Why did Jesus tell the Apostle Peter, who had pulled a sword to prevent Jesus’ arrest, to put down his weapon?

Can you love your enemy and kill him?
And as the Rev. John Dear, nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, asked last week while in La Crosse, was Jesus violent or non-violent?

I found Dear’s question provocative and have been pondering it with others in our community this week. What intrigues me is that while most would describe Jesus as non-violent, Christians justify violence daily. Why is that?

The Rev. Paul Mundinger, pastor at Faith Lutheran Church, said while Jesus was non-violent, he was no wimp.

“Jesus’ command to love your enemy shouldn’t be confused with ‘If your enemy attacks you, let him have his way with you,’” said Mundinger, 49, a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod pastor. “It comes down to an issue of having a right to defend yourself.”

Soldiers don’t have to hate those they fight, Mundinger said, and cited just war theory, which attempts to distinguish between justifiable and unjustifiable military action, to explain that just because Jesus was non-violent doesn’t mean Christians must oppose war.

So does a Christian, then, lovingly kill an enemy? And, as Dear asked, what does non-violence exactly mean?

The Rev. Timothy Ashley, the minister at First Baptist Church, agrees Jesus was non-violent. But while he himself does not advocate violence, Ashley explained that the American Baptist Churches USA has supported both soldiers and conscientious objectors to war.

“One of the things I feel most strongly about is not contributing to divisions,” said Ashley, 61. “If people want to be divided, I want them to be divided without me in the mix. I don’t want to be part of the debate. I don’t want to take sides.”

As a Baptist, he said, he doesn’t believe his view of Jesus has any more authority than anyone else’s. Personally, he said, he wants to understand more than condemn others.

“Jesus had a definitive prophetic edge to what he did, and he came to the prophet’s end,” Ashley said. “If you’re called to be a minister, you probably want to be around long enough to work with people. Prophets get dumped in holes. Prophets get killed.”

When I asked Ursula Chiu, 83, whether Jesus was violent or non-violent, she described what violence is: vengeful, belittling, destructive without rebuilding, mocking, self-satisfying. And understanding it like that, she said, even when Jesus “fights against the evil of commercialism in the temple,” she does not understand him as violent but passionate for his vision.

Chiu, a Catholic who immigrated from Germany in 1956, said she has strong anti-war feelings and strong feelings against the walls being built between people of different social standings, religions and races.

“I’m also, as a teacher, very concerned that we give to our children the insights, the words, the means and techniques to become non-violent,” Chiu said. “The violence between children is very obvious in this country. ... They have the words and actions for bullying, but we don’t give them the words and actions for understanding, for non-violent interaction.”

In his talk at the annual conference of the Franciscan Spirituality Center, Dear described today as an age of perpetual war and this

country, where thousands of nuclear weapons exist and where a presidential candidate speaks of 100 years of war, as leading the way.

He differentiated peace — a word even those going to war use — from non-violence, and invited people to actively stand against violence, to reflect on their own violence and to be visionaries of non-violence.

“Every time you pray, forgive, because people will be rejecting you all along the way,” he said. “The empire of violence is always mocking God.”

Joe Orso can be reached at jorso@lacrossetribune.com or (608) 791-8429.

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