Denise Rector

John Carlson (an ethicist) and Jonathan Ebel (a historian) have brought together a rich collection of essays examining the intersection of religion and violence in America. An early goal of this book was “to show that September 11th was not the United States’ first experience with religion and violence,” through the expertise of scholars writing from within their own disciplines. They discovered that this multidisciplinary approach also brought “new and compelling insights into the complex historical and moral legacy of the United States.”

Kirsi Stjerna uses Luther’s words to call Lutherans to respond to violence: “Of most importance is that we not stay silent but speak to matters of violence, to war and the other endless forms of violence.”

William Rodriguez asks a scary yet important question: “Is religion the cause of violence?” Rodriguez uses Rene Girard’s assessment of the relationship between religion and violence to approach this controversial topic.

Daniel Lee explores violence between religious communities in recent years and the Christian view of violence. He draws upon the wise words of peaceful leaders to bring a message of hope and a path to peace.

This issue of the Journal of Lutheran Ethics focuses on violence from several different perspectives. While one article explores the cause of violence as a religious phenomenon, another looks specifically at the Christian tradition. A third article centers on Martin Luther’s theological understanding of violence.

Instead of focusing his project narrowly on the hot-button sacredness-of-life topics, Gushee comes at the topic more broadly: “If any human life is sacred, every human life is sacred” (3). The sacredness of human life, in this construal, is not simply a religious conviction held only by Christians or certain kinds of philosophers but an ancient conviction of most cultures, period.

Pahl illuminates the motif of “sacrifice” or “blessed brutalities” as one permeating all layers of the social and cultural fabrics in ways that purport to offer an explanatory framework for the analysis of contemporary imperial American practices. He reads patterns of “sacrifice” or “performative violence” into practices as diverse as domestic abuse, slavery, and cinematic representations of youth in order to gesture to their inter-linking with one another and to expose the misguided religiosity of such practices.

Social statements of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America provide guidance to the church and its members on a variety of issues. Given the historical legacy of racism in the United States, this social statement focuses on and explores the question, “How, then, shall we live?”

Benjamin Taylor offers a theological and ethical reflection on the “Stand Your Ground” law, examining its legal ramifications and its relation to Christian ethics. Taylor observes, “…although our country may stand divided for the moment, we do believe in the power of the reconciling love of the cross, the power which defeats death and gathers the people of God together once more.”

In the aftermath of Trayvon Martin’s death and George Zimmerman’s acquittal, Cheryl Pero uses the framework of Luther’s catechism to ask: “will we use this opportunity to expose, explore, and exorcize our racial problems or continue to pretend that we live in a “post-racial” society, in a state of denial?”