Something About Human Nature

Blessed—and cursed—are the peacemakers.

The world’s greatest peacemakers all have keenly understood that where there is no justice there will be no peace, so they all have been social justice warriors. There is a lineage of peacemaking combatants. Read Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s own writings and you find them peppered with references to Jesus of Nazareth and especially his Sermon on the Mount. It is clear the Indian independence leader—born and raised a Hindu—was heavily influenced by Jesus’s teachings. Asked later in life if he was a Hindu, Gandhi replied: “Yes, I am. I am also a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Jew.”

As Gandhi developed and refined his theory and practice of nonviolent combat, he coined the phrase satyagraha to describe his weapon by combining the Sanskrit words for truth and force. He understood that peace was not merely the absence of violence but the presence of justice. And he understood that justice could not be won with sticks and stones, bullets and bom…