LIVES BUILT ON PAST SLAUGHTER

Theologian Stanley Hauerwas makes this note before the following prayer: "I wrote this prayer during the celebration of the five hundredth anniversary of Columbus's 'discovery' of America."

Dear God,
our lives are made possible
by the murders of the past--
civilization is built on slaughters.
Acknowledging our debt to killers
frightens and depresses us.
We fear judging, so we say,
"That's in the past."

We fear to judge because
in so judging we are judged.
Help us, however, to

learn to say no, to say,
"Sinners though we are,
that was wrong and is wrong."

May we do so with love.
Amen

The Future of "Doing Justice": 14 Possibilities

14 possibilities for "doing justice" in a local faith community that I shared as the conclusion of a presentation I made to the Free Methodist Historical Society in 2006. The full document - "To Break Every Yoke" - can be viewed as a PDF at this link. 

For the sake of possibility, let us imagine placing the doing of justice more centrally in our lives as Free Methodist believers, pastors, and congregations.  What does one’s weekly devotional life include?  As a pastor, what teaching priorities or investments of time do I make?  As a congregation, what does our “ministry menu” or thrust of service include?  Where do we begin?  What are we like?  In the spirit of the optimism of grace, consider the shape and indications of a Free Methodism that embraces ‘doing justice’ more centrally:
 
1. We stop convincing ourselves that justice issues are too messy and complicated to get involved in.  We seek to fully understand the nature of particular injustices.  We begin to trace their sources in irresponsible or sinful values, actions, approaches, alliances, or habits at personal, corporate, social, and/or national levels.

2. We no longer just hope somebody else is doing something about poverty or human trafficking.  We identify how Free Methodists and others are engaging in both relief and redemptive counter to these injustices.  We support this work financially and prayerfully.  We identify corrupting activities and also commend best practices to our representative church, government, corporate, and community leaders at all levels.

 3. We incorporate ‘doing justice’ into the center of our descriptions and proclamations of salvation and discipleship.  We reclaim Biblical guidance regarding ‘doing justice’ and forge a fresh Free Methodist spiritual formation with this mandate and heritage at heart.  We both preach grace and do justice in our evangelism and discipleship.  We incorporate “justice, mercy, and truth” into our Christian education, discipleship, leadership development, worship, and group life curriculum.  Justice is not something talked about one Sunday of the year; it is woven into the texture of our life together.

 4. We do not accept at face-value any politically-motivated or fear-based description or solution to social problems or injustices.  We exercise a deeper sense of spiritual discernment and broader sense of social responsibility than can be reduced to sound-bytes, slogans, campaigns, and election-cycle political interest action.

 5. We are educated and engaged regarding what is being accomplished within the Body of Christ regarding historically-core Free Methodist concerns--poverty, human slavery, and women’s issues (for starters).  We encourage involvement in local and international initiatives like the Christian Community Development Association, the Blueprint to End Homelessness, and the International Justice Mission.

 6. We take a global outlook and approach to ‘doing justice.’  We move beyond Americanism for the sake of authentic Christianity and our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world.  While we address specifically American justice challenges like homelessness, affordable housing, livable wages, affordable health care, and access to quality public education at all levels, we do so within a global perspective.  North American and Western lifestyles and choices are linked with the prevention or propagation of global poverty, human trafficking, fair labor, women’s rights, and economic domination.

 7. We openly commit to solidarity with the poor and the plight of the poorest of the poor in our society and around the world.  As best we can, we look at the world through the eyes and experiences of marginalized people and groups.  We no longer insulate ourselves from contact with the poor; instead we look for ways to engage the poor with meaning, linking our own lives inseparably with theirs.  We visit, develop relationships, and become increasingly aware of the immediate struggles of neighbors.  We give more weight to their testimonies and experiences than to politicians and news media sources.  We work with neighbors to understand and address poverty.

8. As we act for relief of the poor and vulnerable, we link relief with reform and establish just structures, policies, and opportunities whenever possible.  As we give ourselves to salvage lives that have been swept over the proverbial waterfall, just as readily we move expediently to address what has caused people and groups to be swept downstream in the first place.  We treat symptoms and we address sources of harm.  To modify a well-worn adage: give people fish, teach them how to fish, guarantee their right to fish, and do all in your power to insure that the water upstream is not being polluted so that they can actually eat and sell the fish they catch.

 9. We are as redemptively involved in our communities for social reform as we are in our congregations for spiritual formation and revival.  Free Methodist spiritual formation encourages active neighboring as well as service to support congregational life.  Volunteers serve local justice concerns in balance with congregational outreach ministries.  We see the two as complementary, not competitive or exclusionary.

10. We act as responsible investors in global market dynamics.  If we invest in the stock market or benefit from stock market investments (such as through tax-sheltered retirement accounts), we do so, as much as possible, without blindly contributing to or benefiting from unjust labor or unethical business practices.  We refrain from investments that promote violence, war-making, addictions, or unfair trade and labor practices.  We examine local labor and market practices of companies in which we invest and call for social responsibility.  When stock-market and multi-national corporate activity is identified as rapacious, it is called to accountability and change.

11. We act as responsible consumers of global products, resources, and services.  We see a higher value than the lowest possible retail price tag.  We challenge our habits of purchasing and consuming whenever it is known to directly or indirectly feed injustices for laborers and the poor around the world.

12. We refute violence against human beings in all its forms.  We speak prophetically to militarism and the violence of unjust war, to be sure.  We also reject of the language and norms of violence in our society and world.  Alternatively, we engage in, pursue, and encourage methods of conflict resolution and shalom-bearing that are a positive testimony to the power of a holy God whose way is love.

13. We address justice issues in the Spirit and manner of perfect love.  Even as we identify injustice, seek to relieve the oppressed, call perpetrators of injustice to accountability, and work for reform, we do so with the redemption of the perpetrating individual or organization in focus.  Our very approach and spirit is the key to transformative outcomes.  As one early Free Methodist put it: “to find the remedy is easy; successfully to apply it involves the principle of holiness."

14. We show by example and precedent what is possible when people of heart-felt faith and vision creatively engage the call to ‘do justice.’  We demonstrate the promise of restorative justice initiatives.  We model best practices in socially redemptive ministries and volunteer services.  We are proactive instead of reactive.  We exemplify to the best of our ability, acting with all the light that we currently, collectively have, the principles of the kingdom of God.  We live earnestly the petition we constantly make: “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

INSTRUMENT OF THY PEACE

Alan Paton reflects on St. Francis' Prayer

INSTRUMENT OF THY PEACE. While looking for another book at the Central Library in downtown Indianapolis, I came across a volume by Alan Paton, most noted as author of Cry, the Beloved Country. I've since read Instrument of Thy Peace (Seabury Press, 1968), which is a series of reflections on St. Francis of Assisi's well known prayer:

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is discord, harmony;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pard'ning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life!

SELF-PITY COMES TO AN END. Paton writes of St. Francis' prayer: "When I pray his prayer, or even remember it, my melancholy is dispelled, my self-pity comes to an end, my faith is restored, because of this majestic conception of what the work of a disciple should be....Life is no longer nasty, mean, brutish, and short, but becomes the time that one needs to make it less nasty and mean, not only for others, but indeed also for oneself."

THROW OFF HELPLESSNESS. He goes on: "This is the only way in which a Christian can encounter hatred, injury, despair and sadness, and that is by throwing off one's helplessness and allowing oneself to be made the bearer of love, the pardoner, the bringer of hope, the comforter of those who grieve."

OPEN MY EYES AND EARS. At the end of each reflection/chapter, Paton pens a prayer. Here's a particularly poignant one:

"O Lord, open my eyes that I may see the need of others,
open my ears that I may hear their cries,
open my heart so that they need not be without succor,
let me be not afraid to defend the weak
because of the anger of the strong,
nor afraid to defend the poor
because of the anger of the rich.
Show me where love and hope and faith are needed,
and use me to bring them to those places.
And so open my eyes and my ears
that I may this coming day be able to
do some work of peace for You.
Amen."

RECONCILERS

Five ways to bring together what has been unnecessarily separated and/or segregated

To “reconcile” means “to bring together,” "to resolve, settle," "to restore to friendship or harmony." The Apostle Paul described the Christian mission primarily in terms of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:11-6:2). Here are 5 ways to be a reconciler:

1. Break barriers.  Fear, suspicion, doubt, bigotry, ignorance: challenge and break through these strongholds of division and discord by choosing to dwell in the love reflected in Jesus.

2. Bridge gaps.  Insulation, seclusion, division, suspicion, resentment: span these with simple but courageous acts of hope and faith.  Sometimes we have to be the bridge...and bridges get walked on.

3. Cross borders.  Put yourself in the situations where you can grow in grace.  Cross cultures by intention again and again.  Be enriched by those whom you consider poor.  Love the city though you may prefer the country.  Learn as you teach.  Receive as you serve.

4. Welcome strangers. Make room for those whom the dominant culture and society discards, looks down on, suspects, or dismisses. “Let every guest be received as Christ.” “Strangers expected” is the watchword.

5. Stand in the gap. Many situations and people resist reconciliation for a long time. You may be called to literally live in the tension between conflicts and estranged people. That is what Jesus does on the Cross. As an ambassador of reconciliation, dare to stand in the gap with the grace, love, and power God gives.

RUNNING IN THE BACKGROUND

It's not like I haven't been blogging about peace and holiness, just not in large and substantial blocks. My daily posts at bikehiker reflect a continuing conversation at the intersection of holiness theology/practice and peacemaking and nonviolent living/teaching. My orientation to life is from the perspective and seen through the lens of a theology and spiritual experience formed in Wesleyan/holiness upbringing and formal theological training (M. Div., D. Min.).

What I haven't seized upon lately are the chunks of time and extended reflections that I feel this arena truly needs. I don't have the time, or I am not investing the time. And perhaps this, more than anything else, is a primary reason more reflection and provocation regarding the relationship between peace and holiness is not occurring. I tell myself that this is not my problem, that other people are more qualified, that there's somebody else who should be doing this work. But I am as responsible and instrumental as the next person, in reality.

For now, I will keep contributing in small ways, being faithful to my own conscience, marking my perceptions and responses in regard to violence and peace, conflict and its resolution on a daily basis through bikehiker and will, when I seize the time and inspiration, place more extended reflections here.

I'm also committed to continue to build a base of effective links to resources and archives that address this peace and holiness connection. Perhaps the availability of this information in a readily accessible place and format, but generate a kick-start to a new generation of people who apprehend, or are apprehended by, the connection.

So, please keep coming back.

CULTIVATING THE HABIT OF PEACEMAKING

Hauerwas challenges Christians to move peacemaking front and center

PEACE TALKS, ANYONE? I hardly ever hear Christians talk about peace. And when they do, many talk about it in muted tones and in terms that seem to justify whatever violence is necessary to procure peace for themselves or their nation—a reflection of the world's way instead of a nonviolent, transformative witness to it. I guess these want to appear “reasonable” and “practical” to their neighbors. In doing so, they inadvertently compromise the heart of Christian faith and scuttle the greatest possibility of mission-witness of our generation. I invite all Christians to reconsider their assumptions about the Biblical call to be peacemakers.

HAUERWAS’ REFLECTION. One place to begin is with the following snippets that I lift from a piece called “Peacemaking” in a collection of essays by Stanley Hauerwas titled Christian Existence Today (Brazos Press, 2001). In the spirit of John Howard Yoder, Hauerwas is considered by many the most important American theologian today. Sifting through these assertions could make for an invigorating extended conversation.

WITHIN OUR HOUSE. “Peacemaking among Christians…is not simply one activity among others but rather is the very form of the church insofar as the church is the form of the one who ‘is our peace.’ Peacemaking is the form of our relations in the church as we seek to be in unity with one another. Such unity is not that built on shallow optimism that we can get along if we respect one another’s differences. Rather, it is a unity that profoundly acknowledges our differences because we have learned that those differences are not accidental to our being a truthful people--even when they require us to confront one another as those who have wronged us.”

CONFRONT SHAM PEACE. “Regarding those outside the church, first, I think we must say that it is the task of the church to confront and challenge the false peace of the world which is too often built more on power than truth. To challenge the world’s sense of peace may well be dangerous, because often when sham peace is exposed it threatens to become violent. The church, however, cannot be less truthful with the world than it is expected to be with itself. If we are less truthful we have not peace to offer to the world."

THE HABIT OF PEACE. "Second, Christians are prohibited from ever despairing of the peace possible in the world. We know that as God’s creatures we are not naturally violent nor are our institutions unavoidably violent. As God’s people we have been created for peace. Rather, what we must do is to help the world find the habits of peace whose absence so often makes violence seem like the only alternative. Peacemaking as a virtue is an act of imagination built on long habits of the resolution of differences.”

LACK OF IMAGINATION. “The great problem in the world is that our imagination has been stilled, since it has not made a practice of confronting wrongs so that violence might be avoided. In truth, we must say that the church has too often failed the world by its failure to witness in our own life the kind of conflict necessary to be a community of peace. Without an example of peacemaking community, the world has no alternative but to use violence as a means to settle disputes."

CONFRONT WITH RECONCILIATION. “Peacemaking is not a passive response to violence; rather, it is an active way to resist injustice by confronting the wrongdoer with the offer of reconciliation. Such reconciliation is not cheap, however, since no reconciliation is possible unless the wrong is confronted and acknowledged.”

NON-VIOLENCE IS NOT THE SAME AS NON-RESISTANCE

Walter Wink's clear interpretation of Matthew 5:28-48 reflects Jesus' original intent

[Here's how one Wesleyan/holiness preacher (me) works with good Biblical scholarship adn interpretation on non-violence and works it into preaching, teaching, writing and advocacy.]

RESIST EVIL NON-VIOLENTLY. Many people dismiss Jesus' teachings about "resist not an evil person" and "turn the other cheek" as impractical and misguiding in a world of domination and neighborhood and international bullies. Jesus' teaching has been misinterpreted as non-resistance instead of what it actually means. But Walter Wink points out that within the context of the Middle Eastern culture and social interactions of his day, Jesus' guidance is clear: resist evil, but do so without violence, in a manner that claims human dignity and points to possible redemption for both the would-be victimizer and would-be victim.

DISMISSED TEACHINGS RECLAIMED. Walter Wink's work on such tough Bible references is widely available in his books (such as Engaging the Powers) and on the Internet. He, perhaps more than any other New Testament scholar in this generation, has laid the interpretative groundwork for bringing Jesus' teachings about non-violent Kingdom living into practicable range at personal as well as international levels. Do a Google search on "Walter Wink + non-violence" and see what all you access. Wink recovers many Biblical directives that have been dismissed by those choose, instead, to counter violence by violence.

PASSIVE CAPITULATION OR NON-VIOLENT STAND? For instance, Wink deals with the statement, "do not resist an evil person" (Matthew 5:39) first by pointing out that the Greek word (anti-stenai) interpreted in the King James Version as "do not resist" is under-interpreted. It's more correct meaning would be "do not retaliate against violence with violence." Wink writes:

"Jesus did not tell his oppressed hearers not to resist evil. His entire ministry is at odds with such a preposterous idea. He is, rather, warning against responding to evil in kind by letting the oppressor set the terms of our opposition... Jesus was no less committed to opposing evil than the anti-Roman resistance fighters like Barabbas. The only difference was over the means to be used."

BREAKING DOMINATION AND SERVITUDE. Within their cultural context, Jesus' "non-violent" teachings--to "turn the other cheek," "give your undergarment to the one who takes your outer-garment," and "go the second mile" when compelled to carry a Roman soldier's burden--are all acts of defiance, dignity, turning the tables, confusing the evil-doer, and undermining the very principles of domination and servitude that prevailed in the social order of the day. As a response to bullish behavior, these actions make clear that neither passivity/compliance nor violent reaction/vengeance were in Jesus' mind. A third way--the way of non-violent action that reclaims human dignity and opens the way for liberation for all--is being introduced.

JESUS' THIRD WAY. In an article, Wink points out some of the principled actions of Jesus' "third way:"
* Seize the moral initiative.
* Find a creative alternative to violence.
* Assert your own humanity and dignity as a person.
* Meet force with ridicule or humor.
* Break the cycle of humiliation.
* Refuse to submit or to accept the inferior position.
* Expose the injustice of the system.
* Take control of the power dynamic.
* Shame the oppressor into repentance.
* Stand your ground.
* Force the Powers into decisions for which they are not prepared.
* Recognize your own power.
* Be willing to suffer rather than retaliate.
* Force the oppressor to see you in a new light.
* Deprive the oppressor of a situation where force is effective.
* Be willing to undergo the penalty of breaking unjust laws.

FORGIVING OUR ENEMIES. I was reminded of the power and promise of Wink's Biblical interpretation as I was doing research for a Palm Sunday message on "facing" (giving faces to) and forgiving our enemies. This is one in a six-part series on forgiveness. I invite you look in on the series notes on the WEMO website (click on "The Compass"). It's also possible to listen to these sermons too, via our WEMO website (click on "Sermons Online").

TIMOTHY L. SMITH: A WITNESS FOR PEACE

GROUNDBREAKING WORK. Dr. Timothy L. Smith (Ph.D., 1957, Johns Hopkins University) is most noted within my holiness church circles for his groundbreaking book and doctoral dissertation Revivalism and Social Reform. Smith also authored Called Unto Holiness, a history of the early days of the denomination of my upbringing.


LESS KNOWN AND READ. Much less known and read are Smith's reflections shared in a 1970's dialogue on holiness and war. I've excerpted (ever so briefly) some of his comments from a compilation of addresses shared at that conference. The rare book is titled Perfect Love and War (edited by Paul Hostetler). Though Smith died in 1997 at age 72, these reflections are, to me, important enduring touchstones.

DECLARING SHALOM. “What we set about when we began following Jesus was to become radically Christian persons linked in Christian compassion to a world of great evil… We really can’t find anything better to declare than ‘the peace of God that passeth all understanding.’ His shalom can fill those who trust in Him with the spiritual resources which will enable them to wage war on war, and provide them with weapons which by their peaceableness partakes of the nature of the kingdom for whose coming they both pray and work.”


MOVING THE WORLD. “Jesus’ words become for us who live in a war-cursed world a moral gauge of political action and conviction… We are trying by our professions of love to share with all mankind those hopes which our personal experience with Christ makes valid… The model of faithfulness, of peaceableness, of shalom, which exists within the Christian community is the ideal toward which we must try mightily to move the world.”


INFORMED BY THE ETHICS OF PEACE. “Though [the disciples] might not expect to see a completely peaceable society in their time – nor we in ours, so intractable are the political structures and social conventions by which men order their lives – yet, so as we are friends of Jesus, living in and caring for the world, the ethics of peace must inform our every political act and conviction.”


WAR AS EVIL. “My own existence as a person of peace, and the witness which I must bear to all mankind about spiritual as well as political shalom, depend on my rejection of war as basically evil. Being evil, it impoverishes all of a nation’s moral resources, weakens all of a people’s tendencies to gentleness, truthfulness and thoughtfulness, and frustrates the hopes which all political ideologies nurture.”


AGAINST STRIFE. “Jesus is trying to say to us that strife, considered both as the fruit of an egotistical will to power and as a customary way of securing it, is fundamentally destructive of the best which is in human beings.”


Learn more about Timothy L. Smith


Read a paper by Smith titled "A Wesleyan Theology of Salvation and Social Liberation"


(Thanks to Stan Ingersol and whoever else within Nazarenedom posted some info on Smith)

INDIA'S DALITS: A CALL FOR LIBERATION

UNTOUCHABILITY OUTLAWED...ON PAPER. Recently, Human Right Watch released a report chastising India for its continued inaction--and too frequent assault--on its dalits. Untouchability was outlawed five decades ago as part of India's dramatic Gandhi-led nonviolent movement for freedom and democracy. But due to its Hindu-based caste system--an ancient religious- and culturally-entrenched practice that stratifies people in lock-tight classes and entirely locks out "untouchables"--the laws against untouchability are primarily on paper only.AP STORY. The AP story is worth a brief read and fuller reflection.

INCREDIBLE NUMBERS. Many sociologists and serious observers estimate that India's dalits (downtroddens) make up nearly 300,000,000 people (roughly, the entire population of USA), nearly twice the conservative number stated in the AP story regarding the Human Rights Watch report.

OVERCOMING DIVISIONS. Having just ridden a bicycle 2,000 miles thru the heart of India, this situation is both clear and heartbreaking. Dalits themselves seem to be divided against each other--some accept their lot, some organize to challenge for their rights peacefully, some organize for more forceful approaches, some hope that education is their ticket out of their plight of extreme poverty if not out of their non-caste caste. But if dalits can unify their voices and votes, they have hope of changing history. Their struggle, however, may be no less epic, momentous or gut-wrenching and bloody than India's movement to oust Great Britain or the Civil Rights Movement actions in America in the 1960's.

IMPLICATIONS FOR CORPORATIONS. If India, like China, is to vie for credibility and economic prominence on a global scale, basic human rights conditions must be addressed seriously, carefully, and healingly. Transnational and Western-based--yes, American--corporations that are stumbling over themselves to take advantage of India's low wage rates and budding IT and engineering workforce could take the lead in insisting that untouchability be functionally removed and India's dalits redeemed.

IMPLICATIONS FOR AMERICAN CONSUMERS. Unfortunately, the short-term financial bottom line instead of the long-term human bottom line appears to be the interest of the folks who bring us Windows, laptops, mp3 players, video game players and a thousand and one amenities we demand be available to consumers at the lowest possible price. The low prices that drive the stock market demands and dividends of wealthy investors are exacting a high price in the lives of common laborers and dalits in India and other peoples of the world.

WATCH, PRAY & ACT. Let us pay attention to this situation and consider what we may do--or no longer do--to encourage the realization of freedom for India's dalits.

CHRISTIANITY: NONVIOLENT FOR ITS FIRST 284 YEARS

NONVIOLENT...AND ANTIMILITARISTIC. "The early Christians are the earliest known group that renounced warfare in all its forms and rejected all its institutions. This small and original group was devoted to antimilitarism, another concept, like nonviolence, that has no positive word. This antimiliarism was never expressed by Jesus , who, in fact, did not much address the issue of warfare, though he did renounce the violent overthrow of the Romans."

IGNORING THE OBVIOUS. "Warmongering Christian fundamentalists have always clung to the absence of a specific stand on warfare, ignoring the obvious, which is that the wholesale institutionalized slaughter of fellow human beings is clearly a violation of the precise and literal teachings of Jesus . In the days of the great Western debate on slavery, slave owners used a similar argument--that Jesus had not said anything about slavery. But obviously the buying and selling of human beings would not constitute treating others as you would have them treat you."

-- Mark Kurlansky in Nonviolence: Twenty-five Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea (Modern Library, Random House, 2006).

This book, a Christmas gift from my niece, was one of several books I read while traveling through India in January. I am enjoying it and challenged by it.

A few questions:

1. Why do you think so many Christians cling to non-biblical and unchristian justifications for war, war violence, and militarism as if they were Biblical and Christian?

2. Do you think Kurlansky is in the ballpark on his assessment that pro-war Christians have "overlooked the obvious" regarding Jesus' teaching (some would say "commands") on violence, enemies, and war?

3. Have you ever read Augustine's "Just War" justifications? If not, Google them and read them. If so, do you really think his treatment of the Scriptures on this is credible? Did he not--and later Thomas Aquinas--disregard the whole weight and thrust of Jesus' teaching on violence, enemies, war, and the Christian's relationship to the state in favor of a few misappropriated verses?

4. What do you think is a more appropriate Christian response to the violence of war and participation in military and the military-industrial complex?

PALM SUNDAY AND NONVIOLENCE

WATCH CLOSELY NOW. It is not likely you have ever heard this take on Palm Sunday before. In theological terms, I imagine Palm Sunday to be as much about ushering in nonviolent love as everything else it represents. Palm Sunday is at once an outwardly naïve social moment and at the same time an inwardly authentic signal of a new way of living and leading. It is not that Jesus has not thoroughly exemplified nonviolence before now. It is that he is now allowing himself to be publicly declared Messiah in the heart of the polis and the stakes are ever so much higher. Watch him ever so closely now. Strain to observe as he faces his foes and darkest hours having completely renounced violence inside and out.

HIGHER POWER. The complete renunciation of violence is heard in Jesus' voice and seen in his actions. But never mistake nonviolence for weakness. Jesus is not at all powerless as he enters Jerusalem. It becomes clear as the week advances, even as the cross is planted and the tomb is sealed, that Jesus is the controlling enigma. His chosen response to intimidation, pressure, accusations, betrayal, desertion, condemnation, suffering, violence, and even death is a nonviolent nonresistance. It is not about giving in to fate or conceding anything, it is about exercising power that is nothing more or less than faith and trust in a loving God to bring meaning and life to one's existence and journey.

ON AN EXCEPTIONAL PEDESTAL? When it comes to thinking of nonviolence as a way of life, we mistakenly set Jesus on a heroic pedestal. We think of his actions as exemplary, exceptional, unique, and unrepeatable. They certainly are not, we surmise, the pattern for our own lives or social and political behaviors. We sentimentally accept Jesus as personal savior and Lord, but immediately bracket and set aside the very core of his witness and pattern. We say "yes, but…" We want his forgiveness and laud his sacrificial life, but we are not willing to live nonviolently, nonresistantly, lovingly, trustingly, powerfully ourselves. We want, in the martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer's phrase, "cheap grace."

SAYING ONE THING, LIVING ANOTHER. For all our words, worship, songs, and altruistic actions, when it comes to the most powerful aspects of Jesus' witness, do we imitate Christ? If not, we neither truly follow him nor glorify God. Though we say so, we evidently do not trust God and before the world make a mockery of faith in God's name. We are certain the future of the world is best left in our self-defending hands and in our calculating control. Better yet, in the hands of self-serving politicians and power brokers who give lip service to Christianity but live and act by the same power sources as did the Pharisees, Herod, and Pilate. And we bless them.

CHOOSE YOUR POWER SOURCES CAREFULLY. In Christ, particularly in his so-called triumphal entry scenario, we are challenged to continuously renounce our violence every day in every encounter. We are given opportunity to renounce the subtlest uses of threats, intimidation, controlling, fear, and shaming. We are invited to let go of the impulse to be self-defensive or to coerce others for the sake of keeping the peace or promoting just causes. Whether the arena is our household or the global stage, the opportunity is the same. We are shown how to live from a different place in our soul when it comes to exercising power or taking authority. It is a place of strength, the strength to love. So, choose your sources of power carefully.

A ROAD LESS TRAVELED. Nonviolence is not easy. Folks try hard to be nonviolent. It takes more energy and determination than going with the flow of violence that defines our culture. It is a road less traveled. It is marching to a different drumbeat. Sometimes we can be quite militant in our vigilant commitment to nonviolence, to the point of taking on a violent spirit. I am convinced that a commitment to and actions for nonviolence are not enough. Renunciation is pointless if not for a surpassing love that transcends violence and endues us with a higher power, a life-giving source.

AN EMBRACED TRANSCENDENT LOVE. Nonviolence apart from an embraced transcendent love remains mere idealism. It is right, but only partly so. Renouncing violence is unsustainable personally and socially in merely humanistic terms. I am not sure that as a social agenda without a spiritually inward transaction it will work. It seems to me that nonviolence can only lead to shalom if violence is supplanted by agape love.

LOVE AND VIOLENCE. But why is it that many who claim the name and love of God never renounce violence? Why do we not include personal and institutional violence when we declare, in the great confession, that we renounce Satan and all his works? Why do we continue to live in reflection of a violent god? Why is the spirit and example of Jesus on Palm Sunday and Holy Week not incorporated into the pattern and practice of our lives? This remains an open question for me. It puzzles me. It keeps me looking forward.

DOING JUSTICE - FREE METHODIST STYLE

I have permanently posted the essay on doing justice, "To Break Every Yoke," that I prepared and present to the Free Methodist Historical Society on March 13, 2006. Your feedback and conversation via e-mail is welcome.

FREE METHODIST ROOTS IN JUSTICE ADVOCACY. Free Methodists formed a new communion in America in 1860 in affirmation of the freedom of all human beings (against slavery) and free access for the poor in houses of worship (against pew rents and pew sales); also, in affirmation of teaching Biblical holiness and practicing freedom in worship. My essay traces the roots of "doing justice" in the Bible, in early Methodism in England in the mid-1700s under the leadership of John Wesley, and in the priorities and practices of the early Free Methodists in America in the mid-1800's under the leadership of B. T. Roberts. I conclude the essay by citing barriers to and opportunities for "doing justice" in local Free Methodist congregations today. But you don't have to be a Free Methodist to imagine and begin to live justice through your faith!Here is a very brief excerpt:

'PRE-EMPTIVE JUSTICE?' Some will argue that today we, in fact, ‘do justice’ quite routinely. It is true that much could be made of preventive (dare I say ‘pre-emptive?’) work against injustice which vigorous inreach and outreach ministries of a local congregation offer. Who can adequately measure the redemptive care and positive spiritual formation impacts that Sunday School, Christian Life Clubs, addictions recovery, Bible study groups, cell groups, counseling, solid Biblical preaching, and compassionate outreach achieve in individual, family, congregational, and community lives? Daily and weekly, Free Methodists are calling people to live as salt and light in the world, equipping them to stand against temptation and evil, and forming them to be people who are not conformed to the world but who may well transform it. But all our positive, formative, preventive action does not reduce in the least the question of our action or inaction in the face of outright injustice in our community, society, and world.

DANGER: POLITICAL CO-OPTATION. Perhaps part of our conversation should focus on the kind of justice we Free Methodists are currently prone to do. It seems rather obvious that over the past 25 years, Free Methodist members and pastors have been and are involved in the struggle regarding abortion, the provision of positive alternatives for pregnant women, and other “culture war” issues related to public education, sexuality, bioethics, and court decision-making. On the one hand it appears that “culture war” issues have been framed and promoted completely outside Free Methodism, wed to partisan politics, and accepted by our members, pastors, and congregations. On the other hand it appears that historic concerns of Free Methodists and others have been co-opted and distorted by political influence groups. As far as I am concerned, the wedding of partisan-motivated issue advocacy to denominational identity should be resisted at all levels in Free Methodist ecclesiology and practice, both now and in the future. As we consider involvement in justice issues, we should be asking: who is initially and ultimately being served by these priorities and passions? Is the manner in which this issue is being approached and addressed reflective of the Spirit of holiness or the heritage in which we serve? And, are we thinking globally, or even beyond our own socio-economic group or consumer desires, when we vote or act?

MOVING TOWARD OUR ROOTS. One step further, let us ask: who is setting the social justice agenda? How are some issues deemed more important than others? It appears that current evangelical issues overlook and/or bypass core concerns that originally motivated Methodism and defined early Free Methodism: poverty, human slavery, and feminism. Let us ask ourselves: why has poverty and slavery, though these are the two gravest global issues, not even registered on the agenda of either major American political party in years? Why are we not alarmed at this? And what might we do in concert with other branches of the Body of Christ to focus on these global crises, even if national or Western political will regarding them is currently all but nonexistent?

Read the full document here.

A FREE METHODIST IMAGINES "DOING JUSTICE"

The following is the conclusion of a presentation I made on Monday at "In Search of the Free Methodist Soul III," a symposium hosted by the Free Methodist Historical Society in Indianapolis. The theme of the event was a phrase often used by John Wesley to describe the applied or outward life of inward holiness - "justice, mercy and truth." I was honored to present the essay on "justice." After reviewing ways John Wesley and the early Methodists (mid-1700's in England) and B. T. Roberts and the early Free Methodists (mid-1800's in America) went about "doing justice" out of their similar faith orientations, I concluded by reflecting what I imagine sincere justice-making that is incorporated centrally into the life of a Free Methodist member and congregation today might look like, be like...

1. We stop convincing ourselves that justice issues are too messy and complicated to get involved in. We seek to fully understand the nature of particular injustices. We begin to trace their sources in irresponsible or sinful values, actions, approaches, alliances, or habits at personal, corporate, social, and/or national levels.

2. We no longer just hope somebody else is doing something about poverty or human trafficking. We identify how Free Methodists and others are engaging in both relief and redemptive counter to these injustices. We support this work financially and prayerfully. We identify corrupting activities and also commend best practices to our representative church, government, corporate, and community leaders at all levels.

3. We incorporate "doing justice" into the center of our descriptions and proclamations of salvation and discipleship. We reclaim Biblical guidance regarding "doing justice" and forge a fresh Free Methodist spiritual formation with this mandate and heritage at heart. We both preach grace and do justice in our evangelism and discipleship. We incorporate 'justice, mercy, and truth" into our Christian education, discipleship, leadership development, worship, and group life curriculum. Justice is not something talked about one Sunday of the year; it is woven into the texture of our life together.

4. We do not accept at face-value any politically-motivated or fear-based description or solution to social problems or injustices. We exercise a deeper sense of spiritual discernment and broader sense of social responsibility than can be reduced to sound-bytes, slogans, campaigns, and election-cycle political interest action.

5. We are educated and engaged regarding what is being accomplished within the Body of Christ and others regarding historically-core Free Methodist concerns--poverty, human slavery, and women's issues (for starters). We encourage involvement in local and international initiatives like the Christian Community Development Association, the Blueprint to End Homelessness, and the International Justice Mission.

6. We take a global outlook and approach to "doing justice." We move beyond Americanism for the sake of authentic Christianity and our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world. While we address specifically American justice challenges like homelessness, affordable housing, livable wages, affordable health care, and access to quality public education at all levels, we do so within a global perspective. North American and Western lifestyles and choices are linked with the prevention or propagation of global poverty, human trafficking, fair labor, women's rights, and economic domination.

7. We openly commit to solidarity with the poor and the plight of the poorest of the poor in our society and around the world. As best we can, we look at the world through the eyes and experiences of marginalized people and groups. We no longer insulate ourselves from contact with the poor; instead we look for ways to engage the poor with meaning, linking our own lives inseparably with theirs. We visit, develop relationships, and become increasingly aware of the immediate struggles of neighbors. We give more weight to their testimonies and experiences than to politicians and news media sources. We work with neighbors to understand and address poverty.

8. As we act for relief of the poor and vulnerable, we link relief with reform and establish just structures, policies, and opportunities whenever possible. As we give ourselves to salvage lives that have been swept over the proverbial waterfall, just as readily we move expediently to address what has caused people and groups to be swept downstream in the first place. We treat symptoms and we address sources of harm. To modify a well-worn adage: give people fish, teach them how to fish, guarantee their right to fish, and do all in your power to insure that the water upstream is not being polluted so that they can actually eat and sell the fish they catch.

9. We are as redemptively involved in our communities for social reform as we are in our congregations for spiritual formation and revival. Free Methodist spiritual formation encourages active neighboring as well as service to support congregational life. Volunteers serve local justice concerns in balance with congregational outreach ministries. We see the two as complementary, not competitive or exclusionary.

10. We act as responsible investors in global market dynamics. If we invest in the stock market or benefit from stock market investments (such as through tax-sheltered retirement accounts), we do so, as much as possible, without blindly contributing to or benefiting from unjust labor or unethical business practices. We refrain from investments that promote violence, war-making, addictions, or unfair trade and labor practices. We examine local labor and market practices of companies in which we invest and call for social responsibility. When stock-market and multi-national corporate activity is identified as rapacious, it is called to accountability and change.

11. We act as responsible consumers of global products, resources, and services. We see a higher value than the lowest possible retail price tag. We challenge our habits of purchasing and consuming whenever it is known to directly or indirectly feed injustices for laborers and the poor around the world.

12. We refute violence against human beings in all its forms. We speak prophetically to militarism and the violence of unjust war, to be sure. We also reject of the language and norms of violence in our society and world. Alternatively, we engage in, pursue, and encourage methods of conflict resolution and shalom-bearing that are a positive testimony to the power of a holy God whose way is love.

13. We address justice issues in the Spirit and manner of perfect love. Even as we identify injustice, seek to relieve the oppressed, call perpetrators of injustice to accountability, and work for reform, we do so with the redemption of the perpetrating individual or organization in focus. Our very approach and spirit is the key to transformative outcomes. As one early Free Methodist put it: "to find the remedy is easy; successfully to apply it involves the principle of holiness."

14. We show by example and precedent what is possible when people of heart-felt faith and vision creatively engage the call to "do justice." We demonstrate the promise of restorative justice initiatives. We model best practices in socially redemptive ministries and volunteer services. We are proactive instead of reactive. We exemplify to the best of our ability, acting with all the light that we currently, collectively have, the principles of the kingdom of God. We live earnestly the petition we constantly make: "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Read my paper, "To Break Every Yoke," online... or print it out to share and discuss.

B. T. ROBERTS' ECONOMICS OF JUSTICE

MONEY MATTERS ARE HEART MATTERS. Earlier this week, I got to spend some time with a rare copy of B. T. Roberts little book First Lessons on Money (1886). Though it seems a bit of an an apology of Adam Smith’s economic philosophy, the book offers insights into the Free Methodist founder’s leadership on issues of markets, debt, and economic justice. Roberts, like John Wesley, saw in such matters an outworking of Christian love--reflecting God's loving justice and loving neighbor as self.

AGAINST MONOPOLY. For instance, in First Lessons on Money Roberts disparages unnecessary mergers and acquisitions for their negative impacts on workers and the market. “Monopolies,” he says, “whatever may be their form, operate against the welfare of the community at large." He advocates for a money market over against a paper- and/or stock-based market. He cautions against undue indebtedness. Regarding inherited money, Roberts declares that “our laws should make it difficult for one man to amass a vast fortune and it in his family from generation to generation.”

IN WHOSE INTEREST? Regarding influence peddling, he says, “the people should see to it that their representatives in Congress pass laws in their interest, and not in favor of the moneyed class and rich corporations to the injury of community generally.” He promotes “systematic benevolence” and quotes the enduring dictum of John Wesley: “Gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can.”

10 GOOD IDEAS FOR ENCOURAGING PEACE & JUSTICE

These are in no particular order. I have had direct engagement with most of these and believe deeply in all of them. They are not necessarily "in your face" acts for peace and justice, but they are effective at achieving significant outcomes in the face of isolating urban environments, depressed economies, neighborhood demise, lack of community connectivity, unfair wages, etc.

1. NEW URBANISM. This community architectural design approach creatively and comprehensively retrofits urban and suburban areas that don’t work in terms of neighbor isolation, non-connectivity, fear, and over-commercialization followed by big-box vacancies. Particularly the principles of mixed-income level dwellings and neighborhoods, walkability, green space, and town centers are good hope for communities and neighbors who want to see the promise of urban living fulfilled. Where implemented, this design does a lot to indirectly impact social change in a community.

2. RESTORATIVE JUSTICE. Instead of merely locking up the perpetrator of a crime, restorative justice brings perpetrator and victim together in conferences that confront hard facts and feelings but often bring mutual healing to both--and to the community. Victim and perpetrator agree to consequences and restitution. I’ve seen this work for non-violent crimes and particularly with juvenile offenders. This is what “justice” is supposed to be about.

3. PAID TIME FOR SCHOOL INVOLVEMENT. Employers who take a broader view of their workplace health and long-term viability of their business in a community will see the value of encouraging their employee-parents to get directly involved in helping make their children’s formal educational experience a success. Businesses and manufacturers have nothing to lose and everything (including positive community image and regard) to gain.

4. LOCAL ECONOMY. Shop local. Buy locally-made and exchanged products when possible. Frequent the farmers’ market. Check out the consignment shops. Ask for more locally-grown and locally-produced products at the stores you like. Let retailers know you’re interested in local products.

5. NEIGHBORHOOD BLOCK PARTIES. When’s the last time you attended a block party? Why not host one? If that’s not your cup of tea, what is? Neighborhood clean-up? Neighborhood garage sale? Neighborhood collection for the food bank? What can you do to get to know your newer and older neighbors? What are you waiting for? What holds you back?

6. CROSS-CULTURAL EXCHANGES. Take the opportunity whenever you can to expose yourself to any other culture than the American suburban consumerist one. No, going to Taco Bell is not crossing cultures. What ethnic festivals are held in your community? What restaurants are authentic? What communities of faith are available? Take in a student for a semester. Seek to develop relationships across cultures. Know that it will take your time. How sad to come to the end of a lifetime and only to have experienced one’s own culture.

7. LIVING WAGE. Try to live for a month on what the income from a $7.00 per hour (or less) full-time job. Until you do, don’t you dare say another careless word about the minimum wage or how hard it is to get good service at restaurants, retail outlets, or just about any service-industry location. Every worker deserves to be able to actually live on the fruit of their work. Don’t tell me about it being impossible to pay living wages when CEO’s, managers, and stockholders are laughing all the way to the bank. Pay the living wage and see what happens to worker loyalty, productivity, and readiness to support your interests.

8. INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT ACCOUNTS. Michael Sherradin’s work, The Assets of the Poor, begat a good thing. He found that the major difference between intergenerational poverty and ending it are assets. Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) are special savings accounts for neighbors living at poverty levels. For every dollar saved, three will be matched by a special fund. The catch: the multiplied savings can be used only for asset-building: to pay for higher education, vocational training, purchase of home, equipment for starting one’s own business, or cash to buy into an existing viable business.

9. RESPONSIBLE CONSUMER SPENDING & STOCKHOLDER INVESTING. Wonder why these prices are so low? You KNOW it’s not a wonder. It’s usually based on unfair trade practices. It’s usually based on cheap or near-slave labor being pressured by US-based big-box retailers. You are not contributing to a developing economy unless your product bares a “fair trade” indication. Consumers reinforce bad international capitalist behavior daily. We are complicit. Each of us can buy more responsibly. Stock traders have a much higher level of responsibility and opportunity than consumers. Do the right thing by working neighbors and consumers in other parts of the world!

10. ASSET-BASED COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT. John McNight and Jodi Kretzman started a good thing, helping folks who want to help their neighborhoods and communities overcome dependency on experts and big outside dollars to renew their communities. Instead of counting what you don’t have, start cataloguing the capacities and resources in your neighborhood and community. Then, organize together. See what a difference you can make.

GANDHI & KING: COMMON GROUND?

COMMON GROUND. Last week, I viewed the movie “Gandhi” for the first time in about ten years. The movie made a significant impact on me when I first saw it, but I’d forgotten several critical points in his story. For instance, Gandhi’s upbringing assumed the compatibility of diverse religious and ethnic groups with the belief that they all ultimately served the same God. This childhood vision and local reality served Gandhi well in his later years when tensions between Hindu and Muslim factions erupted into violence, nearly turning the dream of independence into a nightmare of chaos.

COMMON PURPOSE. While much could be said of their differences, in this regard Martin Luther King, Jr. had a similar upbringing as Mohandas K. Gandhi. In contrast to the chaotic background of Malcolm X, King was able to articulate his dream against the backdrop of a childhood in which he was taught that there was one God who willed diverse people to overcome their oppression, prejudices, and sins. King, like Gandhi, believed in such a transcendent and self-evident common ground. As an emerging leader, King appealed to all--oppressed and oppressor alike--to move resolutely and non-violently toward the common ground revealed in one God. Like Gandhi, King held to this vision, formed in childhood, when violence and factions in the civil rights movement threatened to undermine it.

COMMON GOD? Apparently, neither grass-roots leader succumbed to the “principalities and powers” represented in the authorities and institutions that they so boldly challenged. Instead, they were both killed by out-of-focus people who not only did not share a belief in one God but who were, on the contrary, convinced that the very idea of a common dream in which all shared a part was at the heart of the social problem. It is instructive by association, I think, to consider the backdrop against which our current national and international conflicts are being waged. To the point: do we believe that there is common ground to be found in a Source whom we all, ultimately, believe is One and who wills us to move toward peace?

MISSING LEADERS. One of the critically missing pieces in human rights struggles, so-called “culture wars,” and international conflicts today is the conviction that, behind all the specific and multiple names and attributions of religious deities, is the one God who wills peace for all and among all. It's hard to find a religious or political leader these days who believes--and acts in the conviction--that, ultimately, we are all calling upon the same God and that this same God wills us to find and live on the common ground that lies beneath our specifically-defined domains, claims, assertions, suspicions, notions, and/or “rights.”
BELIEVING IS SEEING. Whether or not this common God can be proven or this proposition embraced by any particular religion or political influence group acting the name of a particular religion is not the point. The point is that great progress toward justice and peace in specific culturally-divided, politically-explosive settings was made under Gandhi’s and King’s influence. And at least these two spiritual and social leaders believed that common ground was possible because a common God existed and willed it. By and large, today’s leaders cannot lead toward common ground because they do not believe it exists and they do not believe it exists because they cannot believe or see beyond their own conceptions of God.

DRYING UP TERRORISM. I find it interesting that conceptions of God are closely intertwined with civil, cultural, political, and international conflicts. Today’s most significant conflicts are religiously-based. Denying or recognizing this is, I am convinced, critical to America's war on terrorism. Since 9/11, American leadership--across the board--has mis-framed the sources and motivations of Islamic terrorism and they have taken an approach to fighting terrorism that continues to fan its flames. I contend that intentional and unintentional religious offenses by the West are fueling resentment and hatred. The West has failed to take Islamic fundamentalism seriously, or refused to accept its claims on its terms (we’re too modern for that!). As we continue to make a secular assessment and take a non-religious approach to address terrorism, we foment it. When American leadership comes to deeply understand, truly respect, and act with high regard for the religion of Islam, Islamic fundamentalist-sourced terrorism will begin to be dried up. Gandhi and King, I believe, would have articulated this.

A CALL TO COMMON GROUND. Please note: I am not a unitarian. I am not a universalist. I am, in fact, a Christian standing squarely within the Arminian, Wesleyan, and American Holiness traditions. And from this very specific belief, theological orientation, and perspective, I reach out in hope to challenge people of all beliefs and backgrounds to search your hearts deeply to find the common ground upon which we all stand and where we can all meet and dwell as diverse and respectful neighbors upon this fragile earth.

WE ARE TOLD

This is a poem I penned a few months ago.

We are told
Coyly cajoled
To anticipate victory

Flags wave
We behave
As if it was meant to be

With every death
Gasping breath
Resolve is supposed to deepen

Till debt is paid
For every grave
We are chided not to weaken

It seems inane
Surely insane
To follow this logic through

We buy the lie
Exchange right
For a tough man’s stunted view

On battlefields
Clarity yields
To prior and distant choices

Ill-conceived
Blindly-believed
Ignoring wiser voices

Quagmire ensues
Still we choose
To pursue paths of violence

On it goes
Till who knows
So long as most keep silence

PEACEMAKING & THE CHURCH

HAUERWAS’ REFLECTION. I excerpt this from a piece called “Peacemaking” in a collection of essays by Stanley Hauerwas titled Christian Existence Today (Brazos Press, 2001). Hauerwas is considered by many the most important American theologian today.

WITHIN OUR HOUSE. “Peacemaking among Christians…is not simply one activity among others but rather is the very form of the church insofar as the church is the form of the one who ‘is our peace.’ Peacemaking is the form of our relations in the church as we seek to be in unity with one another. Such unity is not that built on shallow optimism that we can get along if we respect one another’s differences. Rather, it is a unity that profoundly acknowledges our differences because we have learned that those differences are not accidental to our being a truthful people--even when they require us to confront one another as those who have wronged us.”

CONFRONT SHAM PEACE. “Regarding those outside the church, first, I think we must say that it is the task of the church to confront and challenge the false peace of the world which is too often built more on power than truth. To challenge the world’s sense of peace may well be dangerous, because often when sham peace is exposed it threatens to become violent. The church, however, cannot be less truthful with the world than it is expected to be with itself. If we are less truthful we have not peace to offer to the world.”

THE HABIT OF PEACE. "Second, Christians are prohibited from ever despairing of the peace possible in the world. We know that as God’s creatures we are not naturally violent nor are our institutions unavoidably violent. As God’s people we have been created for peace. Rather, what we must do is to help the world find the habits of peace whose absence so often makes violence seem like the only alternative. Peacemaking as a virtue is an act of imagination built on long habits of the resolution of differences.”

LACK OF IMAGINATION. “The great problem in the world is that our imagination has been stilled, since it has not made a practice of confronting wrongs so that violence might be avoided. In truth, we must say that the church has too often failed the world by its failure to witness in our own life the kind of conflict necessary to be a community of peace. Without an example of peacemaking community, the world has no alternative but to use violence as a means to settle disputes.”

CONFRONT WITH RECONCILIATION. “Peacemaking is not a passive response to violence; rather, it is an active way to resist injustice by confronting the wrongdoer with the offer of reconciliation. Such reconciliation is not cheap, however, since no reconciliation is possible unless the wrong is confronted and acknowledged.”

CHRISTIAN = PEACEMAKER

"Peacemaking can no longer be regarded as peripheral to being a Christian. It is not something like joining the parish choir. Nobody can be a Christian without being a peacemaker. The issue is not that we have the occasional obligation to give some of our attention to war prevention, or even that we should be willing to give some of our free time to activities in the service of peace. What we are called to is a life of peacemaking in which all that we do, say, think, or dream is part of our concern to bring peace to this world."

"Just as Jesus’ command to love one another cannot be seen as a part time obligation, but requires our total dedication, so too Jesus call to peacemaking is unconditional, unlimited, and uncompromising. None of us is excused ! It isn’t something limited to specialists who are competent in military matters, or to radicals who have dedicated themselves to passing out fliers, demonstrating and civil disobedience. No specialist or radical can diminish the undeniable vocation of each Christian to be a peacemaker. Peacemaking is a full time vocation that includes each member of God’s people."

-- Henri Nouwen, from The Road to Peace, edited by John Dear

STEALTH MILITARY RECRUITING

[I submitted the following letter to the editor of the Indianapolis Star today]

As American military recruiting quotas fall further behind prescribed targets (per your front-page article), and as the war in Iraq drags on, I look for our U.S. government to ratchet-up pressure on local high school students. With the help of our elected officials in Washington, the military is already using a stealth recruiting technique to turn the heads of our youth. I discovered this six months ago.

My just-turned 17-year old son started receiving a lot of military recruiting mail. Concerned that Ben Davis High School was giving the military access to my son's personal records, I began to ask questions. I discovered that BDHS had, in fact, opened my son’s school records to the military. Further, this open records access is required of the schools. The directive is part of the "No Child Left Behind" Act of Congress. Short of working to get the law changed, or short of the school district refusing the funds, there is apparently nothing an individual can do to stop it.

The only immediate option available for concerned parents is to request an "opt out" before their child’s 17th birthday. This "opt out" option prevents military sources from acquiring a child’s school records--including their address. To my knowledge, our school district--the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township--did not inform parents about this option. Now several slick military recruiting mailers arrive at our home each week. I intercept most of them (I'm building quite a stack of unopened military recruiting mailers--our tax dollars at work!), but not all. I do not know if it is now possible to stop the mailings.

"Poverty draft" describes what the military is engaged in--preying on kids with little money and few options after high school. Most of the slick recruiting mailers don't talk about going to war, just about opportunities to serve your community and country, get job skills, and money for education. They primarily target our neighbors with lower incomes. It is no accident that the median household income of the families of the majority of military recruits is considerably below the national average.

I don’t know what local educators think of this tactic imbedded in the “No Child Left Behind” Act. But it seems to me, of all professionals and institutions, educators should be ashamed of themselves if they idly go along with such policies. Are school administrators and boards of educations just cash-strapped hand-wringers, or people who act with integrity for the best possible futures for the students whom they say they are there to serve?

Military recruiting is nasty business. But its nastiness has been intensified and brought to a high school campus near you. Our federal government is sinking an unprecedented amount of tax dollars into military recruiting. More and more, our neighborhood 15-year olds see impressive, high-tech weaponry displayed on campus. They experience heavy-handed tactics by military recruiters at the local school. While we work peaceably each day, our nation's military--with the permission of the Congress and direction of the President we elected--is doing its dead-level best to get our in-school children to believe that the best option for their future--and the future of the nation--is a military one. Are you satisfied with this? I'm not.

Recently, I learned of an organization with an Internet site that let me register my protest against using the "No Child Left Behind" education act to open school records to military recruiters. It also helped me send a letter to our district's school superintendent requesting that the school withhold my children's names and personal information from military sources seeking to recruit them. The organization is Working Assets, the project is called "Leave My Child Alone," and the website is http://www.leavemychildalone.org/.

WAR & SACRIFICE: STANLEY HAUERWAS

"THE SACRIFICE OF OUR UNWILLINGNESS TO KILL." For now I will offer only a few bullet points I scribbled down during Stanley Hauerwas' presentation at the "Preemptive Peacemaking" workshop at Manchester College on Tuesday, June 7, 2005. Hauerwas, who teaches ethics at Duke, is considered America's foremost theologian by some (Time magazine, for one):

• "War is a habit of our imaginations."
  
• "War is an institution..." with a full set of self-serving and valor- and virtue-producing symbols, rituals, and rationales.
  
• "War is a sacrificial system."
  
• "War is seductive and powerful in its call to 'virtues...'"
  
• "The problem with peace is that is it is so damn boring..."
  
• "What we sacrifice in war is the sacrifice of our unwillingness to kill."
  
• "The Christian alternative to war is worship."
  
• "The church is the alternative to war."
  
• "When we, as Christians, approve of or go to war, we rob the world of the witness of the alternative."
  
• "In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, war has been abolished."
  
• "You will have to watch the innocent suffer for your convictions...whether you are committed to Christian nonviolence or to just war..." The real question is when do we ever say "no" to the violence that perpetuates the future of violence-based innocent suffering?
  
• "The problem with most war memorials is that they invite lies." (Hauerwas considers the Vietnam War Memorial an exception to this.)

DESECRATING THE KORAN...AND OTHER SACRED THINGS

TURNS OUT NEWSWEEK WASN'T WRONG. After all the brow-beating Newsweek took by the White House for publishing an anonymously-sourced story on the desecration of the Koran by American military interrogators in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, it turns out that Newsweek's story was based in reality. Reports range from Americans ripping out and wadding up pages and writing foul language in the Koran to urinating and stomping on it. Read the LA Times story here. The story is corroborated by now-released FBI files.

THE DAMAGE HAS BEEN DONE. Even though Newsweek bowed to political pressure and retracted the story it published, other reports and investigations reveal widespread and intentional desecration of the Koran by U.S. interrogators, not just in Guantanamo, but in Afghanistan and Iraq. Under pressure from the International Red Cross organization--and in an effort to stop hunger strikes by Islamic prisoners who were protesting the abuses--the U.S. "officially" stopped the practice of abusing the Koran as a way of humiliating detainees suspected of acts of terrorism. But the damage has been done.

"ANYTHING GOES." Repercussions of this latest revelation of what American military and intelligence agents have gotten by with behind closed doors and out of the sight and hearing of a free press will likely reverberate throughout the world. Apparently anxious to get at information that would help our Commander-in-Chief reach his goals, aggressive interrogators have been singing "Anything Goes." Remember, the President has determined (under the advice of the man who is now our Attorney General) that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to these detainees. Rules and guidelines that would have prohibited the desecration of holy documents or restriction of religious rites have been set aside and disregarded.

HOW ABOUT HOLY PEOPLE? And it is most interesting to me that while many are justifiably concerned about the mistreatment of a holy book--whether it be the Koran or the Bible--we are not expressing justifiable concern about the mistreatment and abuse of holy people. It is a shame to abuse documents considered sacred; how much more a travesty to desecrate people--all of whom have been created in the image of God.

SANE AND HUMANE. If detainees have committed crimes against humanity, let the due process of civil justice prevail (and if interrogators have committed crimes against detainees, let the due process of civil justice prevail). It is the only sane and humane vehicle the civilized world has. But if we stoop to treat those whom we suspect of terrorism like animals, we have become the thing we hate. Have we crossed the line? Apparently some, representing the rest of us, have.

PAUL D. HANSON ON PEACE & JUSTICE

THE PEOPLE CALLED. Paul D. Hanson's book The People Called: The Growth of Community in the Bible has become a treasured resource for me. The following excerpts come toward the end of the book. Having painstakingly made the case for the nature of Biblical community, Hanson draws conclusions and implications for our contemporary challenges. Peace and justice are central to our existence and valid continuity as the people called.

SOCIAL HOLINESS. “It is a central and persistent theme of Scripture that God’s people is to be a righteous people. The source of its righteousness is also clearly stated: ‘You shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy’ (Lev. 19:3). ‘You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (Matt. 5:48). The community of faith has as its standard none other than the example of God’s impartial justice. And faithfulness to that standard is not a matter of ethical decision alone, but is a fundamental aspect of faithfulness to God. That is to say, working for social justice, opposing discrimination in its many forms, giving sacrificially to battle world hunger, and seeking to change social and political structures that favor the powerful at the expense of the weak are expressions of the individual’s and the community’s devotion to God. A religious system that merely justifies a life of self-indulgence is accordingly a blatant form of idolatry.”

HEALING BROKEN CREATION. “Underlying the faith community’s every activity on behalf of peace and justice is God’s activity to heal the broken creation. To be God’s people is therefore by definition to be a people dedicated to righteousness in all areas and spheres of life. At the heart of its calling is concern for the just treatment of all people, the equitable distribution of the earth’s resources and fruits among all the families of the earth, and the translation of its belief in God’s sovereignty over all people into social and political policies predicated on the principle of equality” (p. 508).

MEMORIAL DAY: REFLECTIONS OF A PEACE SEEKER

[Note: Portions of this entry appeared as a "Letter to the Editor" in the Indianapolis Star on Monday, May 30, 2005, Memorial Day]

"MEMORIAL DAY" VS. "VETERAN'S DAY." For anyone who might be wondering: Memorial Day (formerly known as "Decoration Day") honors all who have lost their lives in military service to America. Veteran's Day honors all living military Veterans who have served in an American war. Click here for a brief history/explanation of Memorial Day. I find it valuable to contemplate the likenesses and differences between these two national observances.

MEMORIAL DAY IS NOT A PRO-WAR DAY. Memorial Day observance is not synonymous with being pro-war. Nor do I think conscientious objectors, pacifists, nonviolence advocates, peace seekers, war resisters, or war protesters should yield their patriotism to anyone on such days. Whether or not I think a particular war is justified, or whether or not I think war is a valid approach to resolving international or intra-national conflicts, I can--and do--honor all who have died or served our nation in times of war.

PROFOUND RESPECT. For me, honoring the war dead or the living who have served does not "bless" war or condone violence. For me, it affords an opportunity to express my profound respect for those who have served in war--often involuntarily, often with grave reservations, often in the face of terrible options, often with little awareness of how they were being deployed and for what particular small or great objectives.

WE MUST FIND A BETTER WAY. Simultaneously, these observances afford us an opportunity to contemplate how far we have to go as a nation--and as a human family--in transforming our means of advancing liberty, encouraging democracy, and promoting justice. War--and those whose lives are snuffed out or haunted by it--gives us every indication that we have not yet explored or employed our best intellectual and spiritual resources for addressing conflicts. Every Memorial Day and Veteran's Day is an opportunity to consider: "Given the cost in these precious lives, we must find a better way, not just repeat the past again and again."

MILITARY RECRUITING AT YOUR LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL

SURPRISE CLAUSE IN "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND." Six months ago, concerned that Ben Davis High School was giving the military access to my 17-year old son's personal records, I pursued the issue and discovered--with the help of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union--that this open records access to all branches of the military was part of the "No Child Left Behind" Act of Congress. Short of working to get the law changed, there is apprently nothing an individual can do to stop it.

"OPT OUT" OPTION. The only immediate option available is to request an "opt out" before the child turns 17. This "opt out" option prevents military sources from acquiring the school records of a child when they turn 17. Our school district--the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township--did not inform parents about this option. Now several slick military recruiting mailers arrive at our home each week now. I intercept most of them (I'm building quite a stack of unopened military recruiting mailers...your tax dollars at work!), but not all. I do not know if it is now possible to stop the mailings; I am pursuing this.

POVERTY DRAFT. Of course what the military is doing is a poverty draft--preying on kids with little money and few options. Recruiters and the slick mailers don't talk about going to war, they just talk about opportunities to serve your community and country, get job skills, and money for education. They prey on the poor. That's why the income of the families of the majority of young people in the military is below the national median family income.

SHAME ON YOU, EDUCATORS! Of all people and institutions, educators should be ashamed of themselves for going along with this policy. This is, to me, similar to the vision portrayed in the Book of Revelation, in which a child being born is snatched from its mother's lap by a dragon. And the midwife? School administrators. Are you going to be hand-wringers or people who act with integrity for the best possible futures for the students you say you are there to serve?

WHILE WE WORK... Military recruiting is nasty business. But its nastiness has been intensified and brought to a high school campus in your community. Our neighborhood 15-year olds are likely seeing impressive, high-tech weaponry displayed and experiencing heavy-handed tactics by military recruiters at the local school. While we work peaceably, our nation's military--with the permission of the Congress and direction of the President we elected--is doing its dead level best to get our children to believe that their best option for their future--and the future of the nation--is a military one. Are you satisfied with this? I'm not.

HOW TO REGISTER PROTEST & "OPT OUT" OF SCHOOL-BASED MILITARY RECRUITING. Sojourners pointed me to an organization with an Internet site that let me register my protest against using the "No Child Left Behind" education act to open school records to military recruiters. It also let me send a letter to our district's school superintendent requesting that the school withhold my children's names and personal information from military sources seeking to recruit them. The organization is Working Assets, the project is called "Leave My Child Alone," and the website is http://www.leavemychildalone.org/.

WAR, PEACE & FREE METHODISTS

WHERE FREE METHODISTS STAND ON WAR & PEACE. I am grateful for the Free Methodist approach to war and peace. I think it is Biblically consistent and reasonable. The following statement comes from the Book of Discipline:

1. We recognize the sovereign authority of government and the duty of all Christians to reverence the power, to obey the law, and to participate righteously in the administration of lawful order in the nation under whose protection they reside (Matthew 22:21; Romans 13:1-7). Members of our church should bear the responsibilities of good citizenship, and they have the right to act in the enforcement of law and the defense of the peace in accord with the conscience of each person.

2. We believe, however, that military aggression is indefensible as an instrument of national policy and strategy (Isaiah 2:3-4). The destruction of life and property, and the deceit and violence necessary to warfare are contrary to the spirit and mind of
Jesus Christ (Isaiah 9:6-7; Matthew 5:44-45). It is, therefore, the duty of all Christians to promote peace and goodwill, to foster the spirit of understanding and mutual trust among all people, and to work with patience for the renunciation of war as a means to the settlement of international disputes (Romans 12:18; 14:19).

3. It is our firm conviction that none of our people should be required to enter military training or to bear arms and that the consciences of our individual members should be respected (Acts 4:19-20; 5:29). Therefore, we claim exemption from all military service for those who register officially with the church as conscientious objectors to war.

NO PLACE FOR PREEMPTIVE WAR. As I read and reflect on these statements, it appears to me that the Bush Administration’s unprecedented doctrine of “preemptive war” that has been exercised in Afghanistan and Iraq is clearly beyond Free Methodism’s range of what may be permissible. The "preemptive war" policy was developed and implemented without precedent in American history. It has been resoundingly condemned by many retired American military and current civilian leaders. It reserves the right to attack any sovereign nation or state that appears to threaten the self-defined interests of American national security.

"YES, BUT..." “But fighting terrorism is different,” some will insist. Apparently it is so different that international rules, ethics, and guidelines developed carefully over time have been set aside or disregarded. The Geneva Convention has been disregarded as non-applicable to suspected terrorists and enemy combatants in Afghanistan and insurgent fighters in Iraq. In the name of spreading freedom and democracy, our government leaders are making up policies as they go that seem to serve their self-interest. In other times and places some have called this tyranny.

BEGINNING TO PRAY. Let us pray for our national leaders and dare to live as citizens of a Kingdom that embraces people of all nations. My prayer begins with confessing and grieving our collective sins in militarism and exploitation. It continues in an appeal for personal wisdom, wisdom for the church, and wisdom for world leaders. It extends into intercession for all who have suffered--and will yet suffer--personally and indirectly from the ravages of these wars. God have mercy on us all.