time; exile placedthem in their social geography as "both/and" resident aliens. As thestories in the book of Daniel would later illustrate, the vocations ofsome might thus be to work as civil servants aiding in the governance ofBabylon-but they could only do so faithfully to their God if they keptIheir primary loyalty clear and were prepared to resist any idolatrousdemands that Babylon might make. As children of Abraham, this was away to continue living out the blessing by which God had called them10 be a people, while simultaneously blessing other families of the earth .

For followers of Jesus, this way of engaging the world also con-Iinues to unfold the meaning of "suffering service" in ordinary life. Itembeds and relates us to those who find their security somewhere otherIhan in the cross of Jesus Christ, alternately opening opportunities torespond in service to the needs of others or creating tensions, if notconflict. And if we are honest we must also admit that in the "not yet"()f our own lives, we are still struggling and learning to find our security

3C:Christian policeofficers, prisonadministrators, etc., areprepared to useviolence in those roles(even if they aremembers of pacifistchurches, theirtheology = LutheranTwo-KingdomTheology)

III presenting my chart and commentary, Imake no such claim of objectivity. My

.ipproach, after all, was something of the reverse. Long theological reflection had al-1l';ldy led me to the conviction that Christians need to hold the "already" and the "not

y"''' of( iod's Reign in tension, and that Yoder's "duality without dualism" captures the

I",sl impulscs of both dualism and monism withouttheir respective problems. Laying

"III lhis chart became a way of testing the explanatory power of these two sets of

v.ui.rhk-s. I hope that my notion of "pivoting" from the vocational center (2B) makes

, I"ar liral I alii not Irying to pigeonhole my fellow pacifists into anyone category or

1),1'" Whil" sigllalillg 1lly suspicion that problems will arise when Christians attempt

1''''III;lIl1rd1' 10 .ivon l ;IIIY I'0ssihle tension (both the temporal tension along one axis

'" t lu "I"lIl,rI 1<'11'.1<\11,rI"II!,. t l«: other}, I ccrlainly see all of the modes of pacifism

II1.111·,·,(1,\, II" , ',,· .'. 111.11I'. I, "IIl\',( I,y l lu: "Ill r.rl column alld <clli r.il row ofth« chart

.1'. ilJ',Ji1111.1l1

center that we will find the guidance we need to respond to the challenge of policing. 16

16. When ethicists present typologies they sometimes claim th.u Ihey arc only

presenting a descriptive tool. But then their bias or agclld;r IISILrllv ',Il\',lk,; ill ;111,1

shows itscllhy how Ihey arrallge their preseilialioll, oft"11 will, II" IIII.II 1\1'" illlllill)',

out 1(1)(' cOIHcl'III;rlly slll'crior illSol;)1 ;IS il soll"'s t lu- 1",,1.1, '" "I .II II" ,,11l\'1',

. I "

~~ II,

. ,;

! ~ i

I!

I


fully in Jesus and his creative way of nonviolence as well. Thus, often wework and serve cooperatively among those who are quicker to call thepolice than we, or may even do so on our behalf. Thus, sometimes wefail or simply run out of time to find creative responses to crime andviolence ourselves. Thus, a few within Christian pacifist communitieseven wonder whether in the "not yet" interim of an imperfect world,they might be called to work in policing roles themselves. Fortunately,the vocational framework that has emerged from our analysis of salva-tion history, and that we have identified with the mandate of Jeremiah,allows us to respond flexibly to our neighbors yet faithfully to our Lord:

The messianic pacifism of a community of witness (i B): Whateverelse Christians do as they engage the world should find its groundand guidance in the life of the Christian community itself. Followingthe lead of peace church theologian John Howard Yoder, we call thispacifism "messianic" not because we harbor illusions of grandeur butbecause we follow one who charted a path toward human redemptionand social transformation precisely as an unexpected kind of mes-siah who renounced grand imperial schemes. The most basic work ofChristian social ethics is simply to be the church-reconciled and re-covering sinners being shaped into a new community. This shaping andthis newness then demonstrate to the world that surprising, creative,and life-giving ways of responding to conflicts and threats are alreadypossible. Furthermore, as Dave Jackson points out, Christian communi-ties that encourage simpler lifestyles with fewer possessions, and thatlive in close proximity among themselves and practice reconciliationwith their neighbors, may also be deterring crime and reducing its verycauses."

For Christians who stress this church-based mode of pacifist wit-ness not only as faithful members of their church but in their vocationalchoices, the priority with regard to policing is to retrieve and furtherdevelop the church's own ways of governing its own community life,resolving conflicts, protecting the innocent, and guiding violators backinto healthy patterns of life. To take up these tasks in nonviolent waysis to exercise the police function, call it that or not. The reason to ITC

ognize these practices as nonviolent policing is to tal«: h.1t k IILII very

word and thus make explicit connections as we witness to the world thatthere are alternatives to violence. Besides, nothing else that Christiansocial activists do to influence public policy in the wider world willhave integrity if Christians do not begin with themselves and their owncommunal life. As the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians, we can hardlyexpect to judge the world if we do not have our own mechanisms to dealwith conflicts and avoid society's criminal justice systems (1 Cor 6:1-8).

One example is particularly vivid for me because it took place onIhe day that my wife was ordained as a Mennonite pastor. Apparentlyat random, a lone fundamentalist protester who considered himself aprophet calling more liberal Christian churches to repent showed up infront of the church that very morning. Practicing their usual hospitality,church members surprised the protester by inviting him to join themfor the morning, before he called down condemnation. But when herealized that the church was about to ordain a woman, he disruptedwith a shout of "Abomination!" Unsure of what he would do next-disrupt further? charge the pulpit? draw a concealed weapon?-a halfdozen men and one woman surrounded the protester, quietly engagedhis attention, and kept him distracted. The service proceeded with onlyone or two more disruptions, and afterward, church members contin-ued engaging him in conversation until he peacefully left. Though themorning had been tense and bizarre, the congregation had witnessed toIhe very qualities that were as much a cause for celebration that morn-illg as was my wife's ordination."

The pacifism of Diaspora Christianity (2B). Because God calls andxcnds the Christian community to witness to God's Kingdom in theworld as it is, however, the Diaspora zone between already and not yetis Ihe one where we find ourselves pivoting to other legitimate modes of( .luistian pacifism. Here we find ourselves engaging the world like theyoung Hebrew men in the book of Daniel, cooperating in some wayshili 1101 others. For even without becoming civil servants in the manner,.1 Ihe ancient Hehrews in Babylon, the church's own commitment to

,x. 1:0"" ",'1"'; '-"1",,-10'1 this incident. see Groff, "Protester Sparks Look at Safety

1',.1< I" r: .... h" .,"<>111<"' n.III'I,I,· IIi"what ""'Y "rgllahlyhe considered nonviolent po-

I" ",!,.I,y II•• ,·III,·.ILlII, ""111'"11;1), ;1:;.-11. hili wlri.h mud« il poxsihl« 110110 r.ill upo»

'.I.1I1t1.1I41Ic'IIII', •• 11,,·11' 1111', ',. :\IC'\j', B,d',c'I, "t ;4."1)("1 ttr.1 (;14)( I,?" \X.'7. Jackson. 1>;"/')11. 7<' X \.

I

L


service in the world-even through its own ministries and programs-will often be enough to take it into Diaspora mode. Faithfulness toGod's mission presents more rather than fewer difficult situations thatrequire case-by-case discernment. Consider, for example, the following:

viates and in fact accentuates the need for cooperation with thesocial welfare and criminal justice systems of the state."

• Imagine another congregation whose outreach ministry in anarea with gang violence leads it to start a neighborhood youthgroup. Leaders from the church may be committed to sufferingharm in the event of an altercation rather than calling the policeon their own behalf. But now families without that same com-mitment are entrusting their children to the church's responsi-bility for a few hours every week. They would be remiss not toanticipate how they will relate to the police. And if the policein their area are practicing relatively enlightened strategies of"community policing:' they might even want to cooperate pro-actively, given the interest they share with the police in preven-tive approaches to socioeconomic issues that otherwise lead toviolence.

• Just to be a modestly evangelistic congregation that is invit-ing, baptizing, and forming new Christians, or calling olderChristians back into lives of active discipleship, will mean itfinds itself welcoming people who have never imagined thatthey could dispense with police protection. Even if it has anunmistakable identity as a peace church, such a congregationwill surely want to give people time to grow into pacifist com-mitment and practice.

• Despite the creative response of my wife's congregation to thedisruptive protester at her ordination, that incident still prompt-ed anxieties among many congregants, particularly those withyoung children. "What if he had been armed?" people won-dered. Though no one wanted to overreact, they rememberednews only a few months before from a neighboring state, inwhich a disgruntled parishioner had shot a pastor and others.Leaders of my wife's congregation decided that pastoral respon-sibility required them to anticipate procedures in the event thatthey ever face another such incident, so that they could handlethe crisis redemptively and nonviolently yet anticipate when, ifever, to call the police.v

The greater the justice and creative conflict resolution that thelarger society is practicing, perhaps, the less these cases will present ex-cruciating ethical dilemmas. But that is where the practical implicationsof Christian hope arise. How optimistic or indeed hopeful should we beabout the prospects for thoroughgoing social change in the wider soci-ety, changes of the sort that might allow for less and less violent formsof policing? How much energy, time, and resources ought Christiansinvest in such hope? Grounded in Jeremiah's mandate to seek the sha-lom of the cities in which we find ourselves, even if we are never entirelyat home, Christian pacifists may pivot in at least two other directions:

Progressive pacifism (2A). Because this is God's world, we shouldnever give up on our hope for extending nonviolent responses to con-llict and injustice progressively into more and more spheres oflife. That;\ holy Hindu, Mahatma Gandhi, did so much to develop Jesus' Sermon011 [he Mount into politically practicable strategies is evidence that thisis possible, and that Christians should be ashamed for their failures toIIIIS[ in Jesus' way and the Spirit's creativity enough to do so themselves.III ;IllYrase, (:llIi.';1i.m participation in coalition with broader social

Pastoral responsibility has required still other congregations tothink through security procedures that allow them to practiceinclusivity and hospitality toward men released from prison af-ter incarceration for sex offenses, while insuring the protectionof children and other vulnerable members. Accountability andaccompaniment are basic here, and constitute further examplesby which the church must learn to practice the police functionwithin the church community itself. But such work hardly allc-

"J. (;1"<111","l'l"olcs«"1" SI':tl"ks I ,ook "I S"kl Y I', ", Ii, ",,"

'0 t:,,,,, ("\I,, ,f, -. , 00·.·.'''" ,,( 11n:,,,·, I,,,II,'''!''''', ,ce \'CIIII<'I", '"I low luclusivc Is the

1111 111',1\'1' ( 11111' I.,', III \ I I', d" d",IIIIIII/'"''/. I.,', .'.1 o.

:'1)

-:.~!


movements-or, as in the case of Martin Luther King [r., Christianleadership-have become the classic way of practicing this mode ofpacifism. But meanwhile, neither historic peace churches nor broaderpeace movements have done more than begin to imagine and exploreprospects for nonviolent policing. They must.

The restorative justice movement is a start; peace church practitio-ners have played a leading role in formulating alternatives to criminaljustice procedures that are often dehumanizing for victims as well asoffenders. Likewise we should recognize that activists doing commu-nity organizing in order to empower local neighborhoods to solve theirown problems in the face of both gang violence and police brutality arenurturing localized, grassroots, non-state alternatives to standard formsof policing. Whether those schooled in either of these strategies shouldsometimes playa role in police reform, or whether current power struc-tures will ever do more than co-opt efforts to develop nonviolent orless-violent forms of official policing, is a matter for debate and dis-cernment among pacifists. The uncontested point should be this: Thosewho are most hopeful and optimistic about the prospect of broad socialtransformation and the creation of nonviolent cultures are going tohave to take lip the challenge of institutionalizing nonviolent forms ofpolicing in society at large. They cannot merely critique war and policebrutality from the prophetic margin without anticipating the challengeof nonviolent governance.

Modified versions of two-kingdom theology (2C). Even those whoare not particularly optimistic about reforming social systems as a wholemay remain convinced of the biblical call to do justice, release captives,and advocate for the poor and vulnerable. And so they may work, issueby issue, for somewhat less injustice and less violence within systemsthat they cannot imagine will ever cease to rely on police forces thathave recourse to lethal violence. Their pessimism about whether thissituation can ever fundamentally change is not so much Manichaean asagnostic. Yet by working against the system from within the system outof Christian love of neighbor, they are functionally dualistic. No longerkeeping a hands-off attitude toward the state, they will certainly not begiving the state a blank check in the flame of Romans I \ ,·il lu-r, 'I heirswill he a Iwo-kingdolll Ihcology Ihat is less SI;Ifk, 1'(1\\""". 111.,,1 111;\1

of the Anabaptists and Mennonites who first used that framework toarticulate Christian pacifism.

Pioneers in this mode of Christian pacifism-and to this inad-vertent approach to policing-were the conscientious objectors whodid alternative service in mental hospitals beginning in World War II.Appalled at the treatment of the mentally ill, they first helped promptreform by exposing the conditions there. In some cases they then wenton to contribute to reform as hospital administrators with responsibilityfor human beings under lock and key. Even private, church-run insti-tutions must conduct their work in cooperation with state regulators,and so we can see this work as implicating pacifists in the structures ofgovernance and policing, however benign and reform-minded.

Similar but even more freighted has been the work of historicpeace church members who are lawyers and politicians. Imagine aChristian lawyer who began with idealistic motivations to work for thecommon good and promote justice. Years "fighting city hall" leave herjaded or cynical, and she knows she is cooperating with a system thatdepends upon the threat of violent force or even death. Yet she keepsat it, in order at least to blunt injustices, defend the poor, and come tothe aid of immigrants. Now what ifher sense of vocation leads her intopolitics? What if she is transparent about her membership in a pacifistchurch, yet despite a general distrust of pacifists she manages to winoflice? Indirectly, at least, she will have some role in supervising thepolice or relying on them to enforce her policies or laws. Again, otherpacifists may contest the validity of such a vocation, but the point hereis not to resolve that debate. Rather, it is to insist that faithfulness willrequire her to justify her vocation by pivoting from and being account-.rl lie 10 a Christian community that knows itself to be living and servingill Diaspora."

f Ionestly unfinished pacifism (3B). Whether because the fallenness01 Ihe "fallen world" too often feels intractable even to those who live

'.'. ()" Ih(' 11('('.1 1<11'.uu] practice of this sort of vocational testing, see Yoder,('I"islilill Wil"l'\.\ I" 1/u: .'\1111",\6, 'i'i 'i7; Yoder, "Biblical Mandate for Evangelical";",1.,11\, Ii",,:' '" I:." III,' Nations. ,!LI X'I; Yoder, "Binding and I.oosing,' in Royal",lc'\/h"cJtl. '.", '.::. 111.1111\· II\\,II .IPl'luplialioli 0" Yoder's thought in lust Po/icing,r.....1, '/ \ \ ·,,1 . !: ~ ;: I '" I t t ,. ,


in Christian hope, or because history is unfinished for the people ofGod themselves, we must admit that pacifists do not always have fullysatisfying answers to the challenges that prompt some to call the po-lice. Those challenges may even lead a few to see state-based forms ofpolicing as a Christian vocation. To honestly practice the truthfulnessthat Jesus called for in the Sermon on the Mount may thus require amode of pacifism that recognizes itself as unfinished. As Dave Jacksondemonstrated in his 1981 book Dial911: Peaceful Christians and UrbanViolence, on the experiences of Reba Place Fellowship in Evanston,Illinois, such honesty actually helps prevent a slide into more and morefearful and security-obsessed responses to crime."

Sometimes, we simply do not have the time or training to findcreative responses to violence and its threat. Only the most spiteful op-ponent of pacifism or the most ideological proponent of pacifism wouldblame the Amish woman who dialed 911 in order to stop a worse mas-sacre in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, for inconsistency. Justice-mindedpacifists who are also feminists have done their churches a crucialservice by insisting that women in abusive situations ought not refrainfrom calling the police. Even amid his trenchant criticism of the police,Christian anarchist Andy Alexis-Baker has admitted that some sexualpredators and serial killers simply must be locked Up23 and has antici-pated last-resort situations in which ordinary Christians might have tocall the police."

If peace churches are to be places of grace and forgiveness, theymust have pastoral ways to support those who have "not yet" found cre-ative alternatives to calling the police or practicing nonviolent policing

even in less-than-dire circumstances." The goal of this mode of paci-fism is not to rationalize Christian resort to violence, however. This iswhat distinguishes it from just war traditions. Rather, the goal of its veryhonesty is to elicit a holy dissatisfaction that recommits us to renewedwork for nonviolent alternatives in all of the other modes of Christianpacifism we have outlined. A Christian or a congregation that regret-fully calls the police, for example, will go on to do all it can to relatercdernptively to offenders-whether by seeking mediated settlements,or by appealing for reduced sentences, or by visiting the offenders inprison. Jackson's Dial 911 is replete with moving examples, beginningwith a story that leads from a botched burglary to a hasty decision to,all the police to a developing relationship through letters and prisonvisits."

( .onclusion

I'crhaps all of the answers that authors in this book are offering turnon "ecclesiology" In other words, perhaps all of them depend on how( .hristians see themselves situated as a people in the world, and howIhey hear God calling them to participate in its redemption. The chal-lenge of policing thus presses upon Christians and Christian commu-nitics a deeper but no less urgent question of vocation: How will wediscern God's call as Christian communities in our times and places?Ikcognizing that the church will live always in Diaspora until the com-IlIg of the fullness of God's Kingdom explains why Christian pacifists.1Il" Iikcly to continue responding to the challenge of policing in diversew;,ys, befitting the flexibility they need to live faithfully in Diaspora.( ;1 ;If'plillg with God's call to seek the shalom of every Babylon in which

22. Jackson opened his book confessing that "we've not found the answer to crirue

and violence to be that simple:' i.e., a simple choice between reaching for a gun, turning the other cheek, and dialing 911 to call the police. But his book then offered :lseries of experiences and tentative guidelines precisely as an alternative to an endlessarms race of electronic alarms, guard dogs, martial arts, and arming oneself wil hguns. Jackson, Dia1911, 11-12.

23. Schlabach and Alexis-Baker, "Wrestling with Faithfulness in l'caccmakiuj-:

Just Policing:' Workshop, Peace Among the Peoples (Associurc.l /V!(·'I1",,,il<· l\ihli(;\1Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana, 20 I 0).

21. Ak-xis Baker. "( ;ospd or" (;It,,'kl."·', I '"I. II> ,10

"" III 1his same spirit of generosity, Christian pacifists should recognize the force"I ."l',lllll('ltIS hy Chr istians of other traditions. The vocationally centered theologicalILIIIH"wOIk developed here not only identifies the border zones where debate with111<'11I 'o,;il iOlts is likely 10 occur, it also offers a constructive and fair way to carry out·.11'II .1.-1,,01(" ,,1,,1disl'l'rtllllCill. For if it allots only two zones to positions that start to\"'11'.(',nv.IY 1101111"" ilisllI (1/\ ;"HI ,l( .), this may befit the claim of just war traditions111.11.1111'1"-.1ifLI],).. II:." "I viol •.•\( (. will h•.•. xn")'1 ion.rl. 'I hus, Ihe biblical and thcologi-

,.01 '''1''"1«",,1·. 11t , >1 1..1\', ,·1" 11<',1111<',It.lrl "It"v •. pla«" l h•. burden of proof where it

l'IIIII1!'.'_

H,'

, :, '

I,

,I

i.:11"

Iii I11

1

'11

I 'I

l' II1II

II;1 'I

A Faith Not Worth Fighting For

we find ourselves itself constitutes faithfulness for a Diaspora people.Yet faithfulness will express itself according to a diverse agenda:

• Those who rightly insist that the first task of Christians is topractice the politics of Jesus the Messiah within the life of thechurch itself must retrieve and develop the church's own prac-tices of nonviolent policing. Believing that the witness of theChristian community is its greatest contribution to just socialchange makes this task more rather than less urgent.

• Those who are hopeful that society at large or even humanity asa whole can learn to resolve its conflicts peacefully must developless and less violent forms of policing as positive alternatives tocurrent policies and practices. They cannot be satisfied merelyto critique society's current forms of policing as unjust, violent,or oppressive.

6What about Those Men and Women Who GavelJp Their Lives so that You and I Could Be Free?On Killing for Freedom

lustin Bronson Barringer• Those who feel called to work within the system for social jus-

tice, but who are less optimistic about society's potential to makeany more than piecemeal improvements, must take special careto keep their loyalty to Jesus Christ primary and their account-ability to the Christian community active. Only then will theyrecognize when to work within legal, political, and governmen-tal systems, and when they must conscientiously object, blow awhistle, or resign in order to keep their bearings.

• Any of these, as well as ordinary Christians whose mere life andwork in the world forces the question of policing upon them,will sometimes have to admit that they do "not yet" know how todo without the protection of currently constituted police forces.Their moral response will be honesty, confession, and a holydissatisfaction that does not rationalize but instead renews theirsearch for better and more Christ-like responses.

lIul they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word ofIheir testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death.

I{EVELATION 12:11

So if the Son sets you free,you will be free indeed.

IOIlN 8:36

1111 rodu ction

• But all of these, always, will recognize themselves as Jeremiah'sexiles, called to discern our vocations amid the both/and sociallocation of resident aliens, living between the already and thenot yet of God's Kingdom.

I A M 'I'll E PHODUCT of a military family, several generations in fact.W 11('11I was in six Ih grade Ilived on an Air Force base in Alaska. WhileI W;I:; sln·pill)'. "11" S;llunlay nighl I heard a loud blast, an explosion11r.,1 WIlke' n « "I' 1\·1",,,hy 1l1Orllinl',al school I learned that the boom'.11,••. 111,," ,III ,\\\,,\( ", 1"1 110;11 w,"11 d"wlI dllrill)'. ;1ILlillillj', misxiou.'Ihus lIlay we "go ill pean', 10 love ;11111S('J'\I1' I It,· I ",,, ..

" ,I

The Peaceable Kingdom Series A FAITH NOT WORTHFIGHTING FORThe Peaceable Kingdom Series is a multivolume series that seeks to

challenge the pervasive violence assumed necessary in relation to hu-mans, nonhumans, and the larger environment. By calling on the workof ministers, activists, and scholars, we hope to provide an accessibleresource that will help Christians reflect on becoming a more faithfuland peaceable people. The series editors are Andy Alexis-Baker andTripp York.

Addressing Commonly Asked Questionsabout Christian Nonviolence

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

Volumes include:

VOLUME I: A Faith Not Worth Fighting For:Addressing Commonly Asked Questions about Christian NonviolenceEdited by Tripp York and Justin Bronson Barringer

EDITED BY

Tripp York and

Justin Bronson BarringerVOLUME II: A Faith Worth Embracing All Creatures:Addressing Commonly Asked Questions about Christian Care for AnimalsEdited by Andy Alexis-Baker and Tripp York (Forthcoming, 20l2)

VOLUME III: A Faith Encompassing All of Creation: AddressingCommonly Asked Questions about Christian Care for the EnvironmentEdited by Andy Alexis-Baker and Tripp York (Forthcoming, 2013)

FOREWORD BY

Stanley Hauerwas

Visit us at www.peaceablekingdomseries.com.

APTERWORD BY

Shane Claiborne

Contents

IIII

I:, IIIIiII[I

Foreword ixStanley Hauerwas

Introduction:

Why Refusing to Kill Matters for Christian Discipleship 1

Justin Bronson Barringer and Tripp York

1 Isn't Pacifism Passive? 11

C. Rosalee Velloso Ewell

2 What about the Protection of Third-Party Innocents? 18On Letting Your Neighbors DieD. Stephen Long

iI

I3 What Would You Do if Someone Were Attacking a Loved One? :11

Amy Laura Hall and Kara Slade

4 What about Hitler? 44Robert Brimlow

5 Must Christian Pacifists Reject Police Force? 60Gerald W Schlabach

(, What about Those Men and Women Who Gave Up Their Livess() I !lal Y()U ;\lld I Could Be Free? On Killing for Freedom 85lustin HltllI',tllI HtlllillglT

\'11

Contents

7 Does God Expect Nations to Turn the Other Cheek? 107

Gregory A. Boyd

8 What about War and Violence in the Old Testament? 125

Ingrid E. Lilly

9 What about Romans 13: "Let Every Soul Be Subject"? 140

Lee C. Camp

10 Didn't Jesus Say He Came Not to Bring Peace, but a Sword? 154

Samuel Wells

Foreword

11 What about the Centurion?A Roman Soldier's Faith and Christian Pacifism 170

Andy Alexis-Baker

12 Didn't Jesus Overturn Tables and Chase People

Out of the Temple with a Whip? 184

John Dear

I SHOULD LIKE TO think that this book represents a new stage in theconversation between Christians about the viability of nonviolence as astance necessary if we are to be adequate witnesses to Jesus Christ. Toooften, past discussions of Christian alternatives for justifying Christian

participation or nonparticipation in war or other forms of violenceaddress their interlocutor as if he or she is tone deaf. By contrast, the

authors of the essays in this book take seriously objections to theircommitment to nonviolence. As a result, these essays help pacifist andnon-pacifist alike better understand that a commitment to Christiannonviolence is not so much a position but rather a declaration that re-

quires ongoing reflection.In their introduction to A Faith Not Worth Fighting For, Barringer

and York observe that it is hard to imagine what nonviolence mightentail-an astute remark that can too easily be overlooked for its sig-n iticance. Yet I think they rightly call our attention to the necessity of

continuing reflection by those committed to nonviolence. For example,[he very description, "nonviolence:' can be quite misleading, suggestingas it does that we know what violence looks like in a more definitive way

[hall we know the alternative to violence. But that surely cannot be rightiIIlean' is a more determinative reality than violence.

I feel confident that John Howard Yoder would have read thishook aplllc('ia[ ivcly. 'I hat is a high compliment. Yoder was a demanding

( IiI i" pa I[ i, II b fly 01 paci lists who claimed to represent Yoder's position.1:; If Yudn ltad said all t hat needed [0 be said. the Politics of Jesus: Vie it:I,PI/II" N,,·./I'/ W;lS filsl I'lIhlislH'd ill I <)j!.. Yodel did not think [he book

13 What about the Warrior Jesus in Revelation 19:

"He Has Trampled Out the Vintage"? 192

f. Nelson Kraybill

Conclusion:A Faith Worth Dying For: A Tradition of Martyrs Not Heroes 207

Tripp York

Afterword 227

Shane Claiborne

Contributors 232

Bibliography 235

1\

Must Christian Pacifists Reject Police Force?

Documents