Fighting Evil – Like Jiu Jitsu

by

My son Jonathan and I in Darfur, Sudan in June 2007

It was Father’s Day 2007. I woke up in an NGO (non-governmental organization) compound in Ed Daein, Darfur that was surrounded by nine-foot walls topped with embedded broken glass and barbed wire. My son, 25 years old at the time, lay in a cot covered with mosquito netting just a few feet away. In less than an hour we would be undertaking a risky three-hour journey into the rebel-held territory of Adilla in East Darfur.

In Adilla, we met with the Muslim leaders in a clay brick structure that housed the local official’s offices. Ginghamsburg’s outreach had been working in this area through the building of schools and sustainable water yards for over two years, along with our partner the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). The leaders thanked us and assured us that we could continue our work unharmed because we were bringing much needed resources to their people. One Muslim Sheikh even asked me why we as Christians were helping Muslim people. That was the first opportunity, after two years of productive work in the area, that opened the door for me to tell about Jesus who came to tear down the walls that divide all people.

As I was preparing to head out the door this past Sunday morning to participate in worship at three of Ginghamsburg’s campuses, I heard the accounting of the latest act of terrorist hate in Orlando, Florida. How as followers of Jesus do we combat the hate that continues to ravage innocent people in all of the corners of the world? This morning’s newspaper gave the breakdown of the most recent hate crime statistics in the U.S. from 2014:

  • Race: 2,568 incidents
  • Sexual orientation: 1,017
  • Ethnicity: 648
  • Gender identity: 98
  • Disability: 84
  • Gender: 33
  • Multiple-bias incidents: 17

What is most troubling is that the church can be guilty of fueling prejudice and discrimination against people groups. This can be particularly seen in the sharp divisions concerning LGBTQ persons and the issue of immigration rights within the Church.

The hard sayings of Jesus are deeply troubling when they relate to our relationship with our enemies. “You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other one to him as well” (Mt. 5:38-39). “Offer no resistance to one who is evil.” What?

The writer Amy Kuebelbeck from St. Paul, Minn., has given me greater clarity concerning a Christian response to evil: “Jesus goes even further. He says not to resist one who is evil. But he doesn’t say not to resist evil itself. He doesn’t say to shrug and look the other way when harm is being inflicted on others. What Jesus offers is another way to resist evil, such as being more generous than required. Perhaps our response to evil could be so countercultural and so unexpected that a persecutor would be bewildered and thrown off balance – sort of like jiu jitsu, the art of unarmed self-defense that leverages one’s own weakness to counter another’s strength.”

As followers of Jesus, let us not be lured into the politics of hate by the fear of our enemies, but realize that the fiercest defense against evil is ultimately the proactive demonstration of Christ’s love.

(Quote taken from devotional , Give Us This Day: Daily Prayer For Today’s Catholic, June 14, 2016)

Mike Slaughter is the almost four-decade chief dreamer and lead pastor of Ginghamsburg Church and the spiritual entrepreneur of ministry marketplace innovations. Mike’s call to "afflict the comfortable" challenges Christians to wrestle with God and their God-destinies. His newest books are The Christian Wallet: Spending, Giving, and Living with a Conscience (Westminster John Knox Press; 2016) and The Passionate Church: Ignite Your Church and Change the World (Abingdon Press; 2016).