The argument for nonviolence needs to come from people who know what violence actually costs, not just from scholars who've read about it. Veterans need to be the primary voices calling the church to account. So here’s what I think the church actually owes to veterans and others, and what it looks like for the church to repent.

At first glance, the work of Peace Catalyst International can seem puzzling. We build friendships across divides, step into difficult conflicts, critique the church’s entanglements with power, and insist that following Jesus means engaging in the messy, public, political work of peacebuilding. Some Christians look at this and wonder, “Why so much self-criticism? Doesn’t that just tear down the church?”, “Isn’t this getting too political? Shouldn’t the church focus on spiritual things?”, “And most importantly: how does this kind of peacebuilding relate to evangelism and the gospel?” In what follows, I want to walk through these questions—not to dismiss them, but to show why they are exactly the kinds of questions the gospel compels us to wrestle with.