Nonviolence -- impossible? Or inevitable?

By Ray Waddle

Love your enemies. Turn the other cheek. Bless those who curse you. Be merciful. Judge not. Condemn not.

Just listing these core commands of Jesus makes me nervous. What an impossible standard! The church pays lip service to them. The world sullenly ignores them. Every day I fail to embody them. It’s all too embarrassing to talk about, this colossal hypocrisy, this monumental failure to come to grips with Jesus’ teachings.

And yet.

Surely Jesus wasn’t aiming merely to shame or embarrass people. He was what the rule of
love, a world of nonviolent solutions, would actually look like. He was speaking God’s intentions for all of God’s creation. He was mapping out a new human vision.

His teachings look so impractical. Yet He insisted. There’s a breathtaking mystery in that. He was planting seeds, inviting people to imagine a life of dignity, empathy, compassion and heal wounds of revenge and disdain. Then and now, He confronts every heart. He dares it to dream.

And very slowly, over time, something takes root.

An example: Every January now, a miracle happens. This nation celebrates Martin Luther King Day. At the heart of his message was nonviolent social change, the spread of human decency and moral courage. Despite all odds, nonviolence gets an official day, Jan. 16.

King’s touchstones were Jesus and the Bible, the suffering of African Americans and the success of nonviolent political pioneers like Mahatma Gandhi -- worldwide humane values enriching the American dream.

Somehow an ethical vision merged with practical politics, changing racist habits, dismantling segregation, pressing people to broaden their horizons of empathy -- all socially impossible a few decades ago.

It carries the spirit of Jesus’ “impossible” teachings.

In an age of nuclear risk and religious terrorism, strategies of nonviolence might look as remote as ever. In fact, in the long run, they are the only pragmatic solution to save humanity from itself.

In the days between New Year’s and Super Bowl Sunday, King Day sanctifies hope and nobility, an ambitious vision of goodness. Everyone’s invited to see an impossible horizon come into view.

--Ray Waddle, a columnist in Nashville and veteran religion writer, is the author of Against the Grain: Unconventional Wisdom from Ecclesiastes, published by Upper Room Books.