“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” (Jesus Christ, in Matthew 5:9)
“Do not resist the evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” (Jesus Christ, in Matthew 5:39).
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” (Martin Luther King Jr.) “An eye for an eye only makes the world blind.” (Mahatma Gandhi).
Pacifism is the belief that violent acts are wrong and that only peaceful, non-violent solutions to disagreement should ever be used. Biblical teachings suggest that peace is a better way forward. These teachings have led some Christians to dedicate themselves against any act of violence, no matter what the justification. The Quakers (The Society of Friends, a Christian Denomination) are an important example of this view. “We utterly deny all outward wars and strife, and fighting with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretence whatever; this is our testimony to the whole world. The Spirit of Christ by which we are guided is not changeable, so as once to command us from a thing as evil, and again to move unto it; and we certainly know, and testify to the world, that the Spirit of Christ, which leads us into all truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ nor for the kingdom of this world.” (from the Quakers peace testimony). During the first and second world wars, Quakers and other pacifists supported people who refused to join the army because of their religious or ethical beliefs. They were often given dangerous tasks as alternative. These included assignments to be stretcher-bearers, sent out onto the battlefields to bring in the dead, or driving ambulances during the London Blitz. They would drive the ambulances with their headlamps off (because of the blackout) towards the sights and sounds of the bombings and into the bombing areas to search the injured. The Roman Catholic Church does not express the pacifists views found among Quakers, but it does support the rights of those who object to fighting on grounds of conscience. There have been Catholic movements that have been pacifist, inspired by the life and teachings of Jesus and the teachings of the Church. In other words, the Roman Catholic Church as any other Christian churches, are not exclusively pacifist. “Dorothy Day was an American journalist and devout Catholic who founded the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933, which struggled for non-violent social revolution, labor organization, civil rights and peace. At a time of Spanish Civil War and growing militarism in Italy and Germany, she grounded her movement on Christ’s ethic of love and the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. As a Catholic she thought that war was a sin against love and life and argued that we should use the spiritual weapons of prayer and the sacraments to resist evil, rather than weapons. She proposed that people should resist conscription into the army, refused to pay war taxation, and refused to make arms. She promoted the idea of community which had no national boundaries. In 2000 Pope John Paul II declared her a servant of God. She has been proposed for sainthood.” (Summarized from GCSE Religious Studies A, Roman Catholicism: Ethics, pp. 136-137 by Januarius Widyantarto).