It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it’s nonviolence or nonexistence.
—Martin Luther King Jr., “I See the Promised Land”
Theologian Grace Ji-Sun Kim posits efforts for peace on a cosmic scale:
On a Galilean hillside, Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9). To make peace on Earth, the World Council of Churches (WCC) reminds us that we need to make peace with the earth. Dominant cultures in our human family have said that we are the center of creation, positioning the earth and its creatures to be objects for our domination and exploitation. Atop our fictional pinnacle of creation, we are destroying our world’s wealth of gifts faster than the earth can replenish itself. From such human destructiveness we have entered a period of time some are calling the Anthropocene, the era of Earth’s life that is marked by abuse, violence, and destruction caused by humans. The alienation between humanity and creation has been a violent separation, and we must work toward peace in order to heal this divide. [1]
Longtime nonviolent activist Father John Dear describes his own awakening to the connection between violence in the world and violence against the earth:
Over the decades, I have witnessed the destruction we humans have done to Mother Earth and her creatures…. I grieve for Mother Earth and the creatures who die because of our systemic greed, violence, and destructive habits. But I never made or felt the connection between my vision of nonviolence and the ongoing destruction of Mother Earth. Until now.
One day, while sitting in my house studying the Sermon on the Mount, I saw it right there in front of me. “Blessed are the meek,” Jesus says in the Beatitudes. Thomas Merton wrote that “meekness” is the biblical word for nonviolence. “Blessed are the nonviolent,” Jesus is saying, as if he were an ancient Gandhi, an ancient Dorothy Day, an ancient Martin Luther King Jr. “They will inherit the earth.” There it is. Blessed are the meek, the gentle, the nonviolent—they will inherit the earth. A life of nonviolence leads to oneness with creation and her creatures.
A life of violence, of course, leads to an abrupt discord with creation. In a time of permanent warfare, nuclear weapons, and catastrophic climate change, the message couldn’t be clearer. The God of peace, the nonviolent Jesus, and his Holy Spirit call us to practice nonviolence. In that way, we’ll renounce and stop our environmental destruction, tend our Garden of Eden together, and restore creation to its rightful peace….
It’s that vision of peace, nonviolence, and the new creation, the vision of the promised land before us, the practice of proactive nonviolence, that offers a way out of environmental destruction, as well as permanent war, corporate greed, systemic racism, and extreme poverty.
All we have to do is open our eyes to the reality of creation before us, to be present to it, to take it in and honor it, and welcome its gift of peace—and do so within the boundaries of nonviolence. [2]
References:
[1] Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Earthbound: God at the Intersection of Climate and Justice (Orbis Books, 2025), 140.
[2] John Dear, introduction to They Will Inherit the Earth: Peace and Nonviolence in a Time of Climate Change (Orbis Books, 2018), 2, 3.
Image credit and inspiration: Toa Heftiba, untitled (detail), 2018, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Two people, different in perspective yet united in a shared value, reach across the divide—not with force but with courage, choosing the harder path of listening, of letting themselves be changed, of loving even when it is difficult.
Story from Our Community:
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a prophet who inspired each of us to do our part to bring about equal rights through nonviolent resistance. Social change begins with each person believing that God’s will can be done on earth. I am working toward building a shared belief within our community that we can live together in peace without gun violence. Believing this is not political. It is spiritual. Let us all believe in the possibility and be prepared to act as we pray “Thy will be done.”
—Susan P.
