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Following Jesus in nonviolent struggle for justice and peace, we love our neighbors and enemies as God loves us all, becoming a peace church to share in Gods work to save the world.

Nothing Less Than A Conversion

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Today I came across a commentary I wrote a week after 9/11 in 2001. I said at the time that the nation and the church needed a conversion on the question of violence. It seems like we still need that conversion, so I'm re-running that article today.

Tuesday, 9/18 Nothing Less Than A Conversion
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Martin Luther King, Jr. said:
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate...Returning violence for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: Only love can do that."

The truth of what Martin Luther King spoke is the truth which a Jewish man, a Pharisee named Saul, discovered 2000 years age, and it changed his life. Saul, who became known as Paul, was converted from using violence to using nonviolence as his tool for justice and order in society.

The light which drove out the darkness in Saul did not fully dawn on him until his enemy, Ananias, greeted him with the words "Brother Saul." The light from heaven on the road to Damascus only blinded him; the light which restored his sight came through the voice of a man who did that simple, and desperately difficult thing which Jesus lived and taught--that is, loved his enemy.

The story is told in Acts chapter 9--"Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord..." The man might be described, in the mood of our times, as a kind of terrorist--a man determined to defend his community by any means necessary.

The conversion of Saul was essentially a conversion from belief in the power of violence (a man who used violence as his method) to belief in the power of nonviolence (a man who used the power of love to overcome evil as his method.)

Yes, it is amazing, and kind of frightening, that the church has not understood, and taught, the conversion of Saul in those terms. But it is there, when you look at it. The question of violence, homicidal violence, is at the center of this conversion story.

In his meeting with Ananis Saul had a meeting with Jesus. Ananias was a man who had heard Jesus' question in the synagogue on the sabbath: "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?" (Mark 3), and Ananias had chosen his answer to that question. Now Saul confronted that question, and gave his answer.

Today, with poignant clarity, the church in America, and every Christian in America, stands in front of Jesus' question: "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?" It is a call to conversion, there can be no doubt. How it will be answered--that remains to be seen. 9/18/01 John K. Stoner

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