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2007-02-20 issue:

The myth of justified violence

Many of us have been brainwashed from childhood

by Dennis Byler

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For as far back as there are written records of civilization, people have been fed the myth of “justified violence” from earliest childhood. The classic presentation of this myth is the story of the reluctant hero who resists his sacred duty, established by the gods, to defend the defenseless and protect the weak. In this tale, the unmitigated evil and villainy of those who do not respect life eventually compels the hero to come to his senses, avenge innocent victims and slay the evildoers. And at that point the gods intervene to right every wrong and bring forth a new age of peace and prosperity.

This plot is easily recognized in literature and film. It is conscientiously worked into children’s stories, helping shape their moral attitudes. As a children’s story, the plot sticks to its purest form in Disney’s The Lion King. Perhaps the most memorable film version is the 1952 movie High Noon, in which the pacifist convictions of Quakers are shown to be wickedly irresponsible in the face of the real, nitty-gritty evil in this world. It is also the plot of many other films, such as Braveheart and The Patriot, and much of television.

About 13,000 years ago, humanity adopted agriculture and animal husbandry, and populations grew to the point where, for the first time, large concentrations of people dwelt together in close proximity. About that time true warfare arose (as opposed to the occasional skirmish involving small numbers of nonprofessional fighters). At this time also religion arose (as opposed to a haphazard collection of beliefs and superstitions). One of the functions of religion has always been its usefulness for making this most unnatural (actually bizarre) behavior of warfare seem necessary and unavoidable. For these purposes, I include as “religion” more recent, superficially secular, phenomena such as nationalism, fascism, communism and many other ideologies. These substitute some abstraction other than gods, yet they are religious in the power of the loyalty they inspire, a loyalty so emotional, unquestionable, worshiped and beloved as to motivate people not only to lay down their lives but be willing to kill.

Exceptional individuals will always be willing to die for others, and to kill as well; but the willingness to do so on a massive scale, and for such abstract causes as justice or nation or peace or God, requires the whole society to be mobilized to indoctrinate its individuals from earliest childhood with moral tales along the lines of The Lion King.

The myth of justified violence is everywhere. It is so pervasive and unavoidable as to amount to systematic, continual brainwashing. It is the most consistent and constant moral grounding found in TV programming. Its repetition is so unceasing, it ends up being taken for unshakable moral truth. The myth of justified violence is so irresistible in its ceaseless repetition, so foundational to our earliest training in human values, morals and attitudes, that most Christians are unaware of how profoundly pagan, how unChristian or anti-Christ-ian, this myth is. Christian authors tend to be unaware that before they became Christian they were already indoctrinated with the all-pervasive morality of the myth of justified violence. Thus they find this myth irresistible and the plot of the reluctant warrior inspiring and profoundly moral.

This is true, for instance, of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, which have been formative for two or three generations of Christian children, including Mennonite children. It is even more explicitly true in his less-known Space Trilogy. But C.S. Lewis is only a case in point, merely typical of Christian writers unaware of their bondage to the effects of the myth of justified violence.

At this level, the religion of ancient Babylon is no different from the view many Christians claim to read in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.

Most Christians, including—curiously enough—many Mennonites, are persuaded that love and a consistent, conscientious refusal of violence will ultimately be unable to overcome evil. In the end, as they understand the book of Revelation, even God will need to concede that love is not enough, that the cross of Jesus is not enough. Even Jesus, they believe, will need to forsake the cross in favor of the sword in order for justice, peace and righteousness finally to prevail forever and ever. They are so blinded by the myth of justified violence that they fail to notice that the sword of the Lamb in Revelation always proceeds from his mouth. The weapon that ultimately conquers all evil is the power of persuasion, the power of the words of truth Jesus spoke in teaching, as collected and remembered in the Gospels.

Since their adherence to the myth of justified violence is prior to their Christian belief, they tend to read other Bible passages as well in ways contrary to the Spirit of Jesus. For instance, they read Romans 13:1-7 in isolation of its context in two key areas. The literary context for Romans 13:1-7 stretches at least from Romans 12:14 to 13:12. Most explicitly, Romans 13:1-7 must never be read in isolation from the inspiredly pithy and commonsensical definition of love Paul provides as an overarching measure of Christian conduct in verse 10: “Love does no wrong to a neighbor.” Whatever mandate the state might have received from God, it is clear that those who wield “the sword” live by a different code from those who bear the cross of Jesus, who owe no one anything other than love.

In its historical and social context, it must be remembered that in Romans 13:1-7 Paul cannot possibly mean that the state can do no wrong, since both he and the Jesus he preached were murdered by the state. Paul was most likely teaching a strategy for lying low and surviving even when the state appears to be irredeemably under the sway of evil, holding out the hope that, in spite of appearances, God’s purposes will prevail in the end. The sword in these verses is that wielded by whoever happens to be in power, however they got there (legitimately or not) and regardless of what ruthless crimes they may be committing to stay in power. It applies to Saddam or Castro as much as to Bush. Unless we are willing to affirm that all state violence is legitimate in every case, these verses seem to be pleading for a different interpretation from the traditional one inspired by the myth of justified violence.

That myth is also the code by which al Qaeda lives. It is also the foundational belief of both Israelis and Palestinians, both Sunni and Shiite Iraqis, both Union and Confederate Americans in the Civil War, and on and on. Thus do the war gods of Egypt and Babylon and Rome still rule humankind. They inspire a devotion and love so profound in their worshipers that people are willing (though always with the required regret) to fly planes into office towers or slaughter hundreds of thousands of people in response to flying planes into office towers.

Those who act according to this myth will stop at nothing, most certainly not at the innocence of their victims. Caiaphas aptly summed up this worldview with the unforgettable words, “It is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed” (John 11:50). Caiaphas said this about someone he had good reason to guess was innocent of the incoherent mix of charges brought by false witnesses. Always, inevitably, all sorts of innocent victims get in the way of well-intentioned warriors as they go about their so-called duty to make the world “safe” for the rest of us.

Yet those of us who dare follow that man so unjustly murdered for reasons of state will never quit standing up and witnessing that there is another way. We will witness to the fact that, against all odds, against every possible logic, that man rose from death and calls us to pick up our crosses and follow his footsteps, imitating his nonviolent confrontation with evil, even the horrendous evil of “justified violence.”

And no, we will not, under any circumstances, be grateful for the sacrifices of those who, blinded and deceived by the myth of justified violence, kill and die “for us.” Instead we will mourn as senseless and immeasurably tragic their unnecessary deaths and the unnecessary deaths of all they have killed. If and when we are granted short periods of peace and freedom amid the darkness of this age, it is God alone we will praise and thank.

Some of us gave up on the gods of Babylon 2,000 years ago. Our eyes have been opened, the brainwashing of this evil age no longer works with us. And for those who continue as before, we feel only sorrow and compassion.

Dennis Byler works with Anabaptist churches in Burgos, Spain, and is supported by Mennonite Mission Network.