Christian Spiritual Formation and Appropriate “Rescue” Responses to Genocide

On the other hand, let us say that there are a group of Christians who successfully resisted in being swept up into the almost all encompassing vortex of a Genocidal situation. What then is their appropriate Christ-like response? To what Biblical principles do they avail themselves to? Would it be the kind of civil disobedience, magnificently led by the French Huguenot Protestant Pastor, Father Trocme and the village of Le Chambon (Hallie – Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed)?

For Trocme, to be spiritually formed properly was to fully embrace and unswervingly live out Jesus' Sermon on the Mount Discourse (Matthew 5:43-46, Luke 6:27-36). Trocme felt so literal in his view of the Sermon on the Mount, that he felt it necessary to tell authorities that they were in fact hiding a number of Jewish (Hallie pg. 128); and summarily refused to be involved in any kind of violence (Hallie pgs. 34-35). In addition, it was Trocme's intention for his village of La Chambon to function as a kind of "city of refuge," that Moses describes in Deuteronomy 19 (Hallie 283); to hide particularly Jewish children, so that "no innocent blood would be shed."

Others however might argue that because the evil associated with Genocide is so great, so pernicious, so comprehensive and unremitting, that the only way to stop it would be through the use of violence. How should we understand Proverbs 24:10-12 in contemporary times?
10 If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength! ¹¹ Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. ¹² If you say, "But we knew nothing about this," does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life knowit? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done? (Proverbs 24:10-12)
Does the New Covenant in Christ alter how we should interpret the implied and potential use of violence in Proverbs 24:10-12? Given the historical context of this passage is there really any other way to interpret the possibility of violent or military action? Bottom line, can those made over in the image of Christ, after a careful "cost-benefits" analysis, initiate and prosecute a "Just War" as initially articulated by Augustine? This issue is massively complicated. What does the Bible have to say about this issue? We are confident, for example, when we say that Jesus would not "pull a trigger, wield a club or push a button" against those helpless victims selected for Genocide; but are we equally confident that in order for Christians to protect potential victims, and stop the perpetrators, that we can in the name and image of Jesus Christ "pull a trigger, wield a club or push a button in their defense;" and how do we interpret Matthew 5:38-48 in light of this?

By way of argument, I think it fair that hypothetically, if Germany had not been defeated would there have been even larger horrific possibilities than what took place against the Jews and other demographic groups? Can Genocide become so corrosive and far-reaching that not only a population group is in danger from ceasing to exist (the Jews); but entire population groups (Africans, Japanese, Indians of American descent etc.)? Ostensibly if the Allies had failed, would Adolf Hitler's doctrine (in his mad pursuit of racial purity) stopped only with the Jews? Was Martin Niemoeller being globally prophetic when he wrote:

First they came for the communists

But I was not a communist

So I did not speak out.

Then they came for the socialists and the trade unionists,

But I was neither,

So I did not speak out.

Then they came for the Jews,

But I was not a Jew

So I did not speak out.

And when they came for me,

There was no one left to speak out for me.

(Hitler Came For Niemoeller: Book Cover)

Perhaps a reasonable argument could be made that after his Master Race passion had eliminated the Jews; Hitler might have quite likely then turned his attention to anyone from say African descent? In what manner would the "cost-benefit" analysis come out in favor of the kind of theology rooted in ardent "pacifism" if a victorious Hitler set his sights on the African continent?

Scholars like Richard Hays (among others) postulates forcefully against any kind of violence, to stop any manifestation of violence; and in fact argues throughout his discussion in his book: The Moral Vision of the New Testament, that there is nothing Biblical in principle or text, in favor of Augustine's theory of a Just War (Hays pgs. 341); making and amplifying his argument from largely a single key text (Matthew 5:38-48).
Regardless of either theological tradition, the historical evidence is clear that with few exceptions, as individual Christians or as the institutional church, those who belong to the Christian faith simply do not perform very well Biblically, in favor of Genocidal victims. Other than a few, small pockets of Christian resistance, there is no clear, historical evidence of the Christian community responding on a massive scale to any major Genocide, either within it; or outside of it - particularly in the 20^th Century. The matter is obfuscated even more with what a mature, comprehensively mature Christian response would and ought to be.

The above difficulty aside I continue to be mindful of what my colleagues said to me when I attended the Conference on Genocide at Whitworth College in June of 2002: "The phenomenon of Genocide was more toxic than God's ability to overcome it (Psalm 37:17, 20)." Biblical Theology tells us that nothing more powerful than God and His ability to overcome it. The real issue is that God is allowing mankind to live out their own autonomy through their fallen nature; and the consequences and repercussions of our self-serving, antinomian, autonomy can be not only disastrous but horrific as well. And it is through the steady restoration of the God-image within us, that He wants us to respond and engage the great evils like Genocide as well. Bottom line we should be willing, because Christ was willing and able.

Regardless of what the great psychologists propose, the answer cannot come solely from us – the scriptures are clear on this. In the same spirit of Isaiah 60:1-3, It is the living light from Christ, and His incarnational presence within us, that illuminates 1. The way, 2. reveals wickedness and 3. brings hope by driving back the darkness.

3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. ⁴ Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. ⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; ⁶ and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷ and to godliness, brotherly kindness;and to brotherly kindness, love. ⁸ For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:3-8)

The Scriptures are clear that we are to be a "people of God" (1 Peter 2:9-12); and that through genuinely transformed (2 Cor. 3:18) lives made over in the manner of Christ. Therefore because of our newly transformed nature we can have the capacity, alluded to by Paul in Colossians 2:6:-13 - to transcend worldly, even malevolent circumstances like Genocide; freeing ourselves from the corruptive affects of the surrounding darkness. The more we mature in the light of Christ, the more He shines permitting us to be the kind of transformational agents (1 Peter 4:7-11) this is what the world desperately needs the Christian to be… steadfastly overcoming the particularly stygian dark pockets of Genocide within the world (2 Corinthians 4-6-11). Further permitting Christians to escape the charge of being complicitous or Bystanders and as we faithfully engage in the role of rescuers of victims within a Genocidal ethos, and call perpetrators to some kind of account.

In essence, the question should be asked: "What have to be the fundamental characteristics of a Christian that would transform their inner nature in such a way that they are able to transcend the present and great manifestations of evil; and become proactively a transformational agent over it instead?" What are some of the Biblical truths and principles that we could follow to help us in this way? How might one's Christian Spiritual Formation provide the necessary ingredients to equip Christians to keep from being a Perpetrator or Bystander within a Genocidal context on one hand; and to know the appropriate response of being some kind of rescuer for those who are Genocide victims?