Pacifism is not the same thing as doing nothing. Pacifism is absolutely not about shutting your eyes and hoping all the bad things will go away. Pacifism is about doing whatever you can to prevent war and violence, in such a way that the means used are consistent with the ends to be achieved.

A question often asked is "What about the Nazis?" Firstly, Nazi Germany did not appear from nowhere. When Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot in Sarajevo, a climate of suspicion and fear led to the mobilisation of one army after another, until a system of military alliances led almost accidentally to the horrors of World War One.

Fear and the preparation for war create the conditions under which war becomes possible. After World War One, massive reparations were demanded from Germany, which caused economic and political suffering and turmoil which made it possible for the Nazis to take over. Pacifism, owning the negative consequences of your actions rather than displacing them on to others, might have untwisted this spiral.

When the Nazi system emerged, violence was not the only possible response. Sweden, under Nazi occupation, undertook a largely successful programme of mostly non-violent noncooperation. For example, the teachers' unions refused to teach Nazi propaganda. In Denmark, the order for Jews to be identified by the wearing of yellow stars was effectively nullified by the whole of the populace wearing stars as a mark of solidarity. Across occupied Europe, in the face of disintegration of normal society, tremendous efforts were made to protect, hide and assist in the escape of Jews and 'undesirables' by people who refused to allow the dehumanisation of other people. I don't claim that all these efforts were non-violent, but many did not involve violence.

It is only by refusing, ever, no matter what, to regard another person as a means to an end that we can hope to prevent ourselves, each and every one of us, from committing terrible acts. The power of group influence has been demonstrated again and again in social psychology. Asch (1951) found 74% of people would deny the evidence of their own eyes, claiming that the longest line of three was the shorter. Would you kill someone if you were told to? Milgram (1963) found 65% of people would obey a white-coated authority figure if ordered to give electric shocks to a stranger screaming in the next room, even after the stranger had fallen silent, ceased to respond, and could well have been dead. Milgram theorised that people shift into an agentic state, follow orders, and refuse to take responsibility for their actions.

As Christians, I believe that we have a duty to provide an example of a different way of valuing people - one that does not see human beings as a means to an end, one that sees humans as having value outside the market economy, outside the immediate practicalities of our own lives. Moscovici (1980) found that minorities, with a consistent viewpoint, could very effectively challenge the dominance of a majority viewpoint.

In summary, pacifism is a powerful force for protecting and challenging violence. It necessitates a focus on working long term to remove the causes of war. Pacifism respects the unique value of each human being as a person, valuable to God, not just a tool or an inconvenience.