Christians for Active Nonviolence

Welcome!

Christians for Active Nonviolence is a reclamation project, in part, inspired by the observation by Mahatma Gandhi, that, "the only people on earth that do not see Christ and his teachings as nonviolent are Christians."

So it's an invitation to Christians from all backgrounds to consider what it might mean to readopt the way of nonviolence.

The CforAN Facebook group is our way of gauging intrest, generating conversation and just seeing where this might lead.

What CforAN is not, is divisive. We do not see Christian nonviolence as anything like a higher form of peace. Because true nonviolence, at root, is indivisible. Instead we see all efforts toward the growth and adoption of a nonviolent way of "being," as nourishing the one social human organism. Read more...

Currents

Join the campaign to help Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma

Save the People of Gaza

Protest against injustice. Organized by ECAWAR.

Ghaffar Khan (Bacha Khan) also tagged, the "Frontier Gandhi," was a champion of women's rights and nonviolence. He became a hero in a society dominated by violence. His unswerving faith and obvious bravery earned him immense respect. And yet, few people have heard of him.

Teri C. McLuhan's "The Frontier Gandhi: Badshah Khan, a Torch for Peace, should be in select Canadian theaters in late Spring. Released late 2008, this documentary, is the first full film account of the Pashtun leader and nonviolent activist.

By including the following documentary on our site, we do not intend to minimize the suffering of Jewish families effected by Hamas violence, but instead to introduce a much needed perspective on the Jewish/Palestinian conflict, and indeed, shed light on what amounts to an Israeli (Zionist) occupation of Palestine

Ursula Franklin on "Pacifism as a Map"

The foundational stuff

From Thomas Merton...

"Christian nonviolence is not built on a presupposed division, but on the basic unity of humankind. It is not out for the conversion of the wicked to the ideas of the good, but for healing and reconciliation." More...

From Walter Wink...

The new reality Jesus proclaimed was nonviolent. That much is clear, not just from the Sermon on the Mount, but his entire life and teaching and, above all, the way he faced his death. His was not merely a tactical or pragmatic nonviolence seized upon because nothing else would have worked against the Roman empire's near monopoly on violence. Rather, he saw nonviolence as a direct corollary of the nature of God and of the new reality emerging in the world from God. More...