letter from America
A former marine, Daniel Penny, was recently acquitted of all charges - despite putting a black homeless man, Jordan Neely, in a chokehold and killing him while they and others were travelling on a New York underground train.
Neely, apparently well-known locally for his Michael Jackson impressions, had allegedly made violent threats against other travellers on the subway car (as carriages are known). But he reportedly says he could not have lived with his conscience if any harm had come to his fellow passengers.
The details of the case can be read on their own, and the arguments, but in our increasingly violent societies it does raise the question as to when it is right for Christians to act to protect. We are familiar with state-sanctioned protective violence, via Romans 13, that is apportioned to state actors including the police and the military. But an off-duty cop? A retired Marine?
I remember once on the mission field, travelling overnight in a very dicey train carriageway, with a small mission team, and being the only man in that group. As the others went to sleep, I became acutely aware of the danger that large, mafia-like males were becoming in the small hours of the morning. Thankfully, I didn’t have to make a decision as to whether to fight to protect, but simply stayed awake.
If the proverbial mad-axe murderer came to my home, would I fight to protect my wife and children? I think the only answer I can give to that is without any doubt ‘yes.’ One doesn’t want to have to answer such questions, or be faced with such options.
Would Jesus not tell us to turn the other cheek? Though, as most commentators would agree, that part of the Sermon on the Mount is intended for kingdom values, the practices of those in the kingdom, and not a set of rules by which a secular society can function. Otherwise, again, why Romans 13, or for that matter 1 Peter 2?
From our distance, it’s impossible to adjudicate the Penny case, other than to acknowledge his acquittal, and grieve at the loss of life, and wonder at the chaos that allowed such a circumstance to occur on a New York City subway. In another recent case, a man was pushed onto the tracks beneath an immediately oncoming train. The mind boggles. What kind of world is this?
The world needs the gospel
One that needs the gospel: yes. And also gospel-inspired men and women to live out that faith in practical ways in our society. I’m reading Erik Larson’s marvellous Churchill biopic The Splendid and the Vile. At one particularly forlorn moment, we find Churchill – that British fighter of all fighters – uncharacteristically lost in silence for a heartbeat, after which he said: ‘At such moments I think much of our Lord.’ Today, we need men and women of faith, Hebrews 11 brave faith, to live, speak, and act with Christlikeness, even in the face of a counter-culture – to win for Him those around us with love, truth, and bravery.
