THE MYTH OF REDEMPTIVE VIOLENCE:
The myth of redemptive violence defends the belief
that violence saves,
that war brings peace,
that might makes right,
that we can conquer violence with violence.
It is one of the oldest stories in the world.
It, and not Judaism, Christianity or Islam,
is the dominant religion in society today.
The myth of redemptive violence speaks for God,
it does not listen for God to speak.
It invokes God’s sovereignty as its own.
It appropriates Christian language, symbols, scriptures.
Its God is the tribe, worshiped as an idol.
Its metaphor is not the journey but the fortress.
Its offer is not forgiveness but victory.
Its good news is not the unconditional love of enemies
but their final elimination.
Its salvation is not a new heart
but a successful foreign policy.
It usurps the revelation of God’s purposes for humanity in Jesus.
It is blasphemous.
It is idolatrous.
It is immensely popular.
It has been carefully and thoroughly inculcated in us from our mothers' wombs. It is the story line of our nation's history, of kids' books and cartoons, of TV and movie, of history from Christopher Columbus to George W. Bush – from conquest of land from native peoples, Mexicans, the French and Spanish and English, from Revolutionary War - it is a history of wars and justification of wars.
The domination system is characterized by:
• Unjust economic relationships
• Biased race relationships
• Hierarchical power relationships
• Oppressive political relationships
• Patriarchal gender relationships
• Exploitative relationship with the earth
• And violence to maintain the system
• And the law to enforce it
A significant aspect of the myth of redemptive violence is its contribution to international conflict – there the survival and welfare of the nation becomes the highest earthly and heavenly good. Nationalism is made absolute. There can be no other gods before the nation. The myth of redemptive violence serves as the inner spirituality of the national security state and it provides divine legitimation for the suppression of poor people everywhere.
That's where we are.
That's why we are in the morass we are in.
Practical Nonviolence rests on 3 basic principles:
1. Ends and means are consistent.
2. Respect for the rule of law, which discourages frivolous violations of the law.
3. Don't become what you hate.
Can we find God in the enemy? We can if we learn to love the enemy each of us carries within us. And there are great stories of people who did just that.
It works. We've seen it work. We've seen the bush burning and not being consumed (one of the stories of our tradition that can seem so mysterious until we get inside it and see evidence of it today. We can see it. We saw it in Gandhi, in King… We saw it in 1989–90 - miracles of transformation. 1.7 billion People (32% of humanity) experienced nonviolent revolutions. Except in China all succeeded. Except in Romania and part of the southernmost USSR , all were completely peaceful. If we add countries touched by major nonviolent actions in the 20 th century, the figure reaches almost 3 billion people involved and radically affected.
Which brings us to the discipline of prayer in nonviolence – social activism runs the danger of becoming self-justifying good work. And so it will unless the practitioner is devoted to and thus protected by prayer. Our prayers to God reflect back on us as a divine command to become the answer we seek. We are the ones we've been waiting for.
By Liz McAlister, May 2004
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