How much of your time do you spend complaining about government actions or politicians? Do you cringe when you see political ads? Do you feel like the country is full of unjust laws that oppress people or even make your own life harder every day? We’ve established that your vote doesn’t matter, yet you will be inundated on a daily basis with ads telling you how important it is for you to vote, even that it’s the most important thing you can do.
The Nuremberg trials were a series of military tribunals after WWII where members of the Nazi party who carried out the Holocaust were tried for war crimes. The Superior Orders defense was used so extensively in these tribunals, the term has now become interchangeable with “the Nuremberg defense.” This defense asserts that a person cannot be held responsible for their actions if they were under direct orders from a superior to carry them out. In the Nuremberg trials, it was ruled that this was not a valid defense when charged with war crimes. It was certainly a sobering moment in human history for all to consider how far they were willing to go under orders of an authority figure.
Inspired by the Nuremberg trials, Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram devised an experiment to measure obedience to authority figures. The subjects of the experiment were made to believe they were assisting in a study on how punishment affected a person’s ability to memorize information. The subject was instructed to give the “learner” a shock each time they gave an incorrect response. The subjects believed they were giving real electrical shocks to the other person, who in reality was an actor pretending to receive these shocks. The actor would increasingly protest as the imaginary shock voltage increased, to the point of crying out and banging on the wall for the experiment to stop. At the highest voltages, the actor would fall silent. If the subject hesitated in being willing to administer the shocks, the experimenter would reinforce the importance of them continuing with the experiment. Milgram learned that 65% of the subjects were willing to carry out the experiment until they had reached the maximum voltage of electric shock. Although every subject paused at least once to question the experiment, the majority of them were willing to continue when instructed to do so by the authority figure. This was certainly a shocking result. The 65% of subjects who continued to the end of the experiment believed that they had rendered an innocent person unconscious or potentially killed them, but were willing to do so because their instinct to obey authority was so strong.
Six years after the experiment, during the height of the Vietnam war, one of the former subjects wrote to Milgram explaining why he was thankful he had participated in the experiment:
While I was a subject in 1964, though I believed that I was hurting someone, I was totally unaware of why I was doing so. Few people ever realize when they are acting according to their own beliefs and when they are meekly submitting to authority ... To permit myself to be drafted with the understanding that I am submitting to authority's demand to do something very wrong would make me frightened of myself ... I am fully prepared to go to jail if I am not granted Conscientious Objector status. Indeed, it is the only course I could take to be faithful to what I believe. My only hope is that members of my board act equally according to their conscience.
Muhammad Ali was the heavyweight boxing champion of the world in the golden era of boxing and has been ranked the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. He was outspoken and oftentimes provocative which led to him becoming an icon. Mentored by Malcolm X, Ali converted to the Nation of Islam. In 1966 the requirements for draft eligibility changed and Ali was notified that he would be eligible to be drafted. He announced that he would refuse to serve in the US army as it was against his religious beliefs and applied for conscientious objector status. His application was denied and he was ordered to appear for induction to the US army in April of 1967. Although he did appear, he refused to step forward when his name was called. Immediately Ali’s boxing license was revoked and he was stripped of his title as heavyweight champion. He was convicted of the criminal offense of violating the selective service laws. He appealed his case and was allowed to remain free through the appellate process. Although he was barred from boxing, he began speaking out against the war around the country. By the time his case went before the supreme court, public opinion on the war had shifted and his case was overturned. Muhammad Ali was not only willing to resist authority but to put his entire life, career, and freedom on the line to stand up for his convictions. His actions had a major effect on public opinion and increasing pressure on politicians to end the war in Vietnam.
You are probably given “orders” to follow multiple times a day. Your boss will ask you to complete certain tasks, customers may have requests of you, your family members may ask you to do chores, even following a recipe when you cook. You can never escape following orders, but you can make a point to be conscious of making following orders a secondary reason for the choices you make. Your boss may ask you to complete a task. You choose to follow through on it because you understand and agree with the vision of the company and feel like that task is in line with that vision as well as an efficient use of your time. It is important to practice measuring the small every day orders you follow against your personal ethics, so you are prepared and willing to sacrifice, if necessary, to uphold your principles when more serious situations arise. Is doing something you believe in more important than how much money you make? Is how much money you make more important than spending extra time with your family?
The pull to blindly submit to authority is very strong and not only psychologically. There are oftentimes serious personal and professional consequences as well. What would it take to make you quit your job or risk getting fired? What lines, if crossed, would result in the ending of a personal relationship? It’s important to have clear boundaries in every personal and professional relationship, but these boundaries don’t come without consequences. It may not be as black and white as ending the relationship altogether, but deciding what is and is not worth fighting for requires serious talk and some negotiation.
It’s easy to look back on the Holocaust, the Milgram experiment, and the Vietnam war and perhaps picture yourself on the right side of history, standing up to authority and refusing to harm your fellow human beings. Don’t make the mistake of believing yourself to be harmless. These were not anomalies in history, but examples of harnessing natural human nature into a force for catastrophic destruction. The benefit of hindsight makes things easy to recognize, but even today, we see praise for government agents separating families, imprisoning peaceful people, or even killing. Recognize this nature also lies within yourself and stay vigilant. Take responsibility for every thought, word, and action and never simply follow orders.
Growing up, I learned that Jesus said to love our enemies. I understood the practical application of this to mean I should just ignore people who are mean to me. I believed that obviously wars are necessary (how else could we defeat the Nazis?), and, of course, you should defend yourself if someone is trying to hurt you or steal from you.
The first time I heard the idea that people who want to physically hurt me might be the same enemies Jesus said to love, it blew my mind! Not because I disagreed, but because I never thought about it in that way before. Then I took a closer look at what Jesus was saying:
But to you who are listening, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.
Luke 6:27-30
He is asking us to really see those seeking to cause us harm and look past their actions, to see who they really are, what their needs are, and to love them as God does. How can I help this person engaging in harmful behavior and maybe show them kindness and love they may have never experienced before?
In Biblical times people expected that when the Messiah came, He would be a warrior and a political leader. He instead allowed himself to be tortured and executed by political leaders. By doing so, he conquered sin and death and changed the world forever.
Jesus explained that the kingdom of God doesn't work the way the kingdoms of the world do. Whoever wants to be first must be last, and whoever wants to be greatest must be the servant of all. The way to bring about God's kingdom on Earth, the way to bring about peace, love, and justice, is by being a servant, even of those who would try to hurt you.
Now this does not mean closing your eyes to evil and sitting back doing nothing while horrible things happen. Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers. Being a pacifist means very actively working toward peace. If you witness someone stealing or murdering, it is not in their best interest to allow them to continue in this behavior. However, it is also not in their best interest to hurt or murder them in order to stop them.
God's justice works through healing and restoration. Meeting evil with love is the only way to stop the cycle of violence. This is why it is also important to actively love your neighbors and heal your community before people are driven to making the choice of harming others.
During the civil rights movement, nonviolent resistance proved to be the most effective tool. In Martin Luther King Jr's letter from the jail in Birmingham, he explained why he was engaging in demonstrations against unjust laws and the importance of engaging in this activism non-violently. Civil rights groups actively worked toward a more peaceful world by shedding light on unjust laws to expose the violence and evils occurring in the world, rather than continuing to accept the status quo. They did this in a way that was loving toward their oppressors. Their actions showed they would not seek to harm anyone and would take blows and imprisonment without retaliation, and that they would not allow their oppressors to continue in their harmful behavior. They were seeking a way of healing and forgiveness.
One of my favorite books, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, tells the story of Jean Valjean, a man driven, through poverty, to steal bread. He is imprisoned for this offense and remains there for 19 years because of multiple escape attempts. Upon his release, he finds that he is still not really free because no one is willing to hire an ex-convict. He is shunned from society and unable to even purchase food. A bishop takes him in, offers him what little food he has and a bed to sleep in. Jean Valjean, out of fear that he will never see kindness again in the future, takes the opportunity to steal the bishop’s silverware and leave in the night. He is then captured by the police. He tells them the bishop gave him the silverware, and the police take him back to get the bishop’s side of the story. To Jean Valjean’s amazement, the bishop not only corroborates his lie, but also gives him his silver candlesticks, saying he left in such a rush he forgot he had given him those as well.
This is everything of value that the bishop owns, and he freely gives it to the man who robbed him. He tells Valjean that with those candlesticks he is buying back his soul for God and that he must promise to become an honest man. This act of faith and kindness completely changes Jean Valjean’s life. In a world that treated him brutally his entire life, this was the first time anyone ever told him he has a soul and was willing to make a very real investment in his future and potential for goodness. Jean did not let this opportunity go to waste and spent the rest of his life living up to the Bishop’s investment in him. While this is a fictional example, fiction is often very adept at clearly illustrating important truths.
These examples show that we are not called to non-violence as just a rule to follow “because Jesus said so,” but because it is part of God’s plan to heal this broken world. It is our most effective tool to end suffering and create peace.
So how does the idea of gun control play into all this? Would a world of peace, love, and justice not include guns? Maybe. The thing it definitely wouldn't include is violence, as it's impossible to get there through violence. Many people believe the best way to limit gun violence is to make guns more difficult to own legally. The problem with this approach is that, in the name of peace, it increases violence. All laws are backed by force (violence). If something is illegal, the government will use force, up to and including violent force, to stop it. Of course, the government authorizes certain classes of people (military and police) to be exempt from these laws. In the case of gun laws, law enforcement officials are tasked with stopping other classes of people from merely passively owning weapons by using force if necessary.
The only human rights are property rights. You own yourself and the product of your labor. Any attempt to harm peaceful people or steal or damage their property is a violation of their human rights. Guns are just property. Any violent attempt to separate someone from their property is not only immoral but ineffective. It is clear that other prohibition measures, such as alcohol prohibition in the 1920's and the War On Drugs, were massive failures. They not only increased violence and destroyed lives, but were ineffective at eliminating or reducing these items. This is what prohibition of any item does.
The only way to achieve peace is by peaceful methods. Stop looking for political violence to be used against your enemies and start looking for ways to better love them. Make the decision that the cycle of violence stops here with you.
