"Transformative Pacifism" gives anyone with
pacifist sympathies reassurance:
pacifists are not wrong to think that violence and war are immoral, irrational, and insane and that there is always an alternative.
"IAM not a
pacifist" Jeremy Corbyn insisted last week.
Critique: An inherently fascinating and compelling read from cover to cover, "We Answered With Love:
Pacifist Service in World War I" is exceptionally well edited, organized and presented.
We might wonder what a world full of
pacifists would have done once it had grown "aroused" - commit suicide as well?
During the Q&A, I asked Wills whether he was, as I am, "disappointed and even justifiably angry that the Catholic church is not a
pacifist church.
While the argument is not made, it could be read as suggesting that the
pacifist tradition in the Holiness and Pentecostal churches owes it origins to the Mennonite position.
The draper's son was 19 when war broke out, and his
pacifist beliefs saw him serve three prison sentences - in Preston, Wormwood Scrubs and Belfast.
As Professor CH Dodd said in "The Meaning of Paul for Today", "Christian
pacifists obey God rather than man, and care not a rap for the judgement of any human tribunal".
Nevertheless,
pacifists are to be tolerated and given accommodation consistent with what a Christian nation would extend to any of its misguided and confused brothers and sisters: Public authorities should make equitable provision for those who for reasons of conscience refuse to bear arms; these are nonetheless obliged to serve the human community in some other way.
In the words of an Italian newspaper, "Israeli
pacifists risk at the most coming late to their Tel Aviv cafe."
Then he turns to actual cases, starting with religious
pacifists during the French and Indian War 1754-63.
Protestant
pacifists could not keep the twentieth century from becoming the bloodiest on record, but they could sustain a shared identity.
Many among the anti-fascist constituency were also
pacifists and it was principally here among the anti-fascist lobby that the shift to the idea of using force to defend civilisation was most evident.
The
pacifists, responding to a call by Belgian groups Bombspotting and Vredeactie (Action for Peace), accuse the Atlantic alliance of being the instrument of US policy in Iraq and Afghanistan.
