(If Only It Were That Simple)
Hamilton states that for two thousand years (much longer of course) we humans have found it easier to resort to violence rather than to love our enemies. So he poses the question: will most people choose a strong leader who is willing to use force or one who follows the teaching of Jesus and advocates that we love our enemy?
To guide us in our choice, he offers the approaches of Malcolm X or Martin Luther King Jr. and asks, “When it came to civil rights, what was it that finally changed our country?” The unvarnished reality is both. Many “Whites” (persons with the power) were moved by nonviolent resistance and The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed; and just as quickly, states began passing laws to circumvent the new federal law. For example, in 1964 California passed Proposition 14, which blocked the fair housing section of the Act; other states also enacted laws to preserve discrimination. History was repeating itself, and many Blacks remembered the Jim Crow Laws that were passed in 1870s in the South. Race riots were erupting in cities across America, like the Watts race riot in Los Angeles, CA in August 1965. Many “Whites” were scared or awakened by the riots and realized that real change was necessary. California’s repealed Prop 14 in 1967.
We live in a civilization that has been shaped by love and conflict, powerful acts of self-sacrifice and horrible misuses of power, periods of productive cooperation and others of destructive and devastating wars—shaped by sin and righteousness. Consequently, the world in which we live is complicated and messy.
As I understand sound Christian morality/ethics, first and foremost, we need leaders who do their very best to love or value all people, including those who are (or perceived to be) enemies. Since greed, irrational hatred, aggression, violence, sin are now woven into the fabric of civilization, we need our leaders—when all other avenues of action have been exhausted—to employ the necessary means to confront and stop sinful behavior. Sometimes, that will mean “using physical force to injure somebody or damage something,” a primary definition of violence. Pure simplistic choices probably work only in a pure simplistic world—a world in which I’ve never lived.
