Pacifism

OCR special

Pacifism

Jon Mayled performs a detailed study of the principles of pacifism, a topic often overlooked by students who concentrate more on issues of Just War

Pacifists promote peace and will not consider war. Pacifism believes that all disputes between nations should be settled by organisations such as the United Nations and not by fighting. Any use of force is considered wrong and neither Just War theory nor realism is accepted.

Types of pacifism

There are four main types of pacifism:

■ absolute pacificism

■ religious pacifism

■ contingent pacifism

■ preferential pacifism

Absolute pacifism

Absolute pacifism teaches that it is never right to kill another human being regardless of the consequences. This is not necessarily a religious belief.

Observing absolute pacificism is not easy as it would be wrong to use violence even to rescue an innocent person. However, it is an easy way to make decisions and does not require any particular set of judgements about a situation.

Religious pacifism

Pacifism forms part of a number of religious traditions. In Christianity, following the Gospels, Jesus taught ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ (Matthew 5:9). On the other hand, it is worth remembering that he threw the moneylenders and dove-sellers out of the temple (Matthew 21:12–13):

‘Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer”; but you are making it a den of robbers.’

and cursed a fig tree which then died (Matthew 21:18–19):

‘In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, ‘May no fruit ever come from you again!’ And the fig tree withered at once.’

In the early Church Jesus’ commands were seen as demanding pacifism and so members refused to join the Roman army.

This changed during the reign of Constantine and this sort of pacifism has become a minority view in the Church.

There are some significant pacifist churches within Christianity: the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), the Amish, Mennonites, Hutterites, Bruderhof Brethren and the Doukhobors.

Largely, these churches follow Paul’s teaching in Romans: ‘Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God’ (Romans 13:1).

Paul continues to say: ‘It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer’ (Romans 13:14b). In other words, the state can use force but not the individual Christian.

This form of pacifism often permits nonviolent direct action and the best-known example of this was Martin Luther King Jr in the struggle for racial equality in the USA.

Martin Luther King Jr was strongly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, who taught ahimsa (non-violence) and satyagraha (insistence on truth). Another example is the Polish Solidarity movement led by Lech Wałesa.

Christian pacifism is also taught by some non-Protestant denominations. The Roman Catholic monk Thomas Merton (1915–68) had a strong influence with his writings. He rejected all violence and argued that Christians should work for the end of all wars. Merton advocated non-violence as a realistic alternative to violence and killing; the task was to try to win people’s minds instead of destroying their bodies. In the preface of his autobiography he wrote:

‘It is my intention to make my entire life a rejection of, a protest against the crimes and the injustices of war and political tyranny which threaten to destroy the whole human race…’

Merton, T. (2008) Choosing to Love the World, Sounds True

At the time, Merton was heavily censored ’by the Church but partly due to him Catholic pacifism is now more common and is even supported by the Vatican as an appropriate faith response to issues of war.

Contingent pacifism

Contingent pacifism is opposed to war on contingent grounds. All wars involve killing innocent people and therefore are morally unjustifiable.

Contingent pacifism accepts self-defence and the defence of others, but the innocent must be protected. This means that wars can be justified in theory, but not in practice.

Each case must be considered to see if there are any justifiable ways to fight the war. Although contingent pacifism is against violence and war in principle, it accepts that there may be times when war is the lesser of two evils.

This could be seen as a utilitarian viewpoint as it is bad consequences that make violence and war wrong.

Preferential pacifism

Preferential pacifism is a preferential option over violence. In the twentieth century this was linked to economic justice as a basis for peace (look into liberation theology if you’d like to follow this up). Pope Paul wrote in Populorum Progressio (1967): ‘To struggle against injustice is to promote the common good. Peace is not just the absence of war.’

This view was held by the Catholic Workers’ Movement and by leaders such as Dorothy Day (1897–1980), and led to ‘the preferential option for the poor’. Here social injustices, inequality and lack of human dignity are seen as barriers to international and social peace.

The Christian pacifist Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1886–1945), despite being a pacifist, took part in an assassination plot against Hitler and was later hanged at Flossenbürg for his part in this.

Preferential pacifism is about how to live life, but sometimes it is either impossible or immoral to maintain a pacifist stance.

Strengths and weaknesses of pacifism

Pacifism is more than opposition to violence and war and must include the promotion of justice and human rights.

Strengths

■ It follows the ideas of the early Church.

■ It argues for the absolute value of human life.

■ It is seen as following the teachings of Jesus.

■ It is straightforward and will not accept any form of violence.

Weaknesses

■ Pacifism could permit evil to take control.

■ A state must protect its citizens.

■ The world is not based on pacifism.

This ‘OCR special’ is the responsibility of RELIGIOUS STUDIES REVIEW and has been neither provided nor approved by OCR.

Jon Mayled is the author of many religious studies textbooks.