Violence taking center stage

Saturday, August 26, 2006 I read some time ago that someone paid $175,000 for Bonnie and Clyde's car, the one with 160 bullet holes, bloodstained seats and shattered windows. The car is the one that the bank robbers died in when they were ambushed in Arcadia, La., some 70 years ago. I wonder what that says about our glorification or violence. "Put your sword back into its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword." (Matthew 26:52) These are the words Jesus addressed to the one who drew his sword and cut off the ear of the high priest's servant. Put away your sword! They are the words our world needs to hear especially today. There is no need to give you a report on the violence in the Middle East — you hear about it daily. But focus on information concerning violence in the United States. It was reported last year that violent crime— including robbery, rape, aggravated assault and murder — increased. Consider the violence in sports. A hockey game, for example, turns into a free-for-all. Players start beating up one another with the bare fists. One of them falls to the ice, and the others pile on top of him, hacking away. The crowd loves it. In just one week of programming airing in Los Angeles, television shows depicted 552 homicides and 410 murder attempts portrayed individually in 143 hours of crime and horror broadcasting between 8 a.m. and midnight. Hundreds of other acts were graphically illustrated during the same period — armed robberies, rape attempts, torture, arson, many forms of assault, extortion and blackmail. How bad things are In fact, it is said the average American child from age 5 to 15 will view the violent deaths of some 14,500 people on TV. There are others who say that there is more violence in the home today between husbands and wives as well as between parents and children, whether it is verbal or physical, than on all the TV programs. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a famous Russian writer of the 20th century, summarized the true situation regarding violence in the world today when he wrote: "Violence is brazenly and victoriously striding across the whole world. There was a time when violence was a means of last resort. Now it is a method of communication." In the midst of all these voices that are glorifying violence, we hear the voice of Lord Jesus: "Put your sword back into its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword." We are indeed perishing by the sword today. We must remember that the same Jesus who said, "Put away your sword," also said in Luke 22:36, "And let him who has no sword sell his mantle and buy one." Jesus did not mean a physical sword here but a spiritual sword — the sword against injustice, oppression, exploitation and evil. Put away the physical sword but sell your coat if need be and buy a spiritual sword if you don't have one. Jesus did not teach us to sit back and do nothing when we are confronted with evil. He taught us to resist, to right, to oppose, exactly as he himself overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple. In addition to a sword, Jesus offers us the whole armor of God for this fight. "Put on the whole armor of God," writes St. Paul, "that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil ... the breastplate of righteousness ... the shield of faith ... the helmet of salvation ... and the sword of the spirit ... For we are not fighting against flesh and blood ... but against the world rules of present darkness. (Ephesians 6:11-17). Where does all the evil and violence begin? Does it not begin in our hearts? Did not Jesus say, "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander." (Matthew 15:19). Saint's advice "The most important work that a spiritual wrestler can do," said St. Makarios of Egypt, an Orthodox saint, "is to enter within the heart, there to fight Satan; to hate and repel the thoughts he inspires and to wage war upon him." Speaking of our resistance to evil, one of the early church fathers said, "The first time, flee; the second time, flee; and the third time, become like a sword." Put away the physical sword then, but not the spiritual one, "The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: (Ephesians 6:17). If you don't have one, sell your coat if need be and buy one. But we don't have to buy one. The Lord Jesus offers us one as part of "the armor of God." It is part of our panoply as Christians. Now what does all this mean to each of us? It means this: The place to take up the sword against injustice, violence and hatred is not in Beirut or Afghanistan but in our own homes and in our own hearts. What wars have you ended recently in your own home? What wars have you defused through forgiveness and love? Who hurts less because you love more? Has the person for whom God is absent found the image of God on your face? This is how we can oppose violence today. Rev. Daniel Rohan is the pastor at St. Mark Orthodox Church, Liberty.