"a much better response to injustice"

The good, in-depth discussion at Jesus Radicals about the article "Nonviolently Resisting God" has been going for two weeks now. Here's my latest comment:


This has been a very long internet discussion, and isn't there some kind of "law" that says the longer the internet discussion, the more inevitable it becomes that someone will bring up Hitler? So maybe there's no way around it. In any case, I think a Hitler analogy won't be taken amiss, since in that scenario I stand on the same side as pretty much everyone here, I think.

Okay, take the case of the daughter of a Christian allied soldier who died fighting against the Nazis. Without knowing her background, we happen to say to her that we think violence is not the way of Jesus, even violence in a good cause. She becomes upset and says she firmly believes God worked through her father and his fellow soldiers, who fought bravely and died to save many Jewish people and others who would have suffered terribly under the oppressive Nazi regime taking over Europe. God spared much suffering through the sacrifice of those soldiers, and her father believed he was serving God. How, in God's name, could we criticize what those soldiers did?

I'm not saying this example is completely analogous, but what do you think? Did God work through the allied soldiers to stop Hitler and reduce the suffering, maybe even to bring some justice?

I believe God did work through them. Even though many of them were not followers of Jesus and many of them probably had selfish or vengeful intentions in their fighting, I believe God used their actions to limit the evil and respond to the cries of his people (Jews and non-Jews). But I think we can still challenge their violent response, can't we, on the basis of what Jesus taught and showed us?

We might even recognize that for a number of those soldiers, their actions in that war were a spiritual step forward, God working in them, maybe overcoming fear or selfishness or apathy to stand up against injustice. But we can still say, can't we, that Jesus calls us to a much better response to evil? One that doesn't cause such violent destruction? One that doesn't rely on the power of money and weapons, that doesn't glorify those powers (which are also the powers of governments and rulers)?

And can't we accept that God brought an end to some evil and some suffering through the actions of those soldiers, and still think we (and them) would do better to not take up the power of the sword but to respond to evil (even as terrible as Hitler's) with the power of God that Jesus demonstrated? Even if our actions weren't as immediately effective in stopping the evil?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think most people here would agree with me up to this point. And I should say I think nonviolent resistance methods, even the ones I've challenged, are much better than the methods of the soldiers, much closer to Jesus' way. There is often much truly Christlike witness involved, too, which I simply praise.

But perhaps you can see by analogy how I can accept and thank God for how God worked through some nonviolent resistance methods and, looking at Jesus in comparison, still believe that Jesus calls us to a better response to injustice. One that doesn't rely on and glorify the powers of money and politics (which are also the powers of governments and corporations) but more perfectly relies on the power of God? That more clearly emphasizes and encourages faith in God's power? Because isn't it God who we should be looking to for justice and deliverance, not armies of soldiers or armies of protesters?

When I talk about "resisting God," I just mean resisting how God is calling us further. I'm saying don't stop with the principles of nonviolent resistance (and don't deny a powerful God) but continue to move closer to Jesus' way which is far more radical. Better for us and a better witness for the world.