———

Ok, I’ve been flirting with this idea and trying to ignore it for a couple of weeks now, but after I followed a “this day in history” link, I realized that it must be a sign that I could no longer avoid the topic. This day in history (Tuesday, March 29), 38 years ago, the final U.S. troops withdrew from South Vietnam, effectively ending the Vietnam War for us as a nation. This long, bloody, and incredibly unpopular war not only left the bitterness of what was termed a “defeat” in our mouths, but also forced us to re-examine as a nation how we go to war.

Which leads me as a pastor to ask: how do we as Christians respond to war?

Just War Theory is a tradition that traces all the way back to the writings of St. Augustine in the late 4th and early 5th centuries. He was looking for a way to solidify the marriage between Christianity and the Roman Empire, and was struggling to figure out how war could be justified and how Christians could serve in the military. So he wrote what began hundreds of years of discussion of what constituted a “just” war.

The results have proven to be a pretty mixed bag. A firm “Just War” tradition has developed around a set of rules such as no wars of aggression, no bombarding of civilian targets, and so forth. Yet, even in spite of these rules, a strong pacifist tradition has continued to live within the Christian movement. Even amongst Disciples, many prominent leaders have taken an outspoken stance against war, with Alexander Campbell being just one of the many voices to declare war one of the greatest sins against God and one another.

While I don’t have the space to provide any solid answers in this column (and as a Disciple, I can’t provide them for you anyway – I can only help you to make your own decisions), I can encourage you to prayerfully contemplate the question of war. With our country engaged in three foreign wars, there is no better time than now. We may not be able to change the events that have already happened, but we can be better prepared to make wise decisions on the events that are still to come. I hope you’ll join me in extensive and serious prayer over how our faith plays into our decisions to fight.

Walking the Lenten journey of justice,
Clint

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This previous Sunday I preached on the topic of a “new covenant” in Israel and Palestine – a covenant of peace and coexistence where sisters and brothers in the Abrahamic faith traditions come to terms with one another on ways to share the so-called “Holy Lands” and learn to live together. But I also presented the challenge that this covenant was for us as well, even halfway across the world here in Oklahoma – that we are called to be sowers of the seeds of peace and justice. And I perhaps left us with the tantalizing question: what can we do to help create peace right here in our own neighborhoods? I’d like to share with you an excerpt from an article posted online at the Disciples News Service:

A diverse coalition of national and local faith organizations, Fighting Poverty with Faith (FPWF), is dedicated to cutting domestic poverty in half by 2020. The group, which includes participation from the Disciples Justice Action Network (DJAN), has committed to participating in an interfaith month of action in October 2010 in order to urge elected officials to make poverty-reduction a key goal, and to protect the interests of the poor while creating economic opportunity for those most in need.

Fighting Poverty with Faith’s main target is helping the unemployed, underemployed and the millions across the land who lack life’s basic necessities…

One of the greatest sources of strife and unrest is the lack of access to employment, food, shelter, and water. While we cannot make overtures for peace in the grand strokes of ending wars or solving the unrest in Palestine – at least not by ourselves – we can begin the process of making a sustainable and just environment for peace here in our country and in our communities. The community of First Christian Church will be invited to join in this push for peace here at home in the upcoming month, as we work to help alleviate hunger and economic distress. Without giving away too many of the details, I can say that your voice counts, and we will be making it easy for every voice to be heard. So continue to pray for peace around our conflicted globe and prepare your hearts for the work of the gospel in our land and beyond.

Seeking the path of God’s justice,
Clint

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For I am sure that nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:38, 39

The Palestinian Christian community, with roots dating back to earliest Christianity, now numbers less than two percent of the population in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.  But the community prominently offers a non-violent witness for justice and peace.  Last December in Bethlehem, Palestinian Christians launched “A Moment of Truth.”  They called it a “Kairos” document, the word in early Greek meaning “opportunity” or critical moment in time, and meant to allude to the crucial South African Kairos document which in 1985 prompted debate about Apartheid worldwide.  The Kairos document states that “… Love is seeing the face of God in every human being. Every person is my brother or my sister. However, seeing the face of God in everyone does not mean accepting evil or aggression on their part. Rather, this love seeks to correct the evil and stop the aggression.”

The believer in nonviolence has deep faith in the future.  Palestinian Christians write, “Our hope remains strong” based on the expectation in faith of a better future.  “In the absence of hope, we cry out our cry of hope…  We believe in God, good and just [and that God's goodness] will finally triumph….  We will see here ‘a new land’ and ‘a new human being’, capable of rising up in the spirit to love each one of his or her brothers and sisters.”

We pray, for hope, patience, and steadfastness and a time for repentance.  Though their numbers are few, their message is great and important, in a land in urgent need of love.

Peter Makari is Global Ministries Area Executive for the Middle East and Europe.

You will find the Kairos document, action resources and updates at:
http://globalministries.org/mee/kairos/

For More Information
Peter Makari
Area Executive
Middle East and Europe
700 Prospect Ave.
Cleveland,Ohio 44115

216-736-3227
Phone: 866-822-8224 ext. 3227
Fax: 216-736-3203
makarip@ucc.org

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By God’s great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ…I Peter 1: 3b

I recently flew to East Timor for a week of teaching a group of lay preachers who were being prepared to administer the sacraments and provide pastoral care to the many tiny groups of Protestant Christians scattered throughout the mountains of East Timor.  The Protestant Church of East Timor (IPTL) grew a good deal during the Indonesian occupation due to the presence and money of Indonesian protestants, but is now left with an unsustainable structure, empty churches in some areas and Christians, but no churches in others.  They are in a long process of death and resurrection, and Global Ministries has been one of their most faithful partners in the struggle.

From East Timor I flew to the island of Ambon, where I worked with an interfaith program of “Preaching Peace,” which involves pulpit exchanges between Christian and Muslim preachers.  This is one of many creative responses by local people of faith to the devastating communal conflict that wrecked the area in the early 2000s.  I worked with my friend Abidin, who is vice chair of the Muslim council in Ambon.  He grew up in an area where Muslims and Christians had lived together in friendship for centuries and has spent much of the last ten years working tirelessly to restore those friendships.

As you can see, a lot of our work is being done among post-conflict communities.  While churches here are often slow to respond to social events (as they were in the original crises 10 years ago), the churches are very good at providing the long-term commitment and care that is needed to restore these communities to life.  The churches continue to plug away at healing the hidden wounds and listening to the silent voices of the victims.

We cannot overstate the power that the idea of resurrection has among traumatized Christian communities in Eastern Indonesia.  It gives them the strength to strive for a future different than the one dictated to them by a history of terror and grief.  When I work with these people I am convinced that the power of the life of Jesus is not confined to “long ago and far away,” but a very present reality.

Together we pray for the hope and strength of the faithful people of Indonesia who help heal the wounds of trauma in so many.

John Campbell-Nelson serves as a Global Ministries Missionary as professor with the Evangelical Church of West Timor.

For More Information
James Vijayakumar
Area Executive
Southern Asia
700 Prospect Ave.
Cleveland,Ohio 44115

216-736-3228
Phone: 866-822-8224 ext. 3228
Fax: 216-736-3203
vijayj@ucc.org

———

I came across a fascinating article in The Disciples’ Advocate, a publication of Disciples Home Missions. The headline article for the summer edition is entitled “Considering Peace,” and is writted by Rev. Craig Watts, a member of the Executive Committee of the Disciples Peace Fellowship. It caught my attention from the first sentence: “Outside of the historic ‘peace churches,’ no American religious tradition has a richer peace heritage than the Disciples of Christ.” This piqued my interest enough to want to share some of the highlights with you.

The two primary founders of our movement, Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone, both spoke at great length against the cause of war. Campbell wrote that “to conquer an enemy is to convert him into a friend. This is the … heaven-conceived enterprise of God’s only begotten Son. To do this, all arms and modes of warfare are impotent, save the arms and munitions of everlasting love.” Stone also wrote at great length, such as this response to Jesus’ words “blessed are the peacemakers” found in Matthew 5:9: “The very ministry of Jesus Christ was that of reconciliation – to make peace.” He continues, stating that Christians are “to make peace among all, as far as their influence extends, and labor to put down wrath, strife and division in the world,” because war is “contrary to the kingdom of peace.”

Later leaders within the movement also spoke ardently against war. J.W. McGarvey, a president of the College of the Bible (Lexington, KY), bordered on the charge of treason on the eve of the Civil War, declaring, “If the demon of war is let loose in the land, I shall proclaim to my brethren the peaceable commandments of my Savior, and strain nerve to prevent them from joining any sort of military company, or making any warlike preparation.” Kirby Page, writing after WWI also wrote for the cause of peace. Writings such as “the sword …. Causes hatred, the cross compels love; the sword means the attempt to kill your foe, the cross your willingness to die in seeking to save your enemy” became some of the most influential words to come out of the Disciples movement. Page was credited by renowned preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick for his conversion to pacifism and his writings were deeply impressive to Mahatma Gandhi during his conversion to nonviolent resistance.

And these words are just a small sampling of the voice for peace found in the history of Disciples of Christ traditions. I hope that you’ll join me in continued prayers for peace, and pray that we will be quick to extend our hands and slow to draw our swords.

Seeking the path of God’s justice,
Clint

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I was moved to do a little looking online and discovered that Mother’s Day has changed quite a bit over the years. While we gather to honor the mothers in our lives now, it originally started out as a gathering of mothers from both sides of the Civil War to mourn the loss of their sons in battle and affirm together their opposition to war. One of the earliest supporters of this original holiday was Julia Ward Howe (of “Battle Hymn of the Republic” fame), and she wrote this “Mother’s Day Proclamation” that I’d like to share with you.

Arise, then, women of this day!

Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:
“We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: “Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

Living the hope of resurrection,

Clint

Last Sunday afternoon, I attended the NSU Singers’ performance of “A Concert of Lessons and Carols.” If you were unable to make it to this concert, you really missed out on a treat. In my opinion, this was the best selection of choral music for the program since I began my ministry here in Tahlequah five concerts ago in 2005. It was a truly impressive performance!

However, I was equally struck by the “lessons” portion of the program. This collection of nine scripture selections provides the framework in which the carols are performed. With readings from Genesis to Isaiah to the Gospels, these lessons reflect the classical doctrine of the developing Christian faith: the fall of Adam, Original Sin, and redemption through Christ, the New Adam. Keep in mind, both this theology and the lessons framework likely come from medieval times and don’t really reflect the 200-year old theological tradition of the Disciples. However, I often find it quite amazing how much power these older doctrines hold in determining how we think today.

Stating that, it’s a real source of frustration for me. Part of the problem with the “original sin” tradition is the violence within that theology. Human free will leads to disobedience, which invites Divine violence – the curse, expulsion from the garden, the end of a supposedly “carefree” life. Then, the solution to the problem of the fall into sin is the violent execution of the one whom we worship every Sunday morning. (Did you see “Passion of the Christ”? A very violent rendition of the cross.)

So I’m left to ask – what of the Jesus who spoke of peace? What of the Jesus who never acted in violence during his lifetime? (Ok, so there’s the temple story in John 2:13-22 where he does have a whip of many cords.) What of the Jesus who opposed a system that perpetuated violence? Our theologies (mine included) often have many instances of “violent love” bound into them in order to make meaning in our lives. I wonder what it would take to replace all of those instances with a more “peaceful love.”

I admit that I don’t necessarily have an answer to this question, but I’m joyful and grateful to be a part of a church community where people take their faith journeys seriously through careful and prayerful study and fellowship. Even though I may not have the answers, I look forward to working them out in community with you as we journey together.

Seeking to live out the peace of Jesus,

Clint

Ninety-one years ago today the echoes of the guns of August finally faded into silence.  The parties of what at the time was known as “the war to end all wars” laid down their arms and began negotiating the peace.  World War I had come to a close. (Of course, this didn’t mark an end to fighting – the Ottoman Empire disintegrated into civil war and wouldn’t reemerge as the Republic of Turkey for almost five years.)

Today we observe this date as Veteran’s Day, a national holiday to honor all of those who have lived and died in the service of the U.S. military.  Given our current crisis, this observance is perhaps more important than ever.  I think we may have exceeded Winston’s Churchill’s imagination of military sacrifice when he famously said, “Never has so much been owed by so many to so few.”  The burden of our military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan teeters dangerously on the less-than-Atlas-sized shoulders of our all-volunteer military.  While this disproportionately small segment of U.S. society* fights our wars, the majority of us continue to rally around the cause of conflict with virtually no ownership.  How many of us have family members in the military?  In combat zones?  What is our personal investment in these conflicts?

I fear that our disregard for the face of this holiday has allowed the deeper meaning of Veterans Day to remain obscured.  Prior to becoming Veterans Day in 1954, this date was celebrated as Armistice Day, marking the cease fire that ended World War I.  Buried within the deep of the Veterans Day tradition, there is not only an honoring of  those who have served, but a remembrance of the terrible cost of war.  A concurrent resolution passed by Congress in on June 4, 1926 reminds us of this price and encourages us to observe this date in the totality of its meaning (with thanks to the Veterans Administration, emphasis is mine):

Whereas the 11th of November 1918, marked the cessation of the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals and the resumption by the people of the United States of peaceful relations with other nations, which we hope may never again be severed, and

Whereas it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations; and

Whereas the legislatures of twenty-seven of our States have already declared November 11 to be a legal holiday: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), that the President of the United States is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on November 11 and inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.

To put it simply, Armistice Day was originally conceived as a day to celebrate the end of the fighting and to honor the cause of peace.

I fear we live in an age where much of the power of the original Armistice Day holiday has been lost; a power of which we are in dire need.  We are politically dominated by the symbol of 9/11, a rallying cry to war uninhibited by any understanding of the deeper causes of resentment and hatred for our neo-imperial foreign policy.  For those of us seeking to make a difference in our national life, it’s time to claim the symbol of 11/11: a call for peace grounded in the hope for a more cooperative community of nations, yet tempered in the sober reality of the destructive war whose end it commemorates.

Until we recognize that the cost of our callousness is truly greater than we can afford to bear, we will continue to live in fear instead of hope.  Defining our orientation in terms of the devastating attack of September 11^th only reinforces our national paranoia.  Redefining our direction in terms of an admittedly uneasy armistice and peace could allow us to begin the process of international reconciliation that will truly be required to ensure not only our national security but international security as well.  The time has come for those of who support the cause of peace to reject the fear of 9/11 and claim anew the hope of 11/11.

*Which also happens to be disproportionately overrepresented by African Americans and is rapidly rising in Latino/a representation – See Government Accounting Office Report GAO-05-952)

Cross posted at the Xenia Institute.

This article is a re-imagination of the article I originally published in my congregational newsletter, The Tahlequah Christian.  You can read the original article here.

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