Nonviolent Resistance
Walter Wink’s Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way is an excellent introduction to the social and spiritual ethic of nonviolence and nonviolent resistance.
Wink’s big picture focus in this little book is fixed upon coloring impossible the vain attempt to separate Jesus of Nazareth and his inspired expression from power politics and nonviolence. One cannot embrace Jesus’ program and simultaneously refuse the nonviolent requirements upon which it is inherently founded. Trying to do so makes about as much sense as attributing the nonviolent salvation Jesus proclaimed to a God who required violence before the salvation could be realized by those who are supposedly being saved.
Wink also uses a few pages in his book to direct the reader’s attention towards the history of nonviolent activism. He cites the following real world examples of successful nonviolent struggle and progress: 1.) Corazom Aquino (who lead the nonviolent overthrow of dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines); 2.) The Solidarity movement in Poland that mobilized popular sentiment against the puppet Communist regime; The nonviolent generals strikes that resulted in the overthrow of several Latin American dictators (Carlos Ibanez del Campo of Chile, Gerardo Machado y Morales of Cuba, Jorge Ubico of Guatemala, Elie Lescot of Haiti, Arnulfo Arias of Panama, Paul Magliore of Haiti, and Gustavo Rojas Pinilla of Columbia); 3.) Gene Sharp, in a book titled “The Politics of Nonviolent Action,” itemizes 198 different types of nonviolent action that are in our historical record but receive no mention is our history books, according to Wink. Finally, Wink not only articulates the dire necessity of nonviolence in an age of oppressive and powerful consumption-centric entities, but also suggests that nonviolence can in fact win the day in spite of the mad and popular rush towards selfish achievement perpetuated and sustained by equally selfish violence.
In short, Wink’s big idea in this little book can be summarized as follows: If we are going to be a part of this “Kingdom of God” thing, we can’t go on compromising nonviolence, no matter how convenient that compromise may seem at any given moment. The universal prophetic impulse/call will nudge us towards a growing dedication to nonviolence and a real-time proclamation of nonviolence in terms of social justice and righteous indignation that are directed towards social, moral and religious unrighteousness. Wink calls this entire scenario/process an “alternative” to the “powers” of our consumerist culture. Wink is right. The question, however, remains: Will we join and participate in Jesus’ Kingdom program? Personally, I think we will first have to get over the high school crush we have on the 1st century dissident from Nazareth. Jesus doesn’t need to be loved like a prom date, he needs to be followed like a visionary. I’m not sure we can do that in popular American culture today. We love us our Jesus.
The following excerpts are taken from Walter Wink’s Jesus and Nonviolence. Spend some time contemplating them. If you have thoughts, feel free to share them here, but it would be best if you shared your thoughts and/or questions with the people with whom you worship with on Sunday.
Most Christians desire nonviolence, yes; but they are not talking about a nonviolent struggle for justice. They mean simply the absence of conflict. They would like the system to change without having to be involved in changing it. What they mean by nonviolence is as far from Jesus’ third way as a lazy nap in the sun is from confrontation in which protesters are being clubbed to the ground.
When a church that has not lived out a costly identification with the oppressed offers to mediate between hostile parties, it merely adds tot he total impression that it wants to stay above the conflict and not take sides. The church says to the lion and the lamb, “Here, let me negotiate a truce,” to which the lion replies, “Fine, after I finish my lunch” (4).
What is your understanding of nonviolence? Do you understand nonviolence as a struggle for justice or is it merely a way to avoid conflict? How does your church community fit into the scenario created by your answer to these questions, if at all?
Jesus’ teaching is a kind of moral jujitsu, a martial art for using the momentum of evil to throw it. But it requires penetrating beneath the conventions of legality to issues of fundamental justice, and hanging onto them with dogged persistence. As Gandhi put it, “We are sunk so low that we fancy that it is our duty and religion to do what the law lays down. If people will only realize that it is cowardly to obey laws that are unjust,” he continued, “No one’s tyranny will enslave them” (43).
What do you do with unjust laws? Do you obey them? Do you subvert them in the name of justice? What about the human beings who suffer as a result of unjust laws? What about them? How does the first sentence in the above quote inform or challenge your Christology and/or Atonement Theory? Does it inform or challenge you at all?
Never adopt a strategy (of resistance) that you would not want used against you. I would not object to my opponents using nonviolent direct actions against me, since such a move would require them to be committed to suffer and even die rather than resort to violence against me. It would mean that they would have to honor my humanity, believe that God can transform me, and treat me with dignity and respect. One of the ironies of nonviolence, in fact, is that those who depend on violent repression to defend their privileges cannot resort to nonviolence. There is something essentially contradictory between crushing the dissent of a society’s victims and being willing to give one’s life for justice and the truth (46).
How do you simultaneously love your enemies while you work against their injustices in a nonviolent but resistant way? If you are not struggling with this question, then you aren’t struggling and are most definitely ignoring a large aspect of this Kingdom of God thing towards which Jesus pointed.
Wink, Walter. Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way (Facets). Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2003.
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As someone how believes that nonresistance is essential to the gospel, to the extent that I have trouble understanding people who say they follow Jesus but yet believe that violence is necessary for God to work in the world, I’m rather disturbed on how little thought I have given these questions recently. thanks.
Here’s your money quote – “Personally, I think we will first have to get over the high school crush we have on the 1st century dissident from Nazareth. Jesus doesn’t need to be loved like a prom date, he needs to be followed like a visionary.”
Love where you’re going recently, Shawn … it’s good to hear this voice again!