Ronald J. Sider - Speak Your Peace: What the Bible Says about Loving Our Enemies

Ron Sider has lived, thought, and prayed long enough to know what was in the heart of Jesus and what is the heart of the gospel. In sober, careful reasoning, he voices in a compelling way the claim that Jesus resists and refuses violence and performs a very different kind of transformation. As our society grows ever more fearful, and therefore prone to violence, this truth-telling word from Sider is an urgent one among us. Sider is not in any way naive; rather, he knows what it means to confess that Jesus is Lord.

WALTER BRUEGGEMANN , professor emeritus of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary

Speak Your Peace is a timely word in a world where violence is a daily global occurrence. Ron Siders love for Jesus, Scripture, and others comes through in his humble and thorough exploration of nonviolence as radical action. Sider dares us to consider Jesus call to love our enemies not as an idealistic goal, but as a realistic policy to be implemented in word and deed by individuals and communities.

KATHY KHANG , author of Raise Your Voice

Im deeply grateful for this reading of the Bible and the challenge to live it as a witness against the militarism of our cultures war economy.

JONATHAN WILSON-HARTGROVE , author of Revolution of Values

With poetic provocation, Sider challenges us to exchange the nationalist idols of flags and swords for the cross of Christ and invites us to imagine the restoration thats possible if and when we do. I dare you to read this boo k .. . for if you do, you will discover a more authentic Jesus and a faith thats worth your life.

JER SWIGART , cofounding director of The Global Immersion Project and coauthor of Mending the Divides

Speak Your Peace is a tour de force on the peace teachings of Jesus. I could not recommend this book more!

BRUXY CAVEY , senior pastor at The Meeting House and author of The End of Religion and Reunion

Speak Your Peace creates a timely and compelling challenge to all Christians. Siders explication of Christian nonviolence, for both individuals and society, is one of the strongest I have seen and draws a clear picture of what it means to truly follow Jesus beatitude of Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. To live this, one of the most fundamental teachings of Jesus, is central to what it means to believe and follow Christ in our time.

JIM WALLIS , president of Sojourners, editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine, and author of Americas Original Sin

Violence, war, and hating our enemies have moved into the normal range of the average persons subconscious, regardless of their faith. Is it possible to change the course of war, violence, and hate? Speak Your Peace is giving answers, giving us imagination on Gods intention as well as courage to live it out. This is a revolutionary book for these days.

JO ANNE LYON , ambassador and general superintendent emerita of the Wesleyan Church

Ron Siders life and work have belied the generalization that evangelicals lack a sense of social and political responsibility. He has not let us forget, moreover, that Christians believe that justice is a demanding virtue which tests the soul. This is a book that could only be written by one who has experienced the demanding life and work of loving ones enemies. By providing close readings of Jesus work and teachings, Sider helps us see that nonviolence is not a side issue in Jesus ministry, but rather is at the very heart of the kingdom Jesus proclaimed. The justice that is Jesus is the justice that is nonviolent.

STANLEY HAUERWAS , professor emeritus of divinity and law at Duke University

In times when most Christian institutions are focused on how to preserve, protect, and gain more earthly positions, a prophetic voice emerges to remind us of our core calling and duty in life as followers of Christ. As does any prophet in history, Ron Sider reminds us and challenges us to become the true peacemakers that Christ calls us to be.

SAMI AWAD , founder and programs developer of Holy Land Trust

Herald Press

PO Box 866, Harrisonburg, Virginia 22803

www.HeraldPress.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Sider, Ronald J., author.

Title: Speak your peace : what the Bible says about loving our enemies / Ronald J. Sider.

Other titles: If Jesus is Lord

Description: Harrisonburg : Herald Press, 2020. | Previously published as:

If Jesus is Lord. 2019. | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: A biblical

case for nonviolence from one of the preeminent Christian leadersProvided

by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019022437 | ISBN 978-1-5138-0625-9 (paperback) | ISBN

978-1-5138-0626-6 (hardcover) | ISBN 978-1-5138-0627-3 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: LoveReligious aspectsChristianity. | NonviolenceReligious

aspectsChristianity. | ViolenceReligious aspectsChristianity. | Jesus Christ

Example.

Classification: LCC BV4639 .S527 2019 | DDC 241/.697--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019022437

Speak Your Peace is the trade edition of Ronald J. Sider, If Jesus Is Lord: Loving Enemies in an Age of Violence (Ada, MI: Baker Academic, 2019).

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version , NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked (NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible , copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (TNIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, Todays New International Version . Copyright 2001, 2005 by Biblica. Used by permission of Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are taken from the King James Version of the Bible .

SPEAK YOUR PEACE

2020 by Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia 22803. 800-245-7894.

All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019022437

International Standard Book Number: 978-1-5138-0625-9 (paperback);

978-1-5138-0626-6 (hardcover); 978-1-5138-0627-3 (ebook)

Printed in United States of America

Design by Merrill Miller

Cover image adapted from Michael Powers/Getty Images

All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in whole or in part, in any form, by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the copyright owners.

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Acknowledgments

T HIS BOOK OWES a huge debt to such a vast number of people (a few of whom I remember; many more I forget; and the overwhelming majority I never knew) that I can only mention a tiny fraction as a way to say thanks to them all.

I acknowledge with deep appreciation the Anabaptist tradition in which I grew up and still live. The courageous and often costly witness to nonviolence of innumerable Anabaptists over five hundred years has shaped my life in more ways than I understand. My devout mother and father, Ida and James Sider, modeled peace in the family. My Brethren in Christ bishop, Bishop E. J. Swalm (one of my early heroes), lived his refusal to kill by going to jail in World War I.