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PEACE IS A PROCESS - NOT AN EVENT
It's very important for peace advocates to support and encourage each other in these difficult times. Chris Hedges in his powerful book "War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning" notes how in wartime the voices of peace will be attacked, trivialized, minimalized, drowned out. He himself was recently shouted off a podium while trying to give a graduation address in Rockford, Ill. about the realities of war. Mark Twain made the same prediction in one of his protest works, that in times of war cowardice takes over and the mass of people become afraid to speak out, even if common sense tells them that war is lunacy and killing is wrong. Jesus makes the same prediction to his apostles, that persecutions will come to those who witness in his name. In the Beatitudes he says, "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matt. 5:11-12 NRSV).
We should rejoice and be glad, because it truly means that we are following in the footsteps of the apostles and prophets who struggled before us. Like them, the voices of peace today struggle against an all-powerful world empire that demands idolatrous worship, attempts to impose its will on the world with brute military force, and seduces its population with lies, the great one being that the U.S. can make war on other countries without any consequences to itself, an illusion that the U.S. is all-powerful. The fact is, the so-called "war on terrorism" is the ultimate hubris, the most quixotic and misguided effort in recent history, the idea that military forces can wipe out terrorism with brute force instead of diplomacy and reconstruction. It is a strategy that is bound to fail, and has long-term consequences for all of us. My favorite Episcopal theologian, the late William Stringfellow, said, "Resistance is the only human way to live". He was speaking of the World War II Resistance and of the protest movement against the Vietnam War, and his words remain true for us today. Christ's Church is that place where two or three or more are gathered to witness to His name, to the Word of Life, against the powers and principalities of death, against the lies of our government, against violence and warfare and greed and concentration of wealth. Stringfellow's words call us to our vocation to be human, and to stand up, however difficult it may be, for the truth and light of the Good News. In the Book of John, Jesus says that "I do not give to you as the world gives". Testifying to the light, contrary to what passes for worldly values today, is the only human way to live. Yours for peace
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