“Peace is not merely the absence of tension, but the presence of justice.”
In 1956, at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke those words in a sermon entitled “When Peace Becomes Obnoxious.” King preached the day before his trial for violating Alabama’s anti-boycott law. He began by telling how, after Autherine Lucy’s expulsion from the University of Alabama, many celebrated the peace that followed days of rioting at the University. King condemned this peace as “the type of peace that stinks in the nostrils of the Almighty God.” He recalled a conversation with someone who said that the bus boycott was destroying peace in the community. King responded, “Yes, it is true that if the Negro [accepts] his place, accepts exploitation, and injustice, there will be peace. But it would be an obnoxious peace.”
King proposed that there are two kinds of peace. Negative peace is simply the absence of tension. It is the peace that is bought by beating down any who ask hard questions, any who speak up for their rights, any who press for a change in the status quo. But positive peace is the presence of justice. It is the peace that is bought by protest and policy-change and naming and deconstructing all that exists to exclude or devalue others. This is the peace that matters to God. It is peace that comes with a very high dose of tension. And therefore, King concluded, “Peace is not merely the absence of tension, but the presence of justice.”
This is one of the most critical truths we must embrace if we desire to pursue God’s vision for human relationships. Whether we’re talking about race, gender, sexuality, or a host of other things that are used to create disparity and discrimination, those in positions of power and privilege almost always press for negative peace (meaning, the cessation of tension) and almost never tolerate positive peace (meaning, the active pursuit of equity). They urge peace at any price rather than justice at any cost.
To do the work of Jesus, to destroy the many dividing walls of hostility that still separate us from one another (Eph. 2:14), means increasing our tolerance for tension. Some of us act as if discomfort and disquiet is somehow an indication that what we’re doing is wrong–hence the many who will often say things like, “Why are we even talking about racism? That topic is so divisive!” Yet it is this very disquiet and discomfort that is necessary in order to achieve the kind of union God desires between people. We must grow comfortable with tension and conflict if we ever hope to achieve peace and reconciliation.
In his treatise on humility which is the topic of this mini-series in the larger Lent series, Benedict acknowledges this. He views humility as a ladder with 12 rungs. And the fourth rung is this:
“Be patient in suffering, even when you encounter difficulties and injustice, for Scripture says, ‘He who endures to the end will be saved.’” (Matt. 10:22)
What Benedict meant is that obeying God and doing the right thing by other people will result in suffering and difficulties. There’s no way around it. Living a life in which we no longer pursue self but now pursue what’s needed by others inevitably leads to tribulation. But rather than seeking escape, and pursuing negative peace, we must, Benedict argues, endure to the end. Positive peace must be pursued regardless of the difficulty.
Of this fourth rung, Benedictine scholar Joan Chittister writes,
“We wait for nothing and put up with little and abide less and react with fury at irritations. We are a people without patience. We do not tolerate process. We cannot stomach delay. Persist. Persevere. Endure, Benedict says.”
Commenting on Jesus’ words in Matt. 10, “I have not come to bring peace but a sword,” King concludes:
“What [Jesus] is saying is: ‘I come not to bring this peace of escapism, this peace that fails to confront the real issues of life, the peace that makes for stagnant complacency.’ Then he says, ‘I come to bring a sword—not a physical sword. Whenever I come a conflict is precipitated between the old and the new, between justice and injustice, between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. I come to declare war on evil. I come to declare war on injustice.”
Let’s be those who endure the cost of true peace.
