I’m not a pacifist but you could say I have pacifist tendencies. I believe that Jesus taught and modeled non-violence. I remember one of my college professors, a non-Christian, asking the class with exasperation, “Why can’t Christians see that Jesus taught non-violence?”
Alas, I’m not a full-blown pacifist. Why? Well, because of what we’re seeing right now in Ukraine. What do you do when a dictator starts murdering people? It was a question even the staunch pacifist German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer struggled with. When Hitler rose to power, he eventually concluded that intervention was required. “We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself,” he wrote.
In the wake of Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine, CT asked five European evangelicals what this moment requires. Read: Do Russian Christians Need More Bonhoeffers? Also, check out our resource on Preaching in Moments of Crisis. When the world feels out of control, people need to be reminded that God is still on the throne.
