Reading Scripture, Rejecting Violence

This last week several friends invited me to offer thoughts and resources on how to address the question of how do we read the violence contained in Scripture, and therefore, how do we respond to those whose theology makes room for the use of violence by Christians.

Interestingly, I had mostly put the first question aside as irrelevant, at least personally.

About two years ago I made a week-long retreat in Colorado with a good friend and spiritual director. I was deeply concerned about this issue and having a hard time moving forward in my spiritual path because of it. I was also in the middle of a difficult conflict that seemed to be intertwined with the scriptural issue. I didn't really seem to get very far at this time so shelved active attempts to resolve the issue, mostly.

In response to my friends' recent requests I've re-engaged the question searching out resources on the issue and come acrosss some interesting websites and blogs. Interesting on several levels. Firstly, to see the pretty big split in theological readings of Scripture towards violence. From one group assigning all actions to God, whether we perceive them as "good" or "bad", arguing that because God is totally good and has a perspective much larger than any human, God's actions may look bad to us now, but are in fact part of a much larger good. The other perspective is God is completely good and therefore will never do anything we percieve as bad or evil or violent. Violence, therefore, comes from outside of God, predominantly from Satan and other beings that work against God's purposes. The second level of intereset was the difficulty with which these two "camps" have in dialoguing with each other.

Web blog comments generally don't allow for a positive and transformative conflict experience. There will be one group who argue their point of view, another group arguing theirs, and much name calling and dire proclamations hurled back and forth. There may be one, or two individuals who raise a more conciliatory voice to the discussion, asking questions, seeking some understanding, but they seem to be generally ignored on the whole. So the capacity for healthy conflict in these discussions are low. This is also interesting to me as I prepare myself for moving to the US next year and consider how to approach the roots of violence there.

So how have I dealt with the problem of violence in Scripture? I have several propositions on dealing with this:

Firstly, a clear rejection of the use of Scripture to endorse or promote any act of violence (in all it's forms) towards one person or group on another. And this goes right down to the cultural level. Any attitudes of hatred, racism, sexism, genderism - any form of domination - are to be rejected. Scripture, distressingly, has been used to promote all kinds of violence, from domestic violence to genocide. I emphatically reject this reading of Scripture.

Secondly, a change of language that no longer refers to Scripture as "the Word of God". "The Word of God" is used synonymously with "Scripture" and I think that is problematic making room for the abuses I mentioned above. The Word of God, according to Scripture, is God who enlightens us, and I would also say enlightens our reading of Scripture. Scripture is certainly useful for "traininig in righteousness" but must be read in the light of Jesus, first, as well as in appropriate context. If not readings of Scripture that lead to violence and domination tend to creep in quite quickly.

Thirdly, I suggest the employment of Nonviolent Communication principles in reading Scripture, that is to say, working hard to understand the feelings and needs expressed by the author of Scripture, particularly with those passages we find most difficult to grapple with. For me those passages are the ones where violence is endorsed, directly or indirectly, and where God and Jesus are described as having violent characteristics as in the book of Revelation.

I actually spent some time writing down some "psalms of renunciation" to the violence within Scripture and done because of our violent interpretations of Scripture. I found that incredibly freeing and I have renewed energy to re-engage Scripture on the whole, and those parts I have generally avoided.

Hungry for Justice

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled"

Earlier this week I spent two days with thirty community nonviolence activists from around Cambodia. In the evening of the first day I sat aside to read some Scripture. The passages I'm meditating on these days are the Sermons on the Mount, in Matthew and Luke, as well as Paul's version in Romans 12. I was surrounded by poor Cambodian farmers, fishing folk, foresters, day labourers, and villagers. Their homes, fishing grounds, forests, lakes and water ways are all under intense risk of destruction or appropriation. If anyone could be described as "poor in spirit", mourners, meek, seekers of righteousness (justice), builders of peace, and persecuted, these folk fit the bill. My eyes grew wide in awe as I sat amongst these blessed ones and watched Scripture come alive.

But how are these folk blessed? Regardless of current advocacy and legal efforts there are no concrete resolutions in sight for activists and their communities. A number of these folk have already lost everything.

What I saw, however, was a spirit of joy and thankfulness amongst them. Joy of being with others who know their struggles, pain, sacrifices and mistakes. Thankfulness that their story was being heard by each other, and one tall white foreign guy with a video camera on a tripod.

There is hope in togetherness. It is a fruit of the kingdom of heaven, it is comforting, it is an acknowledgement of an inheritance worth more than land and economic development. Their time together affirms their struggle for justice and the truth of their cause, an opportunity to show mercy for those in small acts amongst themselves, such as words of encouragement, promises to visit one another's village, and small acts of financial support.

And while I saw this hope, joy and thankfulness I know it is not enough. To stand aside resting in the assurance that God loves these folks is to turn aside from the gospel message itself, of liberation, freedom, concrete hope in a renewed reality. And so myself and many others work in supporting, advising and training in nonviolent tactics and strategies.

Women of Courage. 3 Stories

International Women's Day, 2010

The Christians for Social Justice celebrating Int'l Women's Day


Shiprah, Puah and the Hebrew Midwives

The first recorded event of civil resistance is fittingly an event of women affirming life in the face of death. Circa 1300BC The Hebrew people were living in Egypt and found themselves under the power of a king (Pharoah) who was afraid of them. They were a strong people more numerous than the indigenous Egyptian population, and Pharoah conspired to a program of genocide lest the Hebrews overpower the Egyptians. The Hebrew midwifes in Egypt were then tasked by Pharoah to kill any male child born to them. But the midwives refused the command, risking their own lives in the process. Their story is immortalised in Exodus chapter one.

The Rosenstrasse Prison Protest

In 1943, Berlin, the Gestapo swept through the city to arrest and gather up the remaining Jewish men living in the city. They were brought to a building in Rosenstrasse, Berlin, very close to the Gestapo headquarters. Within hours of the arrest the "Jewish Radio", an informal phone network, flew into action and were able to discover the location of the arrested men. The wives of the men, nearly 6000 women, gathered en masse in front of the detention center and clamoured for their husband's release. After a few days the men were released. Some who had already been shipped to concentration camps were quietly released. Why? The men were married to Aryan women. These women stood in front of Gestapo officers and yelled for their husband's freedom, fully knowing the brutality capable by the most feared section of Hitler's war machine. Almost all these men survived the war.

You can read more in Michael Naglers The Search for a Nonviolent Future, and a full length study called Resistance of the Heart.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

On August 8th, 1988 (8.8.88) Burma comes to a stand-still under a General Strike across the whole country. Led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy were attempting to create space where the military junta would be forced to work towards democracy. Two years later in 1990 the NLD win 90 percent of the votes in a national election. Tragically the junta did not hand over power. Aung San Suu Kyi's face is an iconic representation of the people of Burma / Myanmar and to the unending resistance capable of those who practice nonviolent resistance.


These are simply three stories of how women have, and continue to, battle violence throughout the world. Often women bear the brunt of violence - physical, structural and cultural - in the most heinous ways. Yet women continue to respond with compassion to both victim and perpetrator.

Today is a celebration of all women, as well as a call to continued vigilance of violence in our world, particularly that which is directed at women. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon can be seen here making a video message on "equal rights, equal opportunities: progress for all".

Peace,
Chris Baker Evens