In a previous post I declared my belief that the church should not use the weapon of coercion. I said that while the good can be accomplished with coercion and the sword, it is an evil tool. The state causes good to happen but uses an evil or flawed tool. I said that the weapon of the church is the only way to truly accomplish good with a good weapon.
While I do not retract this, I have been led into a slightly different understanding or perspective on this issue by some of the statements in Leo Tolstoy’s wonderful novel The Resurrection. In it he asks what right men have to imprison and punish others when they themselves are evil. While the evilness of the common prison guard in Tolstoy’s country and time may have been more corrupt than in ours, our society has similar situations. While the prison guards of our day may not themselves visit prostitutes or steal money, some of them would visit a strip club or sue someone to get money regardless of that person’s guilt, and even more of them would consider these things to be okay. The guards hold little moral superiority over those they guard. The same with the judges, policemen, and politicians. While these people may not have committed actions that the law deems evil, they are evil like all are who have not been transformed into the image of Christ.
Tolstoy goes on to say that love and forgiveness are the way that Christians act. Here is where he brings a twist to my previous thinking. It is not purely because the weapon is evil that the church does not use coercion and the sword. Rather, because the church is made up of people who are like Christ, the church does what Christ did/does. The church simply acts out of who they are and offers forgiveness and love. They do not reject the sword only because it is evil, but because it is discordant with the nature of who they now are.
1 response so far ↓
Michael Hochstetler // September 8, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Jordan: As a prison volunteer, I am afraid that there is all too much truth in Tolstoy’s depiction, even in our day. To be sure, there are some very fine officers, many of them WOULD visit prostitutes or steal money. It is becuase of crooked officers that thorough serches before entering the prison and the use of drug dogs is neccessary. That stuff is not done just because of visiting family members, trust me. So yes, regardless of how we answer the question, the point is well made.