Nonviolent Resistance

I've found myself praying for Muslims a lot lately. Back when Grand Ayatolla Sistani was both keeping the lid on violence in Shiite Iraq (specifically on Mohammed al-Sadr) and having health trouble, I was praying for him. Another man to pray for is Akbar Ganji, an Iranian dissident on a hunger strike after being imprisoned for protesting the latest sham elections in that country. He is near death although Iranian news media are lying about it.

I like non-violent resistance. It could be argued that nonviolent resistance is a very Christian concept. Christ's comment "If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles" from the Sermon on the Mount is a direct reference to a practice of impressment by Roman soldiers. This is where the term "go the extra mile" comes from. Solomon also had this to say in Proverbs:

If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you.

So non-violent resistance is all well and good.

That said I don't think it is the end all and be all. The bible is also full of examples of people defending themselves through force of arms, the most prominent of them being the book of Esther where the response to an attempted pogrom was:

The king's edict granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves; to destroy, kill and annihilate any armed force of any nationality or province that might attack them and their women and children; and to plunder the property of their enemies.

I'm in favor of a balanced view of biblical interpretation. As Solomon said, there is a time for every purpose under heaven a time to resist peacefully and a time to make war.

What is my point here? My point is that if you are going to resist peacefully, it helps if you have two things:

1. Political opponents with a conscience.
2. The threat of violence to back your peaceful strike up.

When Ghandi used non-violent methods in India, he was fighting the British who had morals and who feared that should Ghandi die rioting and revolt would ensue.