Pacifists recognize that war is deeply destructive of human society. We take our best genetic products at the most vigorous times of their lives, and send them off to be killers in a distant land. Those that return come home with loss of limbs, loss of eyesight, loss of hearing, carrying deeply painful scars. Those that carry no bodily scars carry deep emotional scars. They never get over the searing pain of body and mind that war put them through. We send them off to be killers and then ask them when they come back to be peaceful, understanding and loving. That’s not what we trained them to do, but that is what we ask of them when they return home to their wives and children. It is admirable that many are able to turn that switch off and on as needed. There are an awful lot of them that don’t make it. We carry the burden of those scars the rest of their lives. Knowing the terrible burdens of war, pacifists understand that if there is some way that war can be avoided, it should be avoided. They understand that there are some wars that are justified. When you are attacked, you have to defend yourself. The problem is that most wars are not justified. They are fought on the basis of greed, jealousy, and religious myth.
Pacifists know that if we wanted to make the world a better place we would take all the money we now spend on war effort and instead build an army of peacemakers, builders, agriculturists, educators, engineers and economists who would go to developing countries and help them develop. We would educate them as to how to take better care of themselves. We would teach them how to provide sanitation, basic health care, grow crops, start up industries, build roads and schools. We would do all those things that people do who realize that we are all brothers and sisters under the same God, living on the same earth, and that there is no other home that we have. Pacifists know that we should have this kind of army, because that is what our God is telling us we have to do if we are to survive as a species. They know that the army that destroys is not the army that God wants us to have.
Pacifists have had some remarkable teachers as to how to make things better when those in control are strong-armed and warlike. Jesus taught pacifism and practiced it most of the time. Of course, he lost his temper in the temple, and that cooked his goose. Mahatma Ghandi showed how to resist an entire empire to right the wrongs of his people. Martin Luther King showed the power of passive resistance. There are many lesser known negotiators in our government and other governments who work mightily to achieve agreements between disputants and find a way to avoid violent conflict. We are remarkably in debt to these fine people who understand the power of negotiation as opposed to the destructiveness of uncontrolled confrontation. They understand that we are all us; there is not us and them.
Soldiers have their dilemma. They don’t always know when to turn violence and killing off, to instead be protectors and nurturers. Pacifists have their own set of dilemmas. We see this every day in some fashion. There is someone who is opposed to abortion, so he kills a physician who does abortions. Greenpeace activists sabotage a ship or a communications line. Buildings are bombed. Peaceful demonstrations turn ugly and violent. How much is too much? Are sit-ins ok? Sure. Are peaceful demonstrations ok? Sure. Are angry words ok? Maybe. Are violent but not destrucitve confrontations ok? Probably not. Are killings and bombings ok? No. The pacifist carries the same dilemmas as the soldier, in the opposite manner. If he or she resorts to anger and violence, then he or she becomes what they oppose. Policemen struggle every day with difficult decisions as to when to be forceful and when to be comforting. Soldiers struggle every day to know whether to shoot or embrace. Pacifists struggle to know how much resistance is too much.
One thing is sure. The baleful eye of an impersonal God is watching everything that we do. If we do not strive our best to avoid killing and destruction in any way we can, that God will punish us all severely. God doesn’t care. We either learn to get along with each other, or he will unceremoniously kill us off, and move on to the next species.