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Christianity and Violence

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Christianity and Violence DiscernmentSo that you may be able to discern what is best. Phil. 1:10 Christianity and Violence ■ Christ’s entry into this world is both the Why? Because, as the Council wrote to denomi- promise of peace and the harbinger of violence. nation President Paige Patterson,“a campaign of Inside: Herod’s malicious slaughter of Bethlehem’s chil- the nature and scope you envision could con- dren marked an early encounter between the tribute to a climate conducive to hate crimes.” Christians,Violence, hostility of the world toward God incarnate. The heightened sensitivity to violence and to all and Injustice 2 Jesus Himself warned His disciples that He its potential causes places some traditional North Real Victims 5 came not to bring peace but a sword, for “I American missionary activities under suspicion. have come,” He said,“to turn ‘a man against his The Council’s concern over how the Southern Violence Confronts father, a daughter against her mother, a daugh- Baptists will represent Christ acutely demon- Today’s Missions ter-in-law against her mother- strates the difficulty faced by all Efforts 8 in-law’” (Matt. 10:34-35). believers who seek to live the Jesus thus puts aside the gospel in a hostile culture. Reflecting on God, speculation that His first appear- “In post-Christian Of course, outside the Pacifists, and ance on earth means the con- West, some Christians face Christians in the Western cultures, summation of history. On the increased persecution, with dis- Military 10 antipathy toward contrary, His appearance leads to turbing recent reports coming CACE News division.The challenge for His violence of any sort from Sudan, Indonesia, and & Notes 12 followers is to navigate amid the has become the India. In turn, many Christians divisions, to “be as shrewd as risk their lives to extend the foundational snakes and as innocent as doves” message of justice and peace to (Matt. 10:16), to not cause vio- morality by which troubled regions, both locally lence but to live prudently to measure words and globally, rife with conflict. within it.This is an ethical chal- Christ’s message of peace must lenge of the highest order. and actions.” be lived in a world that at times Recent years have only trumpets a heightened sensitivity intensified the need for careful to the moral wrong of violence, ethical reflection on the relationship between but also displays an ability to embrace violence violence and peace within Christian experience. when it satisfies appetites, seeks vengeance, In post-Christian Western cultures, antipathy establishes political power, or rejects the gospel. toward violence of any sort has become the This issue of Discernment draws us into the foundational morality by which to measure moral dimensions of violence as experienced by words and actions. Consequently, the Christ who today’s Christians. In doing so, it takes an initial brings the sword of division is even less welcome step into the mystery of serving the Christ who today than in prior decades. Last November, for brings a sword in the name of peace. instance, the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago urged the Southern Baptist Convention to modify its large scale evangelism effort in Chicago this summer. Kenneth Chase, director of CACE ■ A Newsletter of the Center for Applied Christian Ethics • Wheaton College Winter 2000,Vol. 7, No. 1 Christians,Violence, and Injustice Understanding God’s character is critical in our response. By Gary Haugen ■ Think back to what you were doing in the spring The Hutu militias broke down whatever of 1994. I was leading a regular suburban life, work- defenses were set up, and Hutu mobs took over. ing at the Department of Justice and raising a family These were not mobs of elite killer paratroopers but outside Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, in another part of average people—farmers, school principals, tailors, of the globe, in an African coun- clerks.The mobs hacked everybody to death with try, statistically 80 percent machetes, iron rods, or big clubs with nails ham- Christian, 800,000 people were mered into them. being hacked to death by their neighbors in about eight weeks. Cataloguing the Carnage The number is hard to Eventually, the Tutsi rebel army successfully invaded comprehend. In Kosovo last win- and kicked the Hutu militia and government out of ter and spring, somewhere the country.With peace restored, we went in. I was between 10,000 and 20,000 presented with a list of about 100 mass graves and innocent people were taken from massacre sites. Most were churches.They were lit- their homes and executed. In tered with thousands of corpses. Blood lines on the Rwanda, between 10,000 and walls were knee-high. Photos by Dave Wittig Dave Photos by 20,000 innocent people were Any murder investigation begins with the Gary Haugen executed every day.The Justice Department assigned body, so we had to catalogue the cause of death and says Christian me to the United Nations to help direct the inter- the basic identity—male, female, child—of the vic- professionals can national effort to find the leaders and perpetrators of tims.We would just pick up a skull and start record- and should shine these atrocities, which had grown out of a bitter civil ing by the thousands. Sometimes we had to use bull- light into the war between two tribes, the Tutsis and the Hutus. dozers to uncover the mass graves. world’s dark Though relatively low level violence had gone This happened in our world, in a country mis- places. on for some time, the genocide came suddenly.The sionaries say was the birthplace of the East African Tutsi rebel army was outside the country and the Christian revival. Hutu president seemed, at least to Hutu extremists, to be moving toward some kind of shared power In a Bombay Brothel with the Tutsis.The extremists opposed that, setting Now shift to another part of the world, India, where up militias around the country.Their plan apparently we got to know a girl named Joytey.When she was was to take advantage of any chaos in the country to 14 she went to a distant village to earn money as a eliminate their Tutsi enemies. domestic servant to help her family.After about three months, she began heading home. But four Plan Put into Action women enticed her onto the wrong train and gave The Hutu president was killed when his plane was her drugged tea. She woke up in windowless room shot down.There was plenty of chaos, and the plan on the third floor of a brothel in Bombay. was put into action.Within hours Tutsi bodies began For the next three years, about 20 customers a to appear in the villages and cities throughout day paid small amounts of money to rape this child. Rwanda.Tutsis had seen this kind of ethnic violence By the end, she had been forced to have three abor- before, so they began to run to schools, stadiums, tions. She had engaged in unprotected sex in a city and churches for safety—also in the hope that no with a horrific AIDS epidemic. one would hurt all of the women, children, and UNICEF says that a million children every elderly people who gathered in these places. year are forced into prostitution. Other experts say 2 Discernment ■ Winter 2000 it’s a million in Asia alone and another million in the disengaged.We can only engage violence and injus- rest of the world. tice by understanding God’s character and His atti- tude toward violence and injustice. Bonded Slavery The Bible describes injustice as the abuse of Take the case of another child, named Shawna. power. In every context in society, some people When she was 7, she was living with her very, very have more power than others. Using that power to poor family in a village in India. Her mother was take from other people is injustice. giving birth to her baby brother and needed about Injustice has two ingredients: coercion, which $25 to pay for a doctor.The only way they could get includes actual or threatened violence, and deception. $25 was from the local moneylender, who demand- Proverbs 10:11 says,“. the mouth of the wicked ed that the family sell Shawna to him. She was made conceals violence.” John 3:20 reminds us that every- Gary Haugen is the to roll cigarettes by hand six days a week, 12 hours a one who does evil hates the light and will not come founder and head day, sitting in one place on the floor. If Shawna did- into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. of The International n’t roll 2,000 cigarettes a day, she was beaten. She Justice Mission in was paid about six cents a day. Exposing the Darkness Washington, D.C. After three years, when we met her at 10 years If you go into the red-light districts of the develop- He is a graduate of of age, she was not one penny closer to paying off ing world, you will see women and girls mingling Harvard University her debt.This is bonded slavery. out in front of or on the first floors and the University While it is illegal in India, we of the brothels. No one is holding of Chicago Law believe there are some 15 million them.They may even be calling for School. He was a children in such circumstances there, “In Kosovo last customers to come in.What you senior trial lawyer rolling cigarettes, making jewelry, winter and spring, don’t see are the cages on the third with the Police making fireworks, and breaking or fourth floor where the children Misconduct Task somewhere rocks with little hammers.
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