Defending Your Faith

My brother Paul and I were discussing Father Miguel Pro's life and some potential cinematic aspects to his life story. The discussion turned to peace movements... the church obviously prefers a peaceful resolution over a violent confict.

There can be a paradox to peace movements. For example, in the war in Iraq, many people did not want us to go to war there. They feared the impact of the violence on the innocent people there. However, they were being persecuted by their own government. More and more mass graves are being found, so should not those same people who aggressively opposed a violent solution to Iraq leadership be equally opposed to the violence perpetrated by that same leadership? I'm not trying to argue in favor or against the war, simply the complexity of such a peace movement.

Then you have people like Martin Luther King who led a peace movement to great effect. Perhaps his success, and the potential formula for success for future peace movements, is that there was an overwhelming number of people in favor of the peaceful change and a small number of people in power fighting that change. I can't see a peace movement being truly successful with numbers being any different.

My question is, can violence be justified if it is considered self-defense of the faith?

The Jews were persecuted numerous times during the Roman era... how would the Jewish faith look now if they never fought back?

Jesus said if we live by the sword we will die by the sword. But, if our faith is being attacked, are we not called to defend it? If it is being attacked by violence, should not we defend it equally so?

I don't know the answers to these questions... but I'll try and figure it out.