Q U I C K S C A N

Job's Dilemma
What Would Jesus Do?

Over 50 e-mails came flooding in, in response to my last column: "How We Talk About Evil. "Some of came in (to our home base here in Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A.) from as far away as Australia and New Zealand. Whether you were speaking for or against my comments, I thank you for your enthusiastic responses. The great majority of you were quite positive and appreciative of viewpoints I shared with you.

A few were so firm in opposition to these viewpoints that they wanted their names stricken from the subscription list. A few others had earnest questions or concerns about my comments. The great interest shown towards the topic of evil motivates me to explore it further especially on the six-month anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11. We shared a sampling of your responses in the Februrary 22 issue. Now I'd like to add some of my own reactions.

First, I must say that I was amused and honored by one writer named Martin who described my musings as "kick butt writing"—just what he needed for Lenten reflection, he said. Thanks, Martin, I take that as a compliment. I like to see myself as a gentle and nonviolent soul, but I think your words will look great on the top of my resume: Friar Jack—kick-butt writer! Even President George W. Bush and his father might like that!

Job's Dilemma

At the end of the Book of Job, after a long dialogue with God about the mysteries of suffering and evil—and not without considerable grumbling—Job finally says: "I have dealt with great things that I do not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I cannot know" (42:3). Like Job, I must admit that I too have been speaking about matters (these same mysteries) that are too profound for me—or for any mortal. For better or worse, this admission will not keep me from further musings on the subject in response to some of your questions and concerns.

One of these concerns was from Thomas, a "former member of the military." He suggests that we can't afford to dillydally in the face of serious evil. "Taking immediate aggressive action early in the process can save major surgery down the road," he states. He also said he had "a hard time believing" that, if Jesus came across a defenseless person whose life was under assault, Jesus would not, if necessary, take violent action against the unjust attacker.

In response, I must say that I did touch a bit on this concern, if only briefly, in my last column. I wrote that "societies have a right and a duty to protect their citizens from terrorism—and to confront and bring to justice those who commit acts of mass murder." That's a complicated question from the Christian perspective. Like most Catholics, I find myself wavering between, on the one hand, the Christian ideal of nonviolence, of forgiving and loving those who would injure us and, on the other hand, the just-war theory that is still part of the Christian tradition—even though we all know the various conditions required by that theory are seldom strictly fulfilled. Yet, as I see it, the principle of self-defense is still honored in traditional Christianity and in other world religions.

What Would Jesus Do?

Let me say what I think Jesus would do in the face of an evil physical assault or oppressive behavior. First of all, he would take a courageous stand against it. Jesus refused to be anyone's doormat. For example, when the temple guard struck Jesus for not answering the high priest in the way the high priest expected, Jesus responded staunchly: "If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong, but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?" (John 18:23).

Jesus did not wilt in the face of unfair confrontation. Yet, nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus use physical violence to protect himself or a loved one from unjust attack. In fact, when one of his companions cut off the ear of the high priest's servant in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said, "Put your sword back in its sheath, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword" (Matthew 26:52).

We see Jesus' wisdom-filled warning being sadly ignored today in the Middle East, where violence begets retaliation, and retaliation begets more violence—and an ever-escalating spiral of hatred and revenge.

More than one of you have reminded me that immense evil does exist in our world and it must be opposed. Several of you had words of praise for President George W. Bush for his vigorous response to the terrorist attacks. In the opinion of Alex, for example, the President "has done a spectacular job by the way he has handled the recent and present terrorist problem." And in Marie's words, "President Bush is exercising his responsibility to protect the people of the United States." I certainly support the right and duty of our President and other U.S. leaders to protect our citizens and many others from murderous attacks and to seek out and bring to justice those responsible for the horrendous killing of nearly 3,000 civilians just one half-year ago. I would also hope, however, that they would ponder such viewpoints about evil and violence as expressed in my last column: "How We Talk About Evil."

Like many others around the country and the world, I still have problems with the way the President talks about evil, especially his "Axis of Evil" statement regarding Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Even President Bush, in time, seemed to see the wisdom of toning down his rhetoric, even doing a bit of backpedaling on it, during his recent visit to South Korea. Many commentators have pointed out how the use of the "Axis of Evil" phrase had unfortunate results in Iran. It was like throwing kerosene on the most fiery and fundamentalist segments of the Iranian society, at a time when the more moderate voices were gaining strength and seeking more peaceful relations with the United States. My brother, Gary Wintz, who has been leading American tour groups to a more open Iran in recent years, saw how quickly the "Axis of Evil" statement could move things in a much more hostile direction. A group of U.S. tourists he had lined up for a trip next month all cancelled because of the fury the statement ignited in Iran. It may be hard to recover some of the international good will that had been building up in recent years.

I have admired President Bush's attempts to make clear after the terrorist attacks that our war against terror would not be a war against Islam. Unfortunately, a statement like "Axis of Evil" says just the opposite. It certainly sounds like a blanket statement defining the whole population of Iran (nearly 100 percent Muslim) as evil. How can the statement lead the Iranians to believe anything else than that the United States is at war with Islam? And how do Chaldean Catholics in Iraq feel about being labeled as part of an Axis of Evil? They must feel that any hope for solidarity with Christians in the United States has been dashed.

Can the war against terrorism be won by military confrontation alone? I think many of you will agree with me that in the long run peace cannot be won by the sword alone, if by the sword at all. Must we not get beyond a purely military approach and put more national energy into building up respect and understanding between nations and religions and cultures? The mystery of evil and suffering is too deep for any of us to solve apart from God's help and light. So let me end by paraphrasing the first verse of Psalm 127: "Unless God helps us to build the house of a unified and peaceful humanity, those who build it labor in vain."

A Message From Friar Jack

Welcome! I hope you'll enjoy all of the news about what's happening at AmericanCatholic.org, as well as my "musings." By the way, I am a real Franciscan friar. You can find out more about me here.

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