/christian/ - Christian Discussion and Fellowship

>>704579

In the Roman Catholic Church, you are both allowed to use self-defense and to not use it. I refuse to use it to keep my hands clean of ever doing harm or taking life (I apply this to food as well, so I'm vegan), but there is nothing wrong with using self-defense. There are some good screenshots from this board about this passage that people will inevitably post, but here is some articles about self-defense from a Catholic perspective:

https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/self-defense

https://www.catholicgentleman.net/2014/01/the-catholic-guide-to-self-defense/

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a5.htm (read 2263 and down)

You have the right to do so. But do know that pacifism and non-violence has a good tradition behind it in the Church, so if you will, don't defend yourself.

>>704579

At first glance, this passage seems to ask you to be a doormat. However, that isn't the case at all.

Jesus is asking you to always act out of love. While it may be seen as weakness by most people, it actually requires much more strength to treat someone who mistreated you with love and respect.

Jesus is calling us to a higher standard of humanity.

>>704579

>The scholar Walter Wink, in his book Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination, interprets the passage as ways to subvert the power structures of the time.

>At the time of Jesus, says Wink, striking with the back of the hand a person, who was deemed to be of a lower socioeconomic class, was used as a means to assert authority and dominance. If the persecuted person "turned the other cheek," the discipliner was faced with a dilemma: The left hand was used for unclean purposes, so a back-hand strike on the opposite cheek would not be performed. An alternative would be a slap with the open hand as a challenge or to punch the person, but this was seen as a statement of equality. Thus, by turning the other cheek, the persecuted was demanding equality.

>>704579

Depends on how strongly you trust God. If you know that you're going to be crowned with glory for giving up your life in Jesus name why would you cling to your mortal life? You're not being a doormat, you're taking your place among the saints while the person who committed the evil will burn in hell for eternity.

Now if you don't believe in God then you'd probably want to defend your life by any means because deep down you think if you die then you're going to stop existing. I think you're making a mockery of the early Christian martyrs by having an attitude like that though, people who willingly went to unjust executions without resisting. If you don't think they did the right thing then why are you even Christian? You essentially believe the apostles and the early church fathers gave up their lives for a lie.

Either Christianity is the truth and you acknowledge your earthly life ultimately means far less than achieving immortality in the Kingdom of Heaven, or it's not and you're living a lie in which case why are you even concerned with what the Bible teaches? You think it's all bunk anyway.

>>704579

It's called non-violent resistance and breaking the cycle of vengeance.

Shockingly, it actually works(both Ghandi and MLK took their methods from "The Kingdom of God is within you", which commented on this), and why modern calls for social change are just marches and meme wars, while the ones that do degenerate into riots and violence make the aggressive party look bad, not brave.

>>704579

>turn the cheek

Our first responses to personal attacks shouldn't be immediate "eye for an eye" war. Only a couple hundred years ago guys would duel to the death over petty squabbles and arguments that attacked their "honor", this is a symptom of pride.

>getting sued, give your coat

This is promoting an anti-materialist, anti-greed mentality, the less you are attached to your possessions the less power they have over you.

>someone tells you to go one mile, you go two

he is teaching us to suffer well and gladly, often the circumstances of life are made far worse by your own complaining and imagination