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Is violence ever justice? Is coercion better than violence? Israel, Palestine, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Christianity, and the question of violence
What if there were no more physical violence but we agreed to argue, fight, or address conflict by other means? Would we not resort to espionage and trickery? Is that really any better than physical violence? But that is in the nebulous realm of international or interstate conflict. Imagine you stand face to face with your captor. He has not physically trapped you anywhere. Instead, he has coerced you through laws, rules, finances, relationships, and so forth. Shoot, maybe he’s plain smarter than you. So you’re trapped doing his will. Any little thing you do is at once what he asked—and then some—but not good enough. You sweep the floor,…