Christian anarchists, such as Ballou and Hennacy, believe that adherence to Christianity requires not just pacifism but, because governments inevitably threatened or used force to resolve conflicts, anarchism. Most Christian pacifists, including the peace churches, Christian Peacemaker Teams, and individuals like John Howard Yoder, make no claim to be anarchists.
Origins
Old Testament
A Levite reading the Law to the Israelites. The Rambam famously rules that members of the tribe of Levi do not fight in the army.
Roots of Christian pacifism can be found in the scriptures of the Old Testament according to Baylor University professor of religion, John A. Wood.[4] Millard C. Lind explains the theology of warfare in ancient Israel as God directing the people of Israel to trust in him, not in the warring way of the nations, and to seek peace, not coercive power. Stephen B. Chapman expresses the Old Testament describes God's divine intervention, not human power politics, or the warring king, as key to the preservation of Israel.[5] Lind asserts the Old Testament reflects that God occasionally sanctions, even commands wars to the point of God actually fighting utilizing the forces of nature, miraculous acts or other nations.[6] Lind further argues God fights so that Israel does not have to fight wars like other nations because God delivers them.[6] God promised to fight for Israel, to be an enemy to their enemies and oppose all that oppose them (Exodus 23:22).[7] Pacifist God, John Howard Yoder explains, sustained and directed his community not by power politics but by the creative power of God's word, of speaking through the law and the prophets.[8] The scriptures in the Old Testament provide background of God's great victory over evil, sin and death. Stephen Vantassel contends the Old Testament exists to put the issue of war and killing in historical and situational context.[9]
The role of war is developed and changes throughout the Old Testament. Chapman asserts God used war to conquer and provide the Promised Land to Israel, and then to defend that land. The Old Testament explains that Israel does not have to fight wars like other nations because God delivers them.[5] Starting with the Exodus out of Egypt, God fights for Israel as a warrior rescuing his people from the oppressive Egyptians (Exodus 15:3).[10] In Exodus 14:13,[11]Moses instructs the Israelites, "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." The miraculous parting of the Red Sea is God being a warrior for Israel through acts of nature and not human armies.[6] God's promise to fight on behalf of his chosen people is affirmed in the scriptures of the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 1:30).[12][13]
According to Old Testament scholar Peter C. Craige, during the military conquests of the Promised Land, the Israelites fought in real wars against real human enemies; however, it was God who granted them victory in their battles.[13] Craige further contends God determined the outcome of human events with his participation through those humans and their activity; essentially, that God fought through the fighting of his people.[13] Once the Promised Land was secured, and the nation of Israel progressed, God used war to protect or punish the nation of Israel with his sovereign control of the nations to achieve his purposes (2 Kings 18:9–12, Jeremiah 25:8–9, Habakkuk 1:5–11).[14] Yoder affirms as long as Israel trusted and followed God, God would work his power through Israel to drive occupants from lands God willed them to occupy (Exodus 23:27–33).[15][8] The future of Israel was dependent solely on its faith and obedience to God as mediated through the Law and prophets, and not on military strength.[4]
Jacob Enz explains God made a covenant with his people of Israel, placing conditions on them that they were to worship only him, and be obedient to the laws of life in the Ten Commandments.[16] When Israel trusted and obeyed God, the nation prospered; when they rebelled, God spoke through prophets such as Ezekiel and Isaiah, telling Israel that God would wage war against Israel to punish her (Isaiah 59:15–19).[17][18] War was used in God's ultimate purpose of restoring peace and harmony for the whole earth with the intention towards salvation of all the nations with the coming of the Messiah and a new covenant. Jacob Enz describes God's plan was to use the nation of Israel for a higher purpose, and that purpose was to be the mediator between all the peoples and God.[16] The Old Testament reflects how God helped his people of Israel, even after Israel's repeated lapses of faith, demonstrating God's grace, not violence.[16]
The Old Testament explains God is the only giver of life and God is sovereign over human life. Man's role is to be a steward who should take care of all of God's creation, and that includes protecting human life. Craige explains God's self-revelation through his participating in human history is referred to as "Salvation History."[13] The main objective of God's participation is man's salvation. God participates in human history by acting through people and in the world that is both in need of salvation, and is thus imperfect. God participates in the human activity of war through sinful human beings for his purpose of bringing salvation to the world.[13]
Studies conducted by scholars Friedrich Schwally, Johannes Pedersen, Patrick D. Miller, Rudolf Smend and Gerhard von Rad maintain the wars of Israel in the Old Testament were by God's divine command.[6] This divine activity took place in a world of sinful men and activities, such as war. God's participation through evil human activity such as war was for the sole purposes of both redemption and judgment.[13] God's presence in these Old Testament wars does not justify or deem them holy, and instead is interpreted as serving to provide hope in a situation of hopelessness.[13] The sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not kill" (Exodus 20:13) and the fundamental principle it holds true is that reverence for human life must be given the highest importance. The Old Testament points to a time when weapons of war shall be transformed into the instruments of peace, and the hope for the consummation of the Kingdom of God when there will be no more war.[13] Wood points to the scriptures of Isaiah and Micah (Isaiah 2:2–4; 9:5; 11:1–9; and Micah 4:1–7) that express the pacifist view of God's plan to bring peace without violence.[4]
You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Several Church Fathers interpreted Jesus' teachings as advocating nonviolence.[24] For example, Justin Martyr writes, "we who formerly used to murder one another do not only now refrain from making war upon our enemies, but also, that we may not lie nor deceive our examiners, willingly die confessing Christ,"[25] and, "we who were filled with war, and mutual slaughter, and every wickedness, have each through the whole earth changed our warlike weapons,—our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into implements of tillage,—and we cultivate piety…".[26]Tatian writes that, "I am not anxious to be rich; I decline military command[...] Die to the world, repudiating the madness that is in it";[27] and Aristides writes that "Through love towards their oppressors, they persuade them to become Christians."[28]Hippolytus of Rome went so far as to deny soldiersbaptism: "A soldier of the civil authority must be taught not to kill men and to refuse to do so if he is commanded, and to refuse to take an oath. If he is unwilling to comply, he must be rejected for baptism."[29]Tertullian formed an early argument against statolatry, "There is no agreement between the divine and the human sacrament, the standard of Christ and the standard of the devil, the camp of light and the camp of darkness. One soul cannot be due to two masters—God and Cæsar," also writing, "the People warred: if it pleases you to sport with the subject. But how will a Christian man war, nay, how will he serve even in peace, without a sword, which the Lord has taken away?"[30]Origen, whose father Leonidus was martyred during the persecution of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus in the year 202 AD, writes, "Jews[...] were permitted to take up arms in defence of the members of their families, and to slay their enemies, the Christian Lawgiver [has] altogether forbidden the putting of men to death[...] He nowhere teaches that it is right for His own disciples to offer violence to any one, however wicked."[31] Further examples include Arnobius, "evil ought not to be requited with evil, that it is better to suffer wrong than to inflict it, that we should rather shed our own blood than stain our hands and our conscience with that of another, an ungrateful world is now for a long period enjoying a benefit from Christ";[32]Archelaus, "many [soldiers] were added to the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ and threw off the belt of military service";[33]Cyprian of Carthage, "The whole world is wet with mutual blood; and murder, which in the case of an individual is admitted to be a crime, is called a virtue when it is committed wholesale";[34] and Lactantius, "For when God forbids us to kill, He not only prohibits us from open violence, which is not even allowed by the public laws, but He warns us against the commission of those things which are esteemed lawful among men. Thus it will be neither lawful for a just man to engage in warfare";[35] while Gregory of Nyssa conveys the spirit of anarchism, "How can a man be master of another's life, if he is not even master of his own? Hence he ought to be poor in spirit, and look at Him who for our sake became poor of His own will; let him consider that we are all equal by nature, and not exalt himself impertinently against his own race."[36]
Saint Maximilian of Tebessa was executed by the order of the proconsul Dion for his refusal to serve in the Roman army as he thought killing was evil; he became recognized as a Christian martyr.[37] However, many early Christians also served in the army,[38][39] with multiple military saints before the time of Constantine, and the presence of large numbers of Christians in his army may have been a factor in the conversion of Constantine to Christianity.[40]Marcus Aurelius allegedly reported to the Roman Senate that his Christian soldiers fought with prayers instead of conventional weapons,[41] which resulted in the Rain Miracle[42] of the Marcomannic Wars.
After the Roman Emperor Constantine converted in AD 312 and began to conquer "in Christ's name", Christianity became entangled with the state, and warfare and violence were increasingly justified by influential Christians. For example, Augustine of Hippo advocated for state persecution of Donatists,[43] while, according to Athanasius, "it is not right to kill, yet in war it is lawful and praiseworthy to destroy the enemy; accordingly not only are they who have distinguished themselves in the field held worthy of great honours, but monuments are put up proclaiming their achievements."[44] Some scholars believe that "the accession of Constantine terminated the pacifist period in church history."[45] Nevertheless, the tradition of Christian pacifism was carried on by a few dedicated Christians throughout the ages, such as Martin of Tours, who converted during the early days of Christianity in Europe. Martin, who was then a young soldier, declared in AD 336, "I am a soldier of Christ. I cannot fight."[46] He was jailed for this action, but later released, eventually becoming just the third Bishop of Tours.[46]Jerome also writes, "To die is the lot of all, to commit homicide only of the weak man."[47]
According to the Bonifacian hagiography, Boniface, in 754, set out with a retinue for Frisia, with the hope of converting the Frisians. He baptized a great number and summoned a general meeting for confirmation at a place not far from Dokkum, between Franeker and Groningen. Instead of his converts, however, a group of armed robbers appeared who slew the aged archbishop. The hagiography mention that Boniface persuaded his (armed) comrades to lay down their arms: "Cease fighting. Lay down your arms, for we are told in scripture not to render evil for evil but to overcome evil by good."[48]
Having killed Boniface and his company, the Frisian bandits ransacked their possessions but found that the company's luggage did not contain the riches they had hoped for: "they broke open the chests containing the books and found, to their dismay, that they held manuscripts instead of gold vessels, pages of sacred texts instead of silver plates."[49]
The Peace and Truce of God was a movement in the Middle Ages led by the Catholic Church and the first mass peace movement in history.[50] The goal of both the Pax Dei and the Treuga Dei was to limit the violence of feuding endemic to the western half of the former Carolingian Empire – following its collapse in the middle of the 9th century – using the threat of spiritual sanctions.[51] The eastern half of the former Carolingian Empire did not experience the same collapse of central authority, and neither did England.[52]
The Peace of God was first proclaimed in 989, at the Council of Charroux. It sought to protect ecclesiastical property, agricultural resources and unarmed clerics.[53] The Truce of God, first proclaimed in 1027 at the Council of Toulouges, attempted to limit the days of the week and times of year that the nobility engaged in violence.
By the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas was bold enough to declare, concerning heretics, "I answer that[...] it is lawful to kill dumb animals, in so far as they are naturally directed to man's use, as the imperfect is directed to the perfect."[54]
Cathars
Painting by Pedro Berruguete portraying the story of a disputation between Saint Dominic and the Cathars (Albigensians), in which the books of both were thrown on a fire and Dominic's books were miraculously preserved from the flames.
Catharism was a Christian dualist or Gnostic movement between the 12th and 14th centuries which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France. Followers were described as Cathars and referred to themselves as Good Christians, and are now mainly remembered for a prolonged period of persecution by the Catholic Church, which did not recognize their unorthodox Christianity. Catharism arrived in Western Europe in the Languedoc region of France in the 11th century.[55] While most information concerning Cathar belief was written by their accusers, and therefore may be inaccurate, purportedly they were strict pacifists and rigorous ascetics, abjuring war, killing, lying, swearing, and carnal relations in accordance with their understanding of the Gospel. Allegedly rejecting the Old Testament, Cathars despised dogmatic elements of Christianity, while their Priests (Perfects) subsisted on a diet of little more than vegetables cooked in oil, or fish not a product of sexual union.[56][57]"Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius." is a phrase reportedly spoken by the commander of the Albigensian Crusade, prior to the massacre at Béziers on 22 July 1209.[58] A direct translation of the Medieval Latin phrase is "Kill them. The Lord knows those that are his own."
Lollardy
In this 19th-century illustration, John Wycliffe is shown giving the Bible translation that bore his name to his Lollard followers.
The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards, a 1395 document of Lollardy, asserts that Christians should refrain from warfare, and in particular that wars given religious justifications, such as crusades, are blasphemous because Christ taught men to love and forgive their enemies.
As early as 1420, Petr Chelčický taught that violence should not be used in religious matters.[59] Chelčický used the parable of the wheat and the tares[60] (Matthew 13:24–30)[61] to show that both the sinners and the saints should be allowed to live together until the harvest. He thought that it is wrong to kill even the sinful and that Christians should refuse military service. He argued that if the poor refused, the lords would have no one to go to war for them. Since then, many other Christians have made similar stands for pacifism as the following quotes show:
The Scriptures teach that there are two opposing princes and two opposing kingdoms: the one is the Prince of peace; the other the prince of strife. Each of these princes has his particular kingdom and as the prince is so is also the kingdom. The Prince of peace is Christ Jesus; His kingdom is the kingdom of peace, which is His church; His messengers are the messengers of peace; His Word is the word of peace; His body is the body of peace; His children are the seed of peace.
To our most bitter opponents we say: 'We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you.'
Love without courage and wisdom is sentimentality, as with the ordinary church member. Courage without love and wisdom is foolhardiness, as with the ordinary soldier. Wisdom without love and courage is cowardice, as with the ordinary intellectual. Therefore one who has love, courage, and wisdom is the one in a million who moves the world, as with Jesus, Buddha, and Gandhi.
"What do you mean by anarchist-pacifist?" First, I would say that the two words should go together, especially[...] when more and more people, even priests, are turning to violence, and are finding their heroes in Camillo Torres among the priests, and Che Guevara among laymen. The attraction is strong, because both men literally laid down their lives for their brothers. "Greater love hath no man than this." "Let me say, at the risk of seeming ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love." Che Guevara wrote this, and he is quoted by Chicano youth in El Grito Del Norte.
—Dorothy Day (1897–1980), "On Pilgrimage — Our Spring Appeal", Catholic Worker[65]
The first conscientious objector in the modern sense was a Quaker in 1815.[69] Some Quakers had originally served in Cromwell's New Model Army before the peace testimony of Friends was issued after the restoration of the British monarchy in 1660. A number of Christian denominations have taken pacifist positions institutionally, including the Quakers and Mennonites.[70]
The term "historical peace churches" refers to three churches—the Church of the Brethren, the Mennonites and the Quakers—who took part in the first peace church conference, in Kansas in 1935, and who have worked together to represent the view of Christian pacifism. Of these, both Mennonites and the Schwarzenau Brethren are Anabaptist Churches.
Although the group had already separated from the Campbellites, a part of the Restoration Movement, after 1848 for theological reasons as the "Royal Assembly of Believers", among other names, the "Christadelphians" formed as a church formally in 1863 in response to conscription in the American Civil War. They are one of the few churches to have been legally formed over the issue of Christian pacifism.[75] The British and Canadian arms of the group adopted the name "Christadelphian" in the following year, 1864, and also maintained objection to military service during the First and Second World Wars. Unlike Quakers, Christadelphians generally refused all forms of military service, including stretcher bearers and medics, preferring non-uniformed civil hospital service.[76]
Churches of God (7th day)
The different groups evolving under the name Church of God (7th day) stand opposed to carnal warfare, based on Matthew 26:52; Revelation 13:10; Romans 12:19–21. They believe the weapons of their warfare to not be carnal but spiritual (II Corinthians 10:3–5; Ephesians 6:11–18).[77][78]
Doukhobors
The Doukhobors are a Spiritual Christian denomination that advocate pacifism.[79] On June 29, 1895, the Doukhobors, in what is known as the "Burning of the Arms", "piled up their swords, guns, and other weapons and burned them in large bonfires while they sang psalms".[80]
Holiness pacifists
The Wesleyan Methodist Church, one of the first Methodist denominations of the holiness movement, opposed war as documented in their 1844 Book of Discipline, that noted that the Gospel is in "every way opposed to the practice of War in all its forms; and those customs which tend to foster and perpetuate war spirit, [are] inconsistent with the benevolent designs of the Christian religion."[81]
We feel bound explicitly to avow our unshaken persuasion that War is utterly incompatible with the plain precepts of our divine Lord and Law-giver, and with the whole spirit of the Gospel; and that no plea of necessity or policy, however urgent or peculiar, can avail to release either individuals or nations for the paramount allegiance which they owe to Him who hath said, "Love your enemies." Therefore, we cannot participate in war (Rom. 12:19), war activities, or compulsory training.[81]
According to law professor Archibald Cox, Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States were "the principal victims of religious persecution … they began to attract attention and provoke repression in the 1930s, when their proselytizing and numbers rapidly increased."[89] At times, political and religious animosity against Jehovah's Witnesses has led to mob action and governmental repression in various countries including the United States, Canada and Nazi Germany.
During World War II, Jehovah's Witnesses were targeted in the United States, Canada, and many other countries because they refused to serve in the military or contribute to the war effort due to their doctrine of political neutrality. In Canada, Jehovah's Witnesses were interned in camps[90] along with political dissidents and people of Japanese and Chinese descent.
Molokans
The Molokans are a Spiritual Christian denomination that advocate pacifism.[91] They have historically been persecuted for failing to bear arms.[92]
The Moravian Church historically adheres to the position of Christian pacifism, evidenced in atrocities such as the Gnadenhutten massacre, where the Lenape Moravian martyrs practiced nonresistance with their murderers, singing hymns until their execution by American revolutionaries.[93][94][95][96]
Most Quakers, also known as Friends (members of the Religious Society of Friends), hold peace as a core value, including the refusal to participate in war[97] going as far as forming the Friends' Ambulance Unit with the aim of "co-operating with others to build up a new world rather than fighting to destroy the old", and the American Friends Service Committee during the two World Wars and subsequent conflicts.[98]
Shakers
Shakers, who emerged in part from Quakerism in 1747, do not believe that it is acceptable to kill or harm others, even in times of war.[99]
Seventh-day Adventists
During the American Civil War in 1864, shortly after the formation of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Seventh-day Adventists declared, "The denomination of Christians calling themselves Seventh-day Adventists, taking the Bible as their rule of faith and practice, are unanimous in their views that its teaching are contrary to the spirit and practice of war; hence, they have ever been conscientiously opposed to bearing arms."[100]
The general Adventist movement from 1867 followed a policy of conscientious objection. This was confirmed by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1914. The official policy allows for military service in non-combative roles such as medical corps[101] much like Seventh-day Adventist Desmond Doss who was the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor and one of only three so honored, and other supportive roles which do not require to kill or carry a weapon.[102] In practice today, as a pastor from the Seventh-day Adventist church comments in an online magazine runs by members of the Seventh-day Adventist church: "Today in a volunteer army a lot of Adventist young men and women join the military in combat positions, and there are many Adventist pastors electing for military chaplaincy positions, supporting combatants and non-combatants alike. On Veteran's Day, American churches across the country take time to give honor and respect to those who 'served their country,' without any attempt to differentiate how they served, whether as bomber pilots, Navy Seals, or Operation Whitecoat guinea pigs. I have yet to see a service honoring those who ran away to Canada to avoid participation in the senseless carnage of Vietnam in their Biblical pacifism."[103]
Other denominations
Anglicanism
Lambeth Conference 1930 Resolution 25 declares that, "The Conference affirms that war as a method of settling international disputes is incompatible with the teaching and example of our Lord Jesus Christ."[104] The 1948, 1958 and 1968 conferences re-ratified this position.[105]
The Anglican Pacifist Fellowship lobbies the various dioceses of the church to uphold this resolution and work constructively for peace.
Baptist
Some 400 Baptists refused combatant duty during World War II.[106]
…the subtle worm assumed the guise of no less a person than the Emperor himself, suggesting that he should become a convert to the new faith, so that the Church and he might work together for the greater glory of God. The bishops and fathers of the Church, ambitious for their organization, fell for this scheme, and Satan went off laughing to himself. He had got everything he had asked from Jesus three hundred years before; he had got the world's greatest religion.[108]
The Gospels are radical pacifist material, if you take a look at them. When the Roman emperor Constantine adopted Christianity he shifted it from a radical pacifist religion to the religion of the Roman Empire. So the cross, which was symbol of the suffering of the poor, was put on the shield of Roman soldiers. Since that time the Church has been pretty much the church of the rich and the powerful—the opposite of the message of the Gospels. Liberation theology, in Brazil particularly, brought the actual Gospels to peasants.[109]
19th-century Christian abolitionists and anarchistsAdin Ballou and William Lloyd Garrison were critical of the violent and coercive nature of all human governments. Ballou and Garrison advocated for nonresistance against the institution of slavery and imperialism, as they saw the Bible as the embodiment of “passive nonresistance” and the only way to achieve the new millennium on Earth. Instead of violence, they advocated for moral suasion or consistent rebukes against the institution of slavery so to persuade racist southerns and indifferent northerners to the abolitionist's cause. Garrison and Ballou, along with Amos Bronson Alcott, Maria Weston Chapman, Stephen Symonds Foster, Abby Kelley, Samuel May, and Henry C. Wright,[110] founded the New England Non-Resistance Society in 1838 in Boston. The society condemned the use of force in resisting evil, in war, for the death penalty, or in self-defense, renounced allegiance to human government, and called for the immediate abolition of slavery without compensation. Garrison's weekly abolitionist newspaper The Liberator (1831–1865) and Ballou's Christian utopian commune the Hopedale Community (established in 1843 in Milford, Massachusetts) were also some of their key efforts in propagating Christian pacifism in the United States. Their writings on Christian nonresistance also influenced Leo Tolstoy's theo-political ideology and his non-fiction texts like The Kingdom of God is Within You.
Before Tolstoy, and similar to Northern Abolitionists (though from a Southern anti-slavery viewpoint), David Lipscomb argued in 1866-1867 that Christians could not support warfare and should not vote, because human governments throughout history waged wars. His book, Civil Government: Its Origin, Mission, and Destiny, and The Christian's Relation To It, maintained a Christian pacifist and proto-anarchist position in the wake of the American Civil War. [111]
From the beginning of the First World War, Christian pacifist organizations emerged to support Christians in denominations other than the historic peace churches. The first was the interdenominational Fellowship of Reconciliation ("FoR"), founded in Britain in 1915 but soon joined by sister organizations in the U.S. and other countries. Today pacifist organizations serving specific denominations are more or less closely allied with the FoR: they include the Methodist Peace Fellowship (established in 1933), the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship (established in 1937), Pax Christi (Roman Catholic, established in 1945), and so forth. The Network of Christian Peace Organisations (NCPO) is a UK-based ecumenical peace network of 28 organizations.[112] Some of these organizations do not take strictly pacifist positions, describing themselves instead as advocating nonviolence, and some either have members who would not consider themselves Christians or are explicitly interfaith. However, they share historical and philosophical roots in Christian pacifism.
In some cases Christian churches, even if not necessarily committed to Christian pacifism, have supported particular campaigns of nonviolent resistance, also often called civil resistance. Examples include the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (a grouping of churches in the southern United States) in supporting the Civil Rights Movement; the Chilean Catholic Church's support for the civic action against authoritarian rule in Pinochet's Chile in the 1980s; and the Polish Catholic Church's support for the Solidarity movement in Poland in the 1980s.[113]
Walter Wink writes that "There are three general responses to evil: (1) passivity, (2) violent opposition, and (3) the third way of militant nonviolence articulated by Jesus. Human evolution has conditioned us for only the first two of these responses: fight or flight."[114] This understanding typifies Walter Wink's book, Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way.[115]
First World War
Ben Salmon was an American Catholic pacifist and outspoken critic of just war theory, as he believed all war to be unjust.[116] During the First World War, Salmon was arrested for refusing to complete a Selective Service and report for induction. He was court-martialed at Camp Dodge, Iowa on July 24, 1918, and sentenced to death. This was later revised to 25 years hard labor.[117] Salmon's steadfast pacifism has since been cited as an inspiration for other Catholics, such as Fathers Daniel Berrigan and John Dear.[118][119]
The Episcopal bishop Paul Jones, who had associated himself with the Fellowship of Reconciliation and had been quite outspoken in his opposition to the war, was forced to resign his Utah see in April 1918.
In 1918, four Hutterite brothers from South Dakota, Jacob Wipf and David, Joseph and Michael Hofer were imprisoned at Alcatraz for refusing to fight in military or put on a military uniform; Joseph and Michael Hofer died in late 1918 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, due to the harsh conditions of the imprisonment.[120] In the Remembering Muted Voices symposium in October 2017, the lives and witness of World War I peace activists, including the four Hutterite brothers, were remembered. The symposium was sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union, Peace History Society, Plough Publishing House, and the Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust.[121]
In the winter of 1935–36, before the onset of World War II, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been reported to make up 20–40% of the prisoners in concentration camps.[122] Although Jehovah's Witnesses made up the vast majority of those wearing the purple triangle, a concentration camp badge used by the Nazis to identify Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany, a few members of other small pacifist religious groups were also included.[123][124][125]
The radical Christian pacifist[128]John Middleton Murry, changed his opinions on Christian pacifism in light of the Holocaust. In his early years as a writer of The Necessity of Pacifism (1937) and as editor of the weekly London newspaper, Peace News, he argued that Nazi Germany, should be allowed retain control of mainland Europe, arguing Nazism was a lesser evil compared to the horrors of a total war.[129][130] Later, he recanted his pacifism in 1948 and promoted a preventative war against the Soviet Union.[131]
During the Holocaust in Bulgaria, protests by Bulgarian public figures, among them Bulgarian Orthodox Church bishops Stefan of Sofia and Kiril of Plovdiv, leaders of professional organisations, and others– persuaded the Tsar first to stop the deportation of Jews temporarily in March 1943, and two months later to postpone it indefinitely.[132][133][134] The Jews whose deportation from Bulgaria was halted, including all Sofia's 25,743 Jews,[135][136] nonetheless had their property confiscated,[137][138][139] were forcibly relocated within the country, and all Jewish males between the ages of 20 and 46 were conscripted into the Labour Corps until September 1944.[140][141][139][138] The events that prevented the deportation to extermination camps of about 48,000[142] Jews in spring 1943 are termed the Rescue of the Bulgarian Jews. Although most Jews who were deported were murdered, the survival rate of the Jewish population in Bulgaria was one of the highest in Axis Europe.
Vera Brittain was another British Christian pacifist. She worked as a fire warden and by travelling around the country raising funds for the Peace Pledge Union's food relief campaign. She was vilified for speaking out against the saturation bombing of German cities through her 1944 booklet Massacre by Bombing. Her principled pacifist position was vindicated somewhat when, in 1945, the Nazi'sBlack Book of 2000 people to be immediately arrested in Britain after a German invasion was shown to include her name.[143] After the war, Brittain worked for Peace News magazine, "writing articles against apartheid and colonialism and in favour of nuclear disarmament" from a Christian perspective.[144]
Opposition to war has led some, like Ammon Hennacy, to a form of tax resistance in which they reduce their income below the tax threshold by taking up a simple living lifestyle.[152][153] These individuals believe that their government is engaged in immoral, unethical or destructive activities such as war, and paying taxes inevitably funds these activities.[154]
Another method of war tax resistance includes not paying a percentage of one's taxes, the percentage being the percent of the Federal Budget allotted to defense and other war-related spending.[155] The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee includes protest methods such as "Pay[ing] the tax with hundreds of small-denomination checks or coins."
Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism or violence. The word pacifism was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ahimsa, which is a core philosophy in Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. While modern connotations are recent, having been explicated since the 19th century, ancient references abound.
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–industrial complex due to a crisis of conscience. In some countries, conscientious objectors are assigned to an alternative civilian service as a substitute for conscription or military service.
Anarcho-pacifism, also referred to as anarchist pacifism and pacifist anarchism, is an anarchist school of thought that advocates for the use of peaceful, non-violent forms of resistance in the struggle for social change. Anarcho-pacifism rejects the principle of violence which is seen as a form of power and therefore as contradictory to key anarchist ideals such as the rejection of hierarchy and dominance. Many anarcho-pacifists are also Christian anarchists, who reject war and the use of violence.
The Fellowship of Reconciliation is the name used by a number of religious nonviolent organizations, particularly in English-speaking countries. They are linked by affiliation to the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR).
The Church of God , also called the Church of God Ministries, is an international holiness Christian denomination with roots in Wesleyan-Arminianism and also in the restorationist traditions. The organization grew out of the evangelistic efforts of several Holiness evangelists in Indiana and Michigan in the early 1880s, most notably Daniel Sidney Warner.
The Brethren in Christ Church (BIC) is a Christian denomination. Falling within the Anabaptist tradition of Christianity, the Brethren in Christ Church has roots in the Mennonite church, with influences from the revivals of Radical Pietism and the holiness movement. They have also been known as River Brethren and River Mennonites. The Canadian denomination is called Be In Christ.
Peace churches are Christian churches, groups or communities advocating Christian pacifism or Biblical nonresistance. The term historic peace churches refers specifically only to three church groups among pacifist churches:
Nonresistance is "the practice or principle of not resisting authority, even when it is unjustly exercised". At its core is discouragement of, even opposition to, physical resistance to an enemy. It is considered as a form of principled nonviolence or pacifism which rejects all physical violence, whether exercised on individual, group, state or international levels. Practitioners of nonresistance may refuse to retaliate against an opponent or offer any form of self-defense. Nonresistance is often associated with particular religious groups, such as Anabaptist Christianity.
The International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) is a non-governmental organization founded in 1914 in response to the horrors of war in Europe. Today IFOR counts 71 branches, groups and affiliates in 48 countries on all continents. IFOR members promote nonviolence, human rights and reconciliation through public education efforts, training programs and campaigns. The IFOR International Secretariat in Utrecht, Netherlands facilitates communication among IFOR members, links branches to capacity building resources, provides training in gender-sensitive nonviolence through the Women Peacemakers Program, and helps coordinate international campaigns, delegations and urgent actions. IFOR has ECOSOC status at the United Nations.
The testimony of peace is the action generally taken by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) for peace and against participation in war. Like other Quaker testimonies, it is not a "belief", but a description of committed actions, in this case to promote peace, and refrain from and actively oppose participation in war. Quakers' original refusal to bear arms has been broadened to embrace protests and demonstrations in opposition to government policies of war and confrontations with others who bear arms, whatever the reason, in the support of peace and active nonviolence. Due to this core testimony, the Religious Society of Friends is considered one of the traditional peace churches.
A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world peace. Some of the methods used to achieve these goals include advocacy of pacifism, nonviolent resistance, diplomacy, boycotts, peace camps, ethical consumerism, supporting anti-war political candidates, supporting legislation to remove profits from government contracts to the military–industrial complex, banning guns, creating tools for open government and transparency, direct democracy, supporting whistleblowers who expose war crimes or conspiracies to create wars, demonstrations, and political lobbying. The political cooperative is an example of an organization which seeks to merge all peace-movement and green organizations; they may have diverse goals, but have the common ideal of peace and humane sustainability. A concern of some peace activists is the challenge of attaining peace when those against peace often use violence as their means of communication and empowerment.
The Anglican Pacifist Fellowship (APF) is a body of people within the Anglican Communion who reject war as a means of solving international disputes, and believe that peace and justice should be sought through nonviolent means.
The expression "one true church" refers to an ecclesiological position asserting that Jesus gave his authority in the Great Commission solely to a particular visible Christian institutional church—what is commonly called a denomination. This view is maintained by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox communion, the Assyrian Church of the East, the Ancient Church of the East, the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, the Churches of Christ, and the Lutheran churches, as well as certain Baptists. Each of them maintains that their own specific institutional church (denomination) exclusively represents the one and only original church. The claim to the title of the "one true church" relates to the first of the Four Marks of the Church mentioned in the Nicene Creed: "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church". As such, it also relates to claims of both catholicity and apostolic succession: asserting inheritance of the spiritual, ecclesiastical and sacramental authority and responsibility that Jesus Christ gave to the apostles.
Different Muslim movements through history had linked pacifism with Muslim theology. However, warfare has been an integral part of Islamic history both for the defense and the spread of the faith since the time of Muhammad.
Christians have been present in the military since after the death of Jesus, Marinus of Caesarea, Julius the Veteran, and other military saints were Christians who were soldiers.
1 2 Thomas, Heath A.; Evans, Jeremy; Copan, Paul (2013). Holy War in the Bible: Christian Morality and an Old Testament Problem. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press. p.11. ISBN978-0-8308-3995-7.
1 2 3 4 Lind, Millard C. (1980). Yahweh is a Warrior. Scottdale, Pennsylvania: Herald Press. pp.25–27. ISBN978-0836112337.
1 2 3 Enz, Jacob (2001). The Christian and Warfare: The Roots of Pacifism in the Old Testament. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers. p.46. ISBN1-57910-706-0.
↑ Justo L. González, Essential Theological Terms, Westminster John Knox Press, 2005, ISBN0-664-22810-0, p. 125: "There is no doubt that the early church was pacifist, teaching that Christians could not be soldiers."
↑ Gregory of Nyssa on the Beatitudes, in Ancient Christian Writers, Gregory of Nyssa, The Lord's Prayer & The Beatitudes, tr. Hilda C. Graef, (The Newman Press, London, 1954), pp. 94–95
↑ Israelowich, Ido. "The Rain Miracle of Marcus Aurelius: (Re-) Construction of Consensus." Greece & Rome, vol. 55, no. 1, 2008, pp. 83–102. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20204201. Accessed March 22, 2021.
↑ Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel (1990). Montaillou: Cathars and Catholics in a French Village. London: Penguin. pp.vii. ISBN978-0-14-013700-2.
↑ Costagliola, Michel. "Fires in history: the cathar heresy, the inquisition and brulology." Annals of burns and fire disasters vol. 28,3 (2015): 230–4.
↑ Preece, Rod. (2008). Sins of the Flesh: A History of Ethical Vegetarian Thought. UBC Press. p. 139. ISBN978-0-7748-15093
↑ "Long have I held that war is an enormous crime; long have I regarded all battles as but murder on a large scale." "India's Ills and England's Sorrows", September 6, 1857
↑ The New conscientious objection: from sacred to secular resistance Charles C. Moskos, John Whiteclay Chambers – 1993 "The first conscientious objector in the modern sense appeared in 1815. Like all other objectors from then until the 1880s, he was a Quaker.4 The government suggested exempting the pacifist Quakers, but the Storting, the Norwegian "
↑ The Rough Guide to Canada. Apa Publications. June 1, 2016. p.957. ISBN9780241279526. The Doukhobors were a sect who fled southern Russian in 1899 after being persecuted for their religious and political views. Fiercely pacifist, they rejected secular government and ignored the liturgy and procedures of the organized church, believing God resided in each individual rather than in a building or institution.
1 2 3 4 Beaman, Jay; Pipkin, Brian K. (2013). Pentecostal and Holiness Statements on War and Peace. Wipf and Stock Publishers. pp.73–74, 98–99, 124. ISBN9781610979085.
↑ Discipline of the Reformed Free Methodist Church. The Sound of Trumpet Ministries. March 17, 1960. p.14.
↑ Manual: First Bible Holiness Church. Muncie: First Bible Holiness Church. 1956. p.4.
↑ Lewis, James R. (2001). The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religions. Prometheus Books. ISBN9781615927388.
↑ Alexander, Estrelda Y. (May 3, 2011). Black Fire: One Hundred Years of African American Pentecostalism. InterVarsity Press. p.82. ISBN978-0-8308-2586-8.
↑ Yaffee, Barbara (September 9, 1984). "Witnesses Seek Apology for Wartime Persecution". The Globe and Mail. p.4.
↑ Hennacy, Ammon (May 1, 2010). The Book of Ammon. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p.406. ISBN9781608990535. Molokan means "Milk Drinker." This name was given the Molokans in Russia by the Orthodox, because they were dissidents from the regular church, led communal lives, and were pacifists.
↑ Waters, Tony (March 31, 1999). Crime and Immigrant Youth. SAGE Publications. p.37. ISBN9781452263373. The Molokan Russians were an ascetic religious sect of the Russian Orthodox Church that settled in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1904-1906. Their religious ideals included pacifism; indeed, the demands of the Russian draft for the Russian-Japanese War were cited as the cause of their flight from Russia in the first place.
↑ Stoeffler, F. Ernest (February 1, 2007). Continental Pietism and Early American Christianity. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p.156. ISBN978-1-55635-226-3.
↑ Tucker, Spencer; Arnold, James R.; Wiener, Roberta (September 30, 2011). The Encyclopedia of North American Indian Wars, 1607–1890: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. p.331. ISBN978-1-85109-697-8.
↑ Schutt, Amy C. (March 1, 2013). Peoples of the River Valleys: The Odyssey of the Delaware Indians. University of Pennsylvania Press. p.172. ISBN978-0-8122-0379-0.
↑ Megan Threlkeld, “The War Power Is Not a Blank Check”: The Supreme Court and Conscientious Objection, 1917–1973, Journal of Policy History, 10.1017/S0898030619000095, 31, 3, (303–325), (2019).
↑ Johannes S. Wrobel, Jehovah's Witnesses in National Socialist Concentration Camps, 1933–45, Religion, State & Society, Vol. 34, No. 2, June 2006, pp. 89–125 ”…although overall figures remain unavoidably imprecise, the number of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the concentration camps in the winter of 1935–36 probably ranged from about 600 (20 per cent) to 1000 (40 per cent).”
1 2 Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There Philip P. Hallie, (1979) New York: Harper & Row, ISBN0-06-011701-X
↑ "Quotation by John Middleton Murry". Peace News. London: Dictionary.com. 1944.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)[verification needed]
↑ Richard A. Rempel, "The Dilemmas of British Pacifists During World War II", The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 50, No. 4, On Demand Supplement (Dec. 1978), pp. D1213-D1229.
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