Respond to the following statement
in 300 seconds (five minutes)
using any form you wish:

“Violence is good for something…”

Prompt by nevada jane arlow

I remember preaching a sermon once in Trinity College [Toronto] Lady chapel. All the Bible readings except the Gospel basically said, “Rejoice!” The Gospel was John the Baptiser calling out, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”

Afterward, I went to the chaplain and said to her, “I was really uncomfortable preaching that text! I’m a pacifist, and John’s language seems quite violent.”

“It’s true,” she said. “But it seems to me that John’s rhetorical violence displaces physical violence in this text.”

That gave (and still gives) me a lot to ponder. When is it appropriate for my language to be violent? If violence is good for something, it seems to me that displacement rather than damage is a key ethical consideration.

128 words/25.6 WPM