Where Does God Show up in This Whole Thing?

Part three of a short series on mimetic theory and divine nonviolence

Jonas Ellison
6 min readOct 21, 2019
Photo by Serey Kim

[This is part 3 of my mini-series about mimetic theory and divine nonviolence. To start from the very beginning, click here. To read part 2, click here. To read part 4, click here.]

Peer pressure is real. It’s easy to relegate peer pressure to strictly being a reality of middle or high school, but I’m afraid that would be letting peer pressure off too easy…

Peer pressure is a cultural reality throughout all of human life. Unless you live life in a hermetically sealed bubble away from all other humans, peer pressure is working on you (and everyone around you). Wherever two or more are gathered, human influence happens.

A couple of thousand years ago, there was a bearded man named Jesus who told the masses that they were all trapped in a condition of rivalry over gaining control and favor of God. He also told these people that they need to chill because God loves everyone just as they were created — no jockeying for position required.

A few years after Jesus’s crucifixion, Paul showed up and wrote it down oh-so eloquently…

I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord: not death or life, not…

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Jonas Ellison

Not here on Medium much anymore. Head over to my Substack to see the latest: jonasellison.substack.com 👍🙏🤙