The end of the world cometh (see here, from the man who first notified me of Peak Oil).

I still muse much about non-violence. I was recently told a story (non-parish related) about a man who was abusing his four year old daughter, and who was therefore barred from further contact.

This is violence. For what would the non-violent response to such abuse be? There is sometimes a folly that sees sanctions as morally different to war, rather than as points upon a continuum (indeed sometimes sanctions are worse than war, as with Iraq prior to 2003). The moral issue is coercion, to no longer have a relationship of I-Thou but of I-It – and the It must be conformed to my will.

There are situations where I am simply not satisfied that non-violence is right. Undoubtedly these are situations that are mired in sin, and where a violent response is sinful – but nonetheless the violent response seems less sinful than the alternative.

As with protecting a child.

This is on my mind because I am more and more convinced of the coming trauma (have a read of this essay for an example of something that influences my perspective).

The logic seems inexorable. Wars are most often triggered when there is a decline in resources – and we face a decline in spades. And then lots of war, of new and deadly forms.

So what does a community do when there is a band of brigands coming to take away the means of life of that community?

“Do not resist the one who is evil”.

I’m just not sure a) that I could or would follow non-resistance, or b) I could persuade anyone else of the rightness of it. I don’t deny that a violent response is sinful. I just insist that the non-violent response is also sinful.

There is the choice. Resist – and therefore choose the lives of A over B. Or do not resist, and choose the lives of B over A.

In a situation where billions will die and be slaughtered, do you just give up? Or do you seek to preserve something of your community, your civilisation – your gospel?

I do not know. I just do not know.

“Blessed be the LORD my strength which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight” (Psalm 144.1)