Blunty Biblical

In the early twenty-first century, much as people did in the late nineteenth, we like to consider ourselves something of the epitome of civilisation and culture. I posit we have not progressed very far at all in the last two thousand years or so.

Societies have long used violence as a tool for their own interests. At times, this was carried out by smaller groups within a given society, but at others, an entire social collective wielded violence through those acting on their behalf. It is hard to accept the idea a human being is naturally a peaceful creature when one considers how little it requires to incite someone to acts of terrible violence.

The Romans themselves perhaps epitomised the institutional use of violence, and not only through their legions. Violence was funnelled the institution of slavery, and even more so, through its close cousin, gladiatorial sport. The physical act of a human being or an animal killing a person for entertainment reached it a peak with the Romans as emperors attempted to appease the crowds or legitimise their rule. Forcibly removing people from their homes and families is an extreme act with hideous consequences for those so caught up.

The Roman judicial system was no different from many at the time, or before and after it. What the Romans perfected was the utter agony of the punishments they inflicted. Crucifixion was a genius idea in the annals of history, prolonging the torturous death of the victim for hours or even days as they struggled to breathe. Coupled with feeding people to hungry animals in the arena, crucifixion truly shows the cruel reality of Pax Romana. Interestingly, should one be a Roman citizen, one could not be punished by the scourge or crucifixion. Such things were reserved for the outsiders.

The church itself has shown quite often it has not lived up to the teachings of the one Who it claims to represent. People of the church inciting and actually carrying out attacks on other people and people within their own communities beggars the imagination. Yet, somehow, people who knew the teachings of Christ somehow justified murder, burnings and mass slaughter through the Crusades, the Inquisition and more. Jesus' noble teachings and calls to love your enemies and bless them somehow got swamped in the sewage of human nature and sinfulness.

Atheist philosophies have faired little better, if any, in the last couple of centuries. People remember Hitler as the mass murdering megalomaniac he was, but somehow most forget Hitler was a rank amateur compared to Joseph Stalin. Mao Tse Tung also laid waste to a vast number of his own country people. The Khmer Rouge slaughtered a third of their country's population. North Korea has murdered an unknown number.

Punching a fascist is a moral good.

In the early part of the twenty-first century, we have come to a point where violence is considered a good idea if the target of that violence is the right type of person. One might consider the right type as someone as vile as Stalin or Pol Pot. Maybe even someone as criminal as your local mafia boss. It seems that violence is acceptable if it is used against someone expressing a belief or is even in the presence of someone expressing certain beliefs.

For the most part, it seems to be those who are critical of the so-called “gender ideology”. One elderly lady was punched in the face six times by young fellow in his mid-twenties simply for being in the “wrong” audience to hear a well-known gender-critical speaker. The images of Brown Shirts came to mind.

My point here is we have become nothing different. No one seems to raise more than a whimper about the virtual child slavery and non-living wages paid to factory workers which allow the West to buy their cheap clothes and household goods. No one seems to care a hoot about the vast waste our hunger for technology like phones and computers (which I am ironically writing on) causes and we ship it all off to another country because we don't want that crap in our backyards. Few seem to raise much of a holler about the human trafficking that populates our streets with sex workers and our sweat shops with cheap labour. And yet, someone disagrees with another, and hordes go nuts.

Jesus holds us to a higher standard. Martin Luther King Jr. got it. Mahatma Ghandi, (I know he was no Christian, but hey...he was the dude), got it. Violence begets violence. It never gets rid of it. Violence might hide it a bit, but violence will alwasy remain, lurking beneath the veneer of calm. The only way to end it is through Jesus' teaching to turn the other cheek, bless those who kick you in the teeth and forgive them seventy times seventy times.

In the mindset of Jesus, hate has no place, no matter who it is directed at. Jesus calls us to love and bless those so-called “fascists”, which is a misnomer anyway. If someone is not calling people to treat others as they would have them treat them, if people are talking of inflicting pain on others, they are moving in a spirit of hate and are not of the Spirit of God. It is that simple. They are speaking with the spirit of this world and voice of Hell. It is that simple.