Jesus and Nonviolence Quotes

“...Jesus did not advocate nonviolence merely as a technique for outwitting the enemy, but as a just means of opposing the enemy in such a way as to hold open the possibility of the enemy's becoming just as well. Both sides must win. We are summoned to pray for our enemies' transformation, and to respond to ill-treatment with a love that not only is godly but also, I am convinced, can only be found in God.”
― Walter Wink, Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way

“The issue is not, "What must I do in order to secure my salvation?" but rather, "What does God require of me in response to the needs of others?" It is not, "How can I be virtuous?" but "How can I participate in the struggle of the oppressed for a more just world?"Otherwise our nonviolence is premised on self-justifying attempts to establish our own purity in the eyes of God, others, and ourselves, and that is nothing less than a satanic temptation to die with clean hands and a dirty heart.”
― Walter Wink, Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way

“There is no one, and surely no entire people, in whom the image of God has been utterly extinguished. Faith in God means believing that anyone can be transformed, regardless of the past. To write off whole groups of people as intrinsically racist and violent is to accept the very same premise that upholds racist and oppressive regimes.”
― Walter Wink, Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way

“Jesus abhors both passivity and violence as responses to evil.”
― Walter Wink, Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way

“Neutrality in a situation of oppression always supports the status quo.”
― Walter Wink, Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way

“In the final analysis, then, love of enemies is trusting God for the miracle of divine forgiveness. If God can forgive, redeem, and transform me, I must also believe that God can work such wonders with anyone. Love of enemies is seeing one's oppressors through the prism of the Reign of God--not only as they now are but also as they can become: transformed by the power of God.”
― Walter Wink, Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way

“Neutrality in a situation of oppression always supports the status quo. Reduction of conflict by means of a phony “peace” is not a Christian goal. Justice is the goal, and that may require an acceleration of conflict as a necessary stage in forcing those in power to bring about genuine change.”
― Walter Wink, Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way

“I cannot really be open to the call of God in a situation of oppression if the one thing I have excluded as an option is my own suffering and death.”
― Walter Wink, Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way

“No war today could be called just, given the inevitable level of casualties and atrocities.”
― Walter Wink, Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way

“Loving confrontation can free both the oppressed from docility and the oppressor from sin.”
― Walter Wink, Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way