Stop Trying To Keep The Peace

“I don’t take sides”. We hear that all the time, right?

"I just want to keep the peace".

"I don't want to rock the boat".

"There's enough division, I just to make peace."

"Jesus was a peacemaker and that's what I want to be too!"

Here's the thing, though - although Jesus was a peacemaker, he wasn't always a peacekeeper ... right? He flipped over tables in the temple and drove out the money changers because some tables need to be flipped and some terrible, toxic, and dangerous thinking needs to be driven out of the church.

Out of churches.

Out of schools.

Out of communities.

Out of governments.

Out of families.

Although every instance calls for us to work towards making peace for all parties involved, not every instance calls for us to keep peace. Why? Because sometimes (maybe even EVERY time) the peace that the oppressor feels needs to be disrupted ...

Their tables need to be flipped.

Their ideology needs to be driven out.

... So that true and lasting peace can be made for those who are oppressed.

And so the point I came here to make today is that the phrase "I don't take sides because I just want to keep the peace" does very little more than empower the oppressor or abuser while tightening the chains that are around the neck of victim.

Yes:

Refusing to side with the victim.

Refusing to side with the abused.

Refusing to side with the oppressed.

Refusing the side with the powerless.

... All that does is fuel the power that the abuser holds over the ones he/she is abusing. If I walk into a home, for instance, and witness a father beating the ever living crap out of his wife and children and choose to go home and act like nothing happened as opposed to coming to their aid by stepping in or calling the police ... I've handed the husband all the power and have tightened the chains around the wife and children.

Is that "keeping the peace"?

No.

That's called being a coward.

Choosing to side with the victim, however, while using our words and actions to challenge the abuser may be the very thing needed to cut the victim’s chains and help them be their truest and fullest self.

The reality is that you have a voice ... so use it.

Use it to challenge people who abuse.

Use it to challenge systems that oppress.

Use it to let victims know that you are for them.

Use it to protect.

Use it to build up the broken.

Use it to tear down the proud.

Use it to accompany the lonely.

The worst and weakest thing you can do is choose neutrality. The world is full of people who are “just trying to keep peace” and who are, therefore, willing to “toe the company line” (or the “theological line” or the “family line” or whatever other line you can think of) and turn a blind eye to injustice, abuse, oppression, and the like.

Don’t be that person; there are people in your immediate world - friends, family, coworkers, etc. - who need someone to say “enough is enough.”

Be that someone.

• Glenn || PATREON / BUY ME A COFFEE