“… The right way to requite evil, according to Jesus, is not to resist it.

“This saying of Christ removes the Church from the sphere of politics and law.  The Church is not to be a national community like the old Israel, but a community of believers without political or national ties.  The old Israel had been both – the chosen people of God and a national community, and it was therefore his will that they should meet force with force.  But with the Church it is different:  it has abandoned political and national status, and therefore it must patiently endure aggression …

“The only way to overcome evil is to let it run itself to a standstill because it does not find the resistance it is looking for.  Resistance merely creates further evil and adds fuel to the flames …

“There is no deed on earth so outrageous as to justify a different attitude.  The worse the evil, the readier must the Christian be to suffer; he must let the evil person fall into Jesus’ hands.”

                         — Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship