Christian Pacifists point to a number of passages in the Gospels to support their views. “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, let him slap your left cheek two. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:38-46) In this passage Jesus teaches us not to take revenge and to love our enemies. Something that I am sure many of us find hard to do. This passage is something that Christian pacifists would be totally behind and committed to.
“To love your neighbour as yourself is more important than to offer animals and other sacrifices to God” (Mark 28-34) In this passage Jesus tell us about the two most important commandments. The second one is to love our neighbour. Christian pacifists would interpret this as not hurting a fellow human whether in war or other circumstances
At the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples that things had reached a crisis and uses the symbol of buying a sword to get his point across. They misunderstood him and drew their swords in the Garden of Gethsemene. He immediately told them to stop fighting and heals the high priests slave who had been injured.
The Christian pacifists would think that it is Jesus’ wish that there be no fighting or war because he, himself ordered the disciples to stop fighting even when he knew he was being led of to die.
A modern day example of violence being used as a means to solve a problem is the situation in Northern Ireland and the IRA. Essentially, the British Empire took parts of Ireland for their own. This incensed a number of the inhabitants, and rightly so. The Catholics of Ireland generally put up the greatest resistance, where as it can be said the Protestants generally accepted this. The Catholics, although is must be said not exclusively all Catholics, were not going to surrender what they thought rightfully theirs. They could not get their voice heard and so resorted to violence, hence the forming of the IRA. However, despite decades of conflict, bombings and violence very little has changed. The occasional peace treaty is agreed upon but this agreement has proven to be very fickle. Bombings still take place in important places such as Central London and many lives have been taken and families torn apart in the quest for some sort of conclusion to this matter. Things do not look especially bright for the future as neither side will back down.
This situation is also apparent in the Third World, where some scenes are almost sickening. Young boys are being trained to kill and the majority of these already poor country's economy is being focused on military. The developed world, despite the aid they give to such countries, are not innocent. Often it is them that sell the firearms to these poor countries. This emphasis on violence will surely do little to improve their situation or relations amongst the appropriate countries. There must surely be another alternative to violence. It does not make sense to achieve a good end by carrying out bad actions, because then the manner in which the good was achieved goes against it.
