The Borg, an alien species in the ‘Star Trek’ series, sought to assimilate others into a collective and had the mantra, ‘Resistance is futile.’
Many of us act as though we were living in a Borg collective, preferring a herd mentality to independent thought, secretly believing that resistance is futile and adopting a passive attitude that says one person can’t make a difference. As Christians, we often equate pacifism or a desire for peace with passivity.
The Bible tells us, however, that we are in a spiritual battle (Eph 6:10-20) and that we are to overcome evil by good. (Rom 12:21) It speaks of subversive resistance through love, forgiveness and a willingness to embrace God’s way of doing things (the way of the cross.) The methods of resistance which Christians adopt may well be very different to the world’s methods – which often involve aggression, violence, manipulation and deceit – but resistance to evil is a fundamental part of the Christian faith. We are not called to lie down and let evil go unchallenged. We are called to be salt and light, to dance to a different tune, to live in ways that are distinctive and different.
This is not easy. Loving our enemies, leaving room for God’s wrath, can seem a very wishy-washy response to people steeped in activism and protest. But the way of love and righteousness, of sacrifice and self-denial, will always be God’s way for us to resist evil.
We must not believe the Borg lie that resistance is futile, but our resistance and protest against evil must reflect Christ’s, rather than simply resorting to the world’s tactics.
