The Egyptian saga of the last few weeks has been deeply revelatory. The values and the strategies that the youthful leaders employed owe a deep debt to classic biblical themes and Judeo/Christian values and principles.

This is not to lay a religious motivation on the leaders or the protesters who answered their call to revolution; rather, I merely wish to point to some components of the ‘pedigree’ of their ideas and aspirations. Equally importantly, I offer the example of what is happening in Egypt today and how it is happening as a credible contemporary argument for the effectiveness of a nonviolent response to political, economic and social oppression.

The Egyptian and the slightly earlier Tunisian revolutions join the spectacular, largely nonviolent, uprisings/revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe and the even earlier nonviolent revolution in the Philippines during that same decade when Dictator Marcos was driven from power.

This contemporary history and its witness to the effectiveness of nonviolence puts further pressure on those who continue to cling to the idea that war and violence and the constant retinue that accompany war (to wit: rape, non-combatant loss of life, social upheaval, familial devastation, land-blight, long-lasting psychological trauma, national depression, crippling and profound resentment, economic chaos), is unimpeachable  as the pre-eminent tool in a nation or a groups’ repertory for defense and protection.

The biblical themes and Judeo/Christian values and principles operative in these nonviolent historical events include: the sacredness of life, the dignity of the human person, the rights and corresponding duties that naturally flow from this dignity and which accrue to each person, a non-negotiable commitment to the common good, and that a resort to violence is to be only and always a “last resort” according to the stringent criteria laid down by the doctrine of Just/Unjust War.

Among the “human rights” which our Judeo/Christian tradition traces directly to God’s revealed will are the right to life, to nutrition, to health care, to education, to bodily integrity, to religious freedom, to freedom of association, and to just wages and benefits that enable people to support themselves and their dependants.

Writing in 1993 (“The Harvest of Justice”), 10 years after their pastoral letter, “The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response,” our bishops observed that, “These nonviolent revolutions challenge us to find ways to take into full account the power of organized nonviolent strategies and tactics and their limits... National leaders bear a moral responsibility to see that nonviolent alternatives are seriously considered for dealing with the tradition of justified and limited war...

“New styles of preventative diplomacy and conflict resolution ought to be explored, tried, improved and supported... As a nation we should promote research, education and training in nonviolent means of resisting evil... Such obligations raise the threshold for the recourse to force by establishing institutions which promote nonviolent solutions of disputes and nurturing political commitment to such efforts.”

It is very satisfying to read from today’s vantage point what the bishops wrote in 1993: “In some future conflicts, strikes and people power could be more effective than guns and bullets.” 

It seems to me that the successful and exemplary Tunisian and Egyptian embrace of nonviolence in their struggle for freedom and in pursuit of their God-given human rights and in their acceptance of their duty to serve the common good must spur us on not only to support their further efforts to achieve their legitimate goals but also to resolve to commit ourselves to spread by word and deed the gospel call and wisdom to practice nonviolence as a way of life for ourselves and for our nation and for the world community.

God calls us to it. The prophets hold it up to us. Jesus modeled it for us, Gandhi re-introduced it in a secular key and Martin Luther King Jr. brought it to our shores within our lifetime.

Father Cioffi is the diocesan coordinator for Social Concerns, and pastor of St. Joseph Parish, Keyport.