So I've mentioned the two ideas of redemptive violence and redemptive suffering. Redemptive violence: the idea that using violence to fight violence will result in good. Redemptive suffering: the idea that participative suffering with those oppressed by violence will result in good.
Now, I'm confident that God, regardless of the good ol' genocidal Old Testament days, is a fan of redemptive suffering. After all, that's kind of what Jesus was up to with the whole crucifixion thing (see the movie The Passion for a reminder). Jesus didn't confront the violence and evil of his day with more violence: He suffered. But then today I thought about a potential implication of this.
If God follows the way of redemptive suffering, why do we ask God to commit redemptive violence? Why do we ask God to bless our own acts of redemptive violence? And then why do we get bent out of shape when God says "no" to those prayers?
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"Heaven will solve our problems, but not, I think, by showing us subtle reconciliations between all our apparently contradictory notions."
C.S. Lewis
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