We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.
Responding to Bullying
Robert Martin over at Abnormal Anabaptist posted this video on The Bullying Experiment. While I’m not convinced that shaming people who don’t intervene is an appropriate way to instigate change (shame rarely helps and you don’t know what fears may have kept someone from helping) I’m so impressed with some of the non-violent and courageous interventions you see here. Pacifism is not passive, and if we want to bring peace to situations unfolding around us, sometimes we’re going to have to step in.
Robert shared his powerful reaction to seeing this video as a past victim of bullying:
As someone who, in grade school, found himself withdrawing into the background because, the alternative, was to be mocked, hit, and deliberately embarrassed in public… I cried as I watched this every time someone intervened because, in my mind, I asked “Why did no one do that for me?”
Category: General
Tags: Bullying, Non-Violence, Peacemaking
Related Reading
Swords into Plowshares
Eneas De Troya via Compfight Kelley Nikondeha over at SheLoves wrote a penetrating essay on the work of peace and the prophet’s dreams of replacing the work of war into the work of feeding people. Peace isn’t passive. It’s hard work. From Kelley’s essay: Beating swords into plowshares is hard work–hammering, melting, reworking and shaping new…
Why Didn’t Jesus Denounce Military Service?
A common objection to the claim that Jesus and the authors of the New Testament were opposed to all forms of violence is that neither Jesus nor anyone else speaks out against it. When soldiers asked John the Baptist what they should do in response to his message, for example, he told them not to…
On the Language of “Revolution”
Nick Thompson via Compfight Question: The banner of your website and the thrust of much of your teaching focuses on “revolution.” While I can see a radical call in some of the sayings of Jesus, especially if he were addressing upper-middle class North Americans, I wonder if attaching revolutionary language to his teaching seems a…
That Weird Episode with the Pigs
In my opinion, the single strangest episode recounted in the Gospels is the account of Jesus’ encounter with a demonized man that ended with two thousand pigs drowning themselves in the Sea of Galilee (Mk 5:1-10//Mt 8:28-34; Lk 8:26-39). Some find it morally objectionable that this mass suicide was the result of Jesus allowing the…
How Revelation Uses Violent Images in an Anti-Violent Way
All the violent scenes in Revelation are symbols for the battle of truth and deception. They never involve literal violence. In fact, they symbolize ANTI-VIOLENCE. The ingenious way John helps us get free of deception of trust in violent power is by taking a standard violent symbol and juxtaposing it with a symbol that undermines…
Love in Unexpected Places
Here’s a letter we received from a reader pointing us to this TED talk: Hi, My Name is Austin. I’ve been a podrishoner at Woodland Hills Church for the past 3 years and frequently visit reknew2015.wpengine.com. I stumbled upon this TED talk from September 2012 yesterday entitled Israel & Iran: A Love Story. Recently, Greg…