On the fifteenth anniversary of the September 11 Attacks last Sunday, my church held a joint outdoor service with the church next door. It wasn’t set up specifically as a remembrance service, but the timing was on everyone’s minds, including both pastors’. Our pastor may or may not be a liberal — I hadn’t had any inkling before — but he’s never brought up politics, or issues too close to politics, in church. Yesterday, though, he followed his initial memories of the attacks with a critique of those who call for violence in response. He wasn’t talking about revenge against Muslim civilians in this country, mind you, but about our military response.

This prompted a lot of discussion between my wife and me. There are plenty of people who regard themselves as pacifists of one stripe or another and, of those among my religious friends, I think most of them would say that their pacifism comes from their Christianity. The arguments I usually see from pacifists in general are that that the world would be a better place if we did not fight back against this sort of evil. That retaliation leads to further violence, with each side claiming justification for another round of never-ending reprisals; that diplomacy and discussion are the superior and more successful ways of resolving disputes; that by not fighting back, we will somehow be safer. The Christian pacifists I know seem to make the same arguments and might extend Jesus’ admonishments for us individuals (“Turn the other cheek”) to whole countries.