appetite for violence

A German friend told me once that he didn’t understand American morality. “You go crazy if there’s nudity, which is beautiful, but you’re fine with violence, which is ugly.”

You may want to argue that it’s not true, that as a nation we’re fed up with mass killings and police abuse and the epidemic of murder-suicides and sexual assaults. I won’t disagree with that, but there are other things I might point out.

One of our candidates for President thinks the Orlando shooter, who is dead, got off easy. Meaning what, he should have suffered more? In fact, this candidate has applauded and defended violence against hecklers at his rallies, while supporters of his most liberal opponent respond to his ideas with violence in the streets. The comments at the bottom of opinion pieces from across the political spectrum threaten horrifying acts of violence. The vocal supporters of both parties think a punch in the nose is the best answer to an opposing idea.

Or look at our TV shows. Cop shows, the most popular category, routinely show not only bloody shootings and stabbings, but dismembered or dissected corpses are almost a requirement to drive ratings. Shows like Columbo and Murder She Wrote, favorites of the past, are far too bland these days. The big ratings, and most of my Christian friends, go to NCIS and Criminal Minds and Bones for their entertainment, and movies and books with a constant stream of blood shed in a variety of disgusting ways - Game of Thrones, anyone? - top the charts.

Proverbs 13:2  says, “From the fruit of their lips people enjoy good things, but the unfaithful have an appetite for violence.” I think we Americans have an appetite for violence. We want to use it to solve our problems, and we entertain ourselves with it just as much as the ancient Romans did in the colosseum.

But . . . I do too. I like NCIS. I read the first book in the Game of Thrones series, and am tempted to read the rest. I often think edgy is realistic, and too often edgy is bloody. I like to believe that after five decades, half of which were spent in the violence-oriented business of being a soldier, I have a realistic view of violence as a natural part of life.

But what I have is a high tolerance for violence. Which means, unfortunately, that I have a well-developed ability to watch bad things being done to God’s image-bearers without getting sick or having to look away. That’s not maturity, that’s callousness. 

This proverb puts the fruit of my lips as a possible opposite position to an appetite for violence. Fruit is something good - badness would be poison - so this suggests that one antidote is to, in Toby Mac’s words, speak life. Let the fruit of the spirit - love, joy, peace - fall from my mouth. Let me never encourage violence as a solution, let me never praise violence as entertainment. Help me to see that choosing it myself is an endorsement.

Can I do that? I don’t know, but I mean to find out.