THE ETHICS OF VIOLENCE: A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE
The fact that violence has become a world-wide phenomenon today is no longer an issue for debate among ethicists and social science scholars. Violence has always found a breeding ground where there is injustice, oppression, exploitation through various forms of social inequality and lack of freedom. Today, wide range of opinions exist as per the position of violence in actuating the needed political, social and economic change in our society. Philosophers like Franzt Fanon have seen violence as a necessary tool in bringing about the needed change in the society. This is the position of people like Karl Marx, Lenin, and some theologies like Liberation Theology. Others like Dr. Martin Luther King JNR, Mahatma Gandhi and many other peace advocates have borrowed the principle of Ahimsa (Non-violence) and they advocated societal changes without violence. The Christian position on the issue of violent action in situations of inevitable structural change has been an issue for long and protracted debate. Although the subject of violence can be approached from different viewpoints, this paper discusses it from the ethical angle. In this case, should violent actions be embarked upon in a situation where change is needed? This paper seeks to answer this critical quest in respect of the Christian ethics concerned with the rightness or wrongness of human actions or behavior on the basis of the moral teachings of Christianity. This paper also discusses on the alternative of non-violent action as being both pertinent to Christian ethics and an effective way of social change.