Once again we have been lulled out of our state of complacency by an act of horrific violence. The methodically planned and orchestrated mass murder in Aurora, Colorado last week stands as a testimony to the fragility of life and human propensity to do evil. But if we just looked at the statistics–12 dead and 58 wounded would normally never even make it out of local news. In Chicago there were 27 murders in the first 18 days of July. A bombing in the Middle East needs to clear a death toll of 50 before it hits the news in the US. Hundreds need to be massacred in Syria before it rolls across the bottom of your favorite news channel. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that we live in a violent world. But are all acts of violence evil?
In a recent article titled, The Myth of Redemptive Violence, Shane Claiborne states, “Perhaps it is also time that we declare that violence is evil, everywhere — period.” For Shane and other neo-anabaptists, violence has only one face. It is that of James Holmes, who opens fire on unsuspecting moviegoers, or Timothy McVeigh, “who committed the worst act of domestic terror in U.S. history, [and who] said that he learned to kill in the first Gulf war.” But if there is not such things as redemptive violence and all violence is evil what manner of justice can be applied to Holmes and McVeigh?
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