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Redemptive Violence
Wednesday April 5, 2006
I find myself turning off a lot more TV programs
recently. They’re too predictable. Situations get worse and worse; relationships
break down; conflict increases. Until finally, in a sudden explosion of violence
-- physical or verbal -- everything gets set right again.
It’s more than just a formula. It’s a whole belief
system. When all else fails, resort to violence.
Heads of state have used that rationale for centuries.
So have guerillas, insurgents, terrorists, and assassins. To resolve a border
dispute, invade the neighboring country. To control valuable resource, conquer
the owners. To avenge an insult, fight a duel. To change a government,
assassinate its leader. Or blow up a pub. Or blow up yourself, along with
innocent victims who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Theologian Walter Wink calls this the "myth of
redemptive violence.” It’s the false belief that the "good guys" -- think of Sir
Galahad, The Lone Ranger, Batman and Robin, or NATO -- can roar in, wipe out the
"bad guys," and set everything right.
A FORM OF IDOLATRY
In his 1998 book, The Powers that Be, Wink
wrote: “The myth of redemptive violence … speaks for God; it does not listen for
God to speak. It invokes the sovereignty of God as its own; it does not
entertain the possibility of radical judgment by God. It misappropriates the
language, symbols, and scriptures of Christianity. It does not seek God in order
to change; it embraces God in order to prevent change….
“Its metaphor is not the journey but the fortress. Its
symbol is not the cross but the crosshairs of a gun. Its offer is not
forgiveness but victory. Its good news is not the unconditional love of enemies
but their final elimination… It is blasphemous. It is idolatrous. And it is
immensely popular.”
The week before Easter is commonly called Passion Week
in the Christian churches. This Sunday, many will re-enact Jesus’ triumphal
entry into Jerusalem. Only a few, I suspect, will identify that Palm Sunday
parade as the beginning of what the religious and military authorities
considered an act of redemptive violence. They executed the man who rode into
town on a donkey as a means of restoring peace.
It was a cruel and vicious act -- in itself, anything
but redemptive. It deliberately made the victim’s suffering public, to deter
others from following his example. But those who authorized it believed that the
end justified the means. Violence could lead to peace.
STILL HAPPENING
Did it really happen that way?
Yes, because it is still happening that way. On TV and
in real life. In Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Northern Ireland, at the World Trade
Center…
But who cares? The truth of the story doesn’t depend
who did what, but that in the end love is stronger than hate, that life is
stronger than death, and that the power of evil can never conquer the potential
for good.
That’s why such a disgraceful miscarriage of justice
is still called Good Friday.
Copyright © by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study
groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
To send comments on this column, email
Jim Taylor
directly. You can also receive Jim's column by email. Contact him at
jimt@quixotic.ca
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