Hamas and Netanyahu: Beware “the Spiral of Violence”

One very real spiritual warrior whom I respect is the late Archbishop of Sao Paolo, Dom Helder Camara.  His book, Spiral of Violence, speaks to some of the reality that is happening in Gaza and Israel today. 

The book, written in 1970, is very short and to the point and is dedicated “To the memory of Gandhi and Martin Luther King.”  It was written when the military dictatorship of Brazil was ensconced in power and the church was the only institution not directly under its control. 

The dictatorship tortured many priests and lay workers in the church and at one point, among 12,000 political prisoners in prison, the average age was 22 years.  “It is a crime to be young today in Brazil” said one study.

In his book, Camera points out that “injustices are a form of violence.  One can and must say that they are everywhere the basic violence, violence number 1.”   

Inhumanity toward others is the first violence and from that arises the “second violence” which is an uprising, usually from the young.  

This established violence, this violence No. 1, attracts violence No. 2, revolt, either of the oppressed themselves or of youth, firmly resolved to battle for a more just and human world.

A third violence arises “when conflict comes out into the streets, when violence No, 2 tries to resist violence No, 1, the authorities consider themselves obliged to preserve or re-establish public order, even if this means using force; this is violence No, 3.”  It often follows that “the logic of violence leads them to use moral and physical torture” to reestablish order. 

Violence number 3 is where the media often comes on board and spreads the images of violence and repression.  But it is easy to miss the origins of the violence number 3, that is the violence number one, the violence of injustice.

*Dom Helder Camara, Spiral of Violence, pp. 18, 29-37.

See Matthew Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 77-104.

And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society.

Banner Image: Amid the flames and darkness, the questions. Pixabay image by Chenspec, used in Thom Hartmann podcast on the former White House tenant’s likely responsibility for the intel leak enabling the attack.

Queries for Contemplation

How do you apply Camera’s analysis of three spirals of violence to the horrific situation playing out in the Middle East today?

Recommended Reading

The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine

To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature,  to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God

Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society

Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them. 
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science.  A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics