I tread this ground carefully and respectfully. I am mindful that Tom Fox's grave has not yet been dug. However I believe some matters must be promptly and clearly addressed. I speak for no one but myself. Any mistakes in this post are mine. If any exist that I am not aware of, I trust someone will point them out to me so I may correct them.
In today's column on Townhall.org, Cal Thomas makes several outrageous claims about the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT4) in general and Tom Fox in particular. Mr. Thomas' intemperate comments demand a response now because they are widely distributed and will be repeated. Like the baobab trees in The Little Prince, I feel these intellectual weeds must be dealt with before they can take root and run riot. Although there are many points worth addressing, I will limit myself to two that are particularly odious.
First, because it is already being echoed through various blogs: The unsubstantiated claim that the CPT4 were going to Iraq to change the behavior of fanatics. It is a crass misrepresentation to treat these seasoned men of faith as if they were childish utopians who got mauled by a bear because they thought it wanted to be their friend. Anyone who argues that point obviously did not read anything Tom Fox wrote. I do not need to put words in his mouth, because even in death Tom Fox speaks clearly to that point. In answer to the direct question of "Why are we here?" he wrote:
"Why are we here? We are here to root out all aspects of dehumanization that exists within us. We are here to stand with those being dehumanized by oppressors and stand firm against that dehumanization. We are here to stop people, including ourselves, from dehumanizing any of God's children, no matter how much they dehumanize their own souls."
In order to do that, he refused to be intimidated by men with bombs or guns. I appreciate someone like Cal Thomas will find this position hard to accept. I appreciate that most people will find that position hard to accept. As I have said before, liberals of faith inhabit a twilight zone in today's political landscape. Liberals embrace them but do not understand them. Conservatives understand them but do not embrace them. But they do not choose their position for you or me. When he talks about "us" he means all of us.
A second, perhaps more pernicious deceit is the claim that pacifists in general, and CPT in particular seek accomodation with evil. That is so wide of the mark that if you applied that level of accuracy at a target range, someone would be required to relieve you of your weapon as a matter of public safety. Tom Fox was also very clear on this point. He built his foundation on Matthew 5:39. That is an important verse. It is probably one of the most misquoted verses in the Bible, right up there with "eye for an eye" and "thou shalt not kill," to name two famous examples.
Here's the verse from Matthew:
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil:
but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right
cheek, turn to him the other also.
Now a lot of people read that as: "Don't fight back. If someone hits you let him hit you all the live long day." No. This portion of scripture is a recounting of the Sermon on the Mount. That is where Jesus, among other things, is commenting and expanding upon Mosaic Law. Hence the "But I say unto you"... In other words, "This is what the law says, this is what I am saying that is different..."
"That ye resist not evil"...in English that looks pretty straightforward...don't resist evil... accomodate it. No. The original Greek word translated into English as "resist" is "anthistemi" which has a very limited meaning: to resist by legal means. In other words, "do not resist evil by turning to the Mosaic Law of retribution." You need to do something else.
What is that? It is spelled out in the final clause about getting struck. Note, that clause is explicit. It doesn't talk in some vague way about being hit. It doesn't talk about getting hit on the head. Or the chin. Or the face. It talks about being hit "on thy right cheek." That is important. Ever since Homo Erectus, the vast majority of humans (about 85%) have been right-handed. It's a fact, look it up. Why is that relevant? Because it means that if a right-handed person hits you on your right cheek, they hit you with the back of their right hand. That is one of the most insulting ways to hit a person. It is dismissive. It's insult to injury. It's dehumanizing.
Turning and offering the other cheek means you are physically resisting the person who sought to degrade you. However, you are not seeking retribution. You are not trying to degrade them. You are challenging them to confront you as an equal. That is totally consistent with Tom Fox's explanation of why he was in Iraq. He was there to "stand firm against that dehumanization" which permeates that broken land. There is nothing passive about that sort of pacifism.
Where Tom Fox made his stand, and frankly where I have trouble finding solid footing, is in the notion that restorative justice must be pursued in place of retributive justice. I like the idea, but I don't know how we apply that to death squads. My lack of clarity, however, is very different from Cal Thomas' rejection of this fundamental principle. I see it as something I need to wrestle with.
In conclusion, I think it is shameful for anyone (left,right, or center) to try and paint Tom Fox as a cartoon so he can serve as a rhetorical device for straw men arguments. He was more complex than that. The men who are still captives are more complex than that. Like Buddhist monks on fire, the Christian Peacemaker Team make their statement by their presence. They are there for themselves, they are speaking to all of us, and they are available to anyone who choses to hear them. Whether we hear them or not is a choice we must make for ourselves.
This leaves us in familiar territory. In fact, George Fox, the founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) has a statement of his own which is as widely quoted by Quakers as the preceding are quoted by Christians. It is an excellent end point to this post because it offers a suggestion for how to proceed.
"You will say Christ saith this, and the apostles say this,
but what canst thou say?
Art thou a child of Light and hast thou walked in the Light,
and what thou speakest is it inwardly from God?
--Margaret Fell, quoting from her first encounter with George Fox
