by Tom Beutel
September 16, 2008

It is predictably the case that in most discussions of nonviolence, those who favor violent action in a threatening situation will raise the question, “What would you do if …?” Generally the question takes the form of “What would you do if a homicidal maniac or escaped convict broke into your house and threatened to kill your wife, or your children, or your mother?” or something of the sort.

John Howard Yoder, the Mennonite theologian, addresses this question in his book, What Would You Do? (). His treatment is both serious and comprehensive, and includes responses by others such as Leo Tolstoy and Joan Baez. It also includes true stories of situations in which non-violent response was effective in dealing with the threat and, in some cases, brought some degree of redemption to the attacker.

Typically, in thinking about this question we, as peacemakers, focus on the necessity of not responding in a violent way. However, we sometimes overlook that in all cases there is a response, albeit a non-violent one. Many Christian writers and thinkers, including John Howard Yoder, John Roth, Walter Wink, Glen Stassen, and others, while affirming non-violence, are clear in their assumption that some response to a threatening situation is needed and appropriate. The response, likely born in the moment by a combination of our commitment to Jesus Christ and His way of nonviolence and the peculiarities of the situation, at its best will not only deliver the one who is being attacked from harm, but also ourselves and the attacker! In one story, by Angie O’Gorman, included in Yoder’s book, the victim realizes that “either he and I made it through this situation safely–together–or we would both be damaged.”

If you are not familiar with the What Would You Do? book by Yoder, I highly recommend it.