This semester in the Religion 373 class, I taught Christian perspectives on warfare and terrorism. One of the options for the topic assignment was to ‘live one week as a Pacifist.” It was more of a challenge than an assignment. I DARED them to try to live according to the dictates of thorough, deep-in-the-heart, Christ-like non-violence. The parameters were simple;
1) You may never respond in anger, hate or violence.
2) If you are abused or accosted or otherwise unjustly treated, you must respond with love and forgiveness. (Hug it out!)
Now I had seven students take up the challenge. All with the same attitude, “I am a loving forgiving person, this should be easy.”
It wasn’t.
They had to submit an account of their week and explore what they learned from the experience.
Some disturbing patterns arose from their experiences and I’d like to share them with you.
1) All of them FAILED.
They didn’t fail the assignment (I am not that mean). They universally failed to behave in a pacifist manner. All of them were driven to violence and anger. Not just the occasional slip up, but every day and often. Most did not make it through the first hour without some form of verbal or physical violence. It seems the hardest form of violence to resist was the violent response of SARCASM. Most students were shocked by the sheer volume of hurtful sarcasm they employ each day.
2) Even if they could live non-violently, they wouldn’t.
Most of them concluded not only that they COULDN’T do it, but that they WOULDN’T do it. They were not happier, they were not more at peace. They were more frustrated, more stressed, more abused, more helpless. They all felt that they were forced by the limitations of agape to let injustice go uninhibited. The Christian message of unconditional love and forgiveness is revealed in practice to lack discretion. Should we love everyone equally? Are they equally deserving of my forgiveness, or concern, or attention? While ‘love thy neighbour’ is a pleasant slogan, none of the students could or would abide it in practice. It is a call to leave reason, judgment and desert out of our decisions.
3) People WANTED them to fail.
All of them had a similar and disturbing experience. Those who knew about the challenge actively sought to invoke a violent response. Friends, family and even mere classmates committed injustices just to get the pacifist to snap. One student was baby-sitting and had the child quickly discern that the lack of punishment gave them a carte blanche to misbehave. Chaos ensued. Why were people so hell-bent on helping them fail? I am not sure…anyone have a theory?
Here are some snippets from the student responses;"The hitch I found in the whole pursuit was that I became so very aware of the ruined state of humanity."
"I may have been trying to be a better person, but that person just isn't me."
"Being a Pacifist stripped away my happiness. No Lie."
"Almost everyone that I came across that I informed of my experiment was excited - not because I was going to morally improve myself but because it was an open invitation to take advantage of me for a week."
"I felt like I was demeaning my values and my rationality by forgiving everyone regardless of merit."
Should we love our enemies? Should we forgive those who trespass against us? Should we turn the other cheek?