Early Christian believers' lives "were nourished, not by the summas of the academicians, but by the lives of the saints. Most of the saints were tacitly non-violent. Most of the martyr-saints were expressly non-violent. The rejection of violent self-defense or of service in the armies of Caesar was sometimes the reason for which the saint was martyred. The lives of the saints are told to incite the hearer to trust God for his or her surviving and prospering." --Quoted from When War is Unjust by John Howard Yoder, pages 69-70.
This quote gives me great pause and great sadness, because it causes me to think of the voice I have heard in the church speaking on behalf of various wars (when I say "in the church" I mean Christians who are the church, but also, specifically, Christian leaders in and out of the church). This quote reminds me that Christians long ago looked to the saints for spiritual nourishment--saints who lived non-violent lives. Jesus lived non-violently, yet, on this subject, I did not listen to him until recently. And so this is a double-edged knife to my conscience. For I used to look in judgment on those who looked to the saints to lead them spiritually. I believed they should be looking to Jesus, who is the saint of all saints. But I was judging these, and not seeing my own offense. I listened not to Jesus concerning violence, but instead, listened to the voice of the religious leaders.
And these are voices I had listened to, many for years and years; they are voices I have respected and even grown to love. It saddens me to see this flaw. I do not suggest that it discounts the good they do perform, because their efforts are tremendous. But this is too great a flaw to ignore, and in fact, how much good can be done if in the end they (the church) support an evil (war) that causes the problems they (the church) are attempting to fix? This is a very sad thing to face.
But I am convinced that they feel they are right, that in their hearts they must not be condemned. Certainly this is an example of the blind leading the blind. But this causes me even greater sadness, because they speak on behalf of war to Jesus's people, his sheep. What treachery our foe has caused! What deep and utter treachery! Let me begin to break out of the lies I have been told and begin to believe and live in the spirit, the word of truth that Jesus taught all of us!
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Saints, Who are these saints?
Were they unmarried church leaders?
I think the saints your talking about were unmarried catholic saints.(?)
The "saints" I was referring to when I was lamenting my judgment against others were probably the unmarried Catholic saints. However, I do often use "saints" to refer to any Christian who truly follows after Jesus.
Although I can't speak for the author of the quote, I assumed he meant any Christian who was martyred, whether married or not, Catholic or not.
Who is John Yoder anyway? Could you put an excerpt of his writing on your blog? Thanks.
John Howard Yoder was a theologian of the Mennonite faith. He taught that following Jesus was not just a faith act, but a political act--that Jesus taught us that we should love one another, and that includes our enemies--even enemies of the state. Yoder was a pacifist. You can read his book The Politics of Jesus (I have the full reference in my sidebar under "books I am currently reading"). His writing is dense and I have to read him slowly. But for me reading Yoder is like walking through knee-high snow--I must put out extra effort, but the experience is worth it! I quoted him in this post (which we are responding to) but will post another soon and quote him again. He is extremely quoteable. Everytime I read from his books, I want to write down half of what he says (I finally ordered my own copy of The Politics of Jesus--still waiting for it).
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