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Political Violence : The Anti-Gospel

Political Violence : The Anti-Gospel

Last updated on: September 11, 2025 at 3:18 pm by Jeff Hood

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Political Violence : The Anti-Gospel 2025-09-11T15:18:32-06:00 Jeff Hood

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Political Violence

Political Violence / Wikimedia Commons

Political Violence is the Enemy of Christ

The Fundamental Betrayal of Political Violence

Political violence is not just a sin among many. It is the fundamental betrayal of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To speak of political violence is to speak of a rival faith, a rival story, a rival salvation. The Gospel announces reconciliation. Political violence announces domination. The Gospel calls us to the breaking of bread. Political violence calls us to the breaking of bodies. The Gospel proclaims that God is love. Political violence proclaims that God is force. The two cannot coexist. They are opposites. They are enemies. They are Gospel and anti-gospel.

Forgetting the Cross

Too many have forgotten this. I sometimes wonder…painfully…how we have convinced ourselves that the cross can march under our flags. Across centuries, Christians have baptized crusades, blessed armies, and wrapped Christ’s name around the machinery of war. Empires have paraded under banners claiming Christ while their hands dripped with blood. Revolutionaries have invoked liberation while reproducing the very oppression they swore to destroy. Even the Church has told itself that some violence is “necessary” to protect faith, people or nation. But all of this is nothing more than heresy.

Jesus in the Midst of Empire

The life of Jesus exposes this heresy of political violence for what it is. He lived under Rome’s watchful eye, in a land where taxes crushed the poor and local leaders rubbed elbows with occupiers. I imagine him watching a small fisherman despair over debts and thinking…this is not God’s way. He knew the brutality of Rome. He saw the collusion of religious leaders with imperial power. He heard the whispers of zealots who dreamed of violent uprising. He entered this contested space not with the sword of Caesar but with the words of the Sermon on the Mount…“Blessed are the peacemakers.” His politics were scandalous. He refused to join the zealot’s war. He refused to bow to Rome’s coercion. He refused to let violence define the horizon of true liberation.

The Cross as Political Violence

And for this refusal, he was executed. Crucifixion was not an abstract punishment. It was political violence at its most raw. Rome nailed rebels, dissidents and threats to public order to crosses to show the world what happens when you resist the empire’s logic. The cross was terror. The cross was intimidation. That Jesus was hung on such a cross tells us that his Gospel was recognized for what it truly was…a threat to the politics of violence. But God disrupted the script. Resurrection shattered the claim that political violence is ultimate. Death was not final. Empire did not win. The logic of domination was broken open by the power of life. Resurrection proclaims…your killing cannot save you…your weapons cannot secure you…your terror cannot rule forever. Only love endures.

The Temptation of Political Violence

Yet even after the Resurrection, the temptation of violence never goes away. The world insists that violence is realistic, necessary and unavoidable. States justify wars in the name of order. Leaders imprison and execute to maintain control. Movements fracture because they think freedom must be bought with blood. And Christians…again and again…consent to the lie. We call weapons “security.” We call bombing campaigns “peacekeeping.” We call executions “justice.” Every time we do, we proclaim the anti-gospel.

The Politics of the Cross

To say that political violence is the anti-gospel is not to withdraw from politics. It is to insist that there is another politics…the politics of the cross. The cross is not simply personal piety…it is public witness. It is a refusal to let Caesar have the last word. It is a rejection of violence as the path to peace. It is the scandalous claim that God’s realm comes not with soldiers but with saints…not with domination but with the washing of feet…not with executions but with resurrection.

Martyrs as Witnesses

The politics of the cross is hard. It is costly. It demands that we lay down the weapons of control and trust the foolishness of love. It asks us to risk being crushed by violence rather than reproducing it. It dares us to stand in front of the empire and speak peace even when the empire is nailing us to wood. The martyrs understood this. They did not resist with armies. They resisted with bodies, with prayers and with forgiveness. Their blood was not spilled in conquest but in witness. They knew that to take up the sword was to betray the one who told Peter to put it away.

The Anti-Gospel of Political Violence Consumes All

The anti-gospel of political violence…on the other hand…demands endless sacrifice. It consumes soldiers and civilians…enemies and allies…the innocent and guilty alike. It thrives on the logic of necessity…this one must die for the people to live, this village must be destroyed for the nation to be secure or this prisoner must be executed so society can be safe. But the Gospel unmasks these lies. In Christ, God has already declared that no one’s death can secure life. Only resurrection can do that. To continue believing in political violence is to continue crucifying Christ in the name of order.

The Church’s Call

The Church’s task is to expose this idolatry. We are not called to bless the empire’s wars, nor to sanctify revolutions of blood. We are called to embody another politics…the politics of peace, mercy, forgiveness and resurrection. To be disciples of Jesus is to refuse the sword, the bomb, the prison or the execution chamber. It is to live in such a way that our very existence announces…political violence is for the enemies of God not the servants of Christ.

The Choice Stands

And so, the choice stands before us, as stark as the wood of the cross…Christ or Caesar…Gospel or anti-gospel…love or violence. The world will always tell us that we must kill to survive. But the Gospel proclaims that only in refusing to kill do we find life. Resurrection is the proof. The empty tomb is the testimony. And the witness of the saints, prophets and martyrs is the reminder…political violence may crucify, but it cannot save.

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About The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood

The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood is a theologian, writer, and activist who has spent years ministering to people on death row. As a spiritual advisor and witness to executions, he speaks out against state violence and calls for a society rooted in justice, mercy, and the sacredness of life. You can read more about the author here.

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