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 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.

STORY CORROBORATED. The accounts of desecration of the Koran and prisoner abuse at Guantanamo have now been corroborated by recently-released FBI records.

THE 'GULAG' OF OUR TIME. Also, Amnesty International this week called Guantanamo the "gulag" of our time and insisted that it be shut down.

HUMAN RIGHTS IMAGE. America's treatment of prisoners and detainees is, according to Amnesty International, underminings its integrity and making it easier for other nations to ignore human rights violations.

MYRON AUGSBURGER: LIVING WHAT WE BELIEVE

PERFECT LOVE AND WAR. The following are excerpts from Myron Augsburger's 1973 presentation to a symposium reflecting on the relationship of Christian holiness to issues of war and peace. The conference content was compiled and edited by Paul Hostetler and published in 1974 by Evangel Press under the title Perfect Love and War. Augsburger was President of Eastern Mennonite College at the time of his presentation.

BEHAVE YOUR BELIEFS. "The new life in Christ has upon it the very stamp, or character, of Christ. The ethical dimensions of life are not just adjuncts to one's piety, not dimensions of works that one adds to faith, but are rather expressions of our relation to Christ. This is to say that we relate our ethics to Christology (the study of the person and attributes of Christ) in the same way we relate salvation to Christology. We behave our beliefs, expressing what it means to live under the lordship of Christ in the total life. There is no part of the Christian's life in which he may abdicate his moral responsibility to someone else, including the state. Each believer is responsible to live the holiness of love imparted to us by the Spirit of Christ."

CHOOSE WHICH KIND OF SUFFERING. "[Jesus Christ] reverses the old 'eye for an eye, tooth for tooth' attitude. He tells us we are to love our enemies In answer to the question of whether this will work in our world, Jesus showed us that we do not have to live; we can die. The ultimate expression of this was the cross itself. Sometimes in dying we do more to the world than we could by living. So we do not answer this issue on the basis of whether someone will have to suffer. Of course they will, one way or the other. The question is on the basis of which kind of suffering -- that which is imposed by war (as though this will bring an end to war) or the suffering which comes because of love? Redemptive suffering is that which comes by love."

BECOME A CONSCIENCE TO SOCIETY. "We regard membership in the kingdom of Christ as our primary loyalty. The question of committing one's self in ultimate loyalty to Jesus Christ means that the Christian can do no less than become a conscience to society where that society operates beneath the level of the will of Jesus Christ. As members of the kingdom of heaven, obedience to Christ is the basic aspect of our approach to the question of war."

ACT FOR THE SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE. "As Christians we must behave in accordance with belief in the sanctity of human life. We treat every person as an end in himself and not as a means to an end. Believing in the sanctity of human life means that we must also avoid the deterioration that happens to any peoples who take the course of violence as an answer to the world's ills. We cannot justly be involved in anything which interrupts man's opportunities for a full life, be it social injustice, be it violence, be it the problem of war, or be it the problem of poverty."

WITNESS TO THE MEANING OF LOVE KNOWN IN THE CROSS. "The New Testament calls us to let the church be the church. First, it asks us as the church to give ourselves to prayer for rulers and those in authority. Second, we are to give ourselves in sacrificial living and witnessing as an extension of the meaning of love known in the cross of Christ. If our commitment to holiness is genuine it will involve love for all, justice that works to correct the ills, mercy that moves beyond the issue to the person, honesty in our understanding of ourselves in the process, and joy that keeps our spirits free. We are called to yield ourselves 'servants to righteousness unto holiness.' (Romans 6:19)."

RECOVERING A HOLINESS SOCIAL ETHIC

MY FAITH ROOTS. I grew up in a Protestant Christian faith tradition that traces its roots in the ministry of John Wesley’s 18th-century Methodists and the 19th-century American holiness movement. One of the privileges of a theological education is the awareness--and hope for recovery--of a definitive holiness social ethic that has all but dissipated today. It is this deeper heritage, instead of contemporary shallowness, that fuels my daily service.

NOT JUST WITH WORDS. Church of the Nazarene founder Phineas F. Bresee and Free Methodist Church founder B.T. Roberts not only believed that ministry to the urban poor was important, they intentionally stood with the poor in blighted communities. They defended the poor, advocated against the injustices that fueled poverty, and developed spaces of belonging and access in which the poor were not only welcome but at home.

CHALLENGING SOCIAL INJUSTICES. Both leaders challenged their church brethren to move from merely preaching a holiness of heart (spiritual) to expressing holiness of life (social, material) in solidarity with the marginalized. Such late 19th-century Wesleyan holiness revival advocates not only perceived evil lurking in worldly entertainments and personal vices, but saw the social injustice in condoning unbridled capitalism, in the denial of workers rights, and in rapacious stock market schemes.

BECAUSE OF THE POOR. Bresee and Roberts called for radical simplicity of church facilities, not only because the ostentatious styles were a put-off to the poor, but the sheer cost of unnecessary embellishments were poor stewardship of resources of God’s people. Tithes and offerings should be used to serve the poor, not build impressive structures. Likewise, words, dress, and lifestyle were to be simple...because of the implications for the poor.

A WITNESS DISSIPATED. Over time, radical solidarity with the poor deteriorated into mere charity and infrequent compassion. Holiness groups pulled back from challenging oppressive social structures and marketplace practices. They became known as people who didn’t smoke, dance, drink alcohol, wear jewelry, gamble, or frequent movie theaters. This caricature became the extent of the holiness social ethic.

WHAT WE KEPT AND DISCARDED. I have repeatedly asked: Have holiness folk held on to distinguishing aspects of early Nazarenes and Free Methodists that are not eternally important and at the same time discarded some critical stands in relationship to social ethics that may be critical to reclaim? And I answer my own question with a resounding “Yes!”

FOUR WITNESSES TO RECLAIM: I think the holiness churches have four major witnesses to a holiness social ethic to reclaim in this and the coming generation:

1. SOLIDARITY WITH THE POOR. Re-commit to a radical solidarity with and service among the urban poor of North America. This is our heritage...and calling. I personally wonder if Wesleyan theology and practice make much sense outside this context.

2. RADICAL SIMPLICITY. Re-commit to a radical simplicity of lifestyle, particularly in light of a global economy, in which American consumerism and unbridled, trans-national capitalism directly feeds injustices for laborers and the poor around the world. With what is saved: give, share, redistribute more equitably.

3. PROTEST STOCK MARKET PRACTICES. Re-commit to a radical protest against the stock market because of its rapacious direct, indirect, and residual impact of injustice to common laborers and the poor in America and around the world. Holiness folk should expose stock market practices, companies, and funds that degrade human life and community everywhere. If it is necessary to participate in stock investments at all (as most do indirectly through retirement accounts), utmost care should be taken to examine local labor and market practices of every company in which one is investing…and call for social responsibility.

4. AGAINST ALL FORMS OF VIOLENCE. Re-commit to a radical stand against violence against human beings in all its forms. This is a stand against the violence of war, to be sure. It is also a rejection of the language and norms of violence in our society. Alternatively, it is a pursuit of methods of conflict resolution and shalom-bearing that are a positive testimony to the power of a holy God whose way is love.

CHOOSING WAR?

"Very few people choose war. They choose selfishness and the result is war. Each of us, individually and nationally, must choose: total love or total war." - Dave Dellinger

THE SOCIAL ETHICS OF EARLY HOLINESS GROUPS

Perhaps Donald W. Dayton describes the distinctives of holiness groups and their contribution to social ethics in America better than anyone else:

"The Holiness movement differs from fundamentalism and evangelicalism in that it is more oriented to ethics and the spiritual life than to a defense of doctrinal orthodoxy. Indeed, one of the distinctive features of the Holiness traditions is that they have tended to raise ethics to the status that fundamentalists have accorded doctrine. This theme was certainly explicit in the early abolitionist controversies and has consistently re-emerged since. The emphasis given the doctrine of sanctification has led naturally in this direction."

"The Holiness ethic has been described as the 'revivalist' ethic of 'no smoking, no drinking, no cardplaying, no theatergoing.' Such themes have, of course, characterized the Holiness movement -- as have large doses of anti-Catholicism and anti-Masonry. Some of these concerns are still worth some defense, but the Holiness churches have been slandered by observers who fail to penetrate beneath these themes."

Dayton cites the heart-and-soul engagement by holiness movement advocates in the late 19th and early 20th centuries of the following ethical concerns:

• Abolitionist movement
• Women's sufferage and ordination of women to ministry
• Involvement with and ministry to the poor and oppressed
• Peace advocacy
• Simplicity
• Radical equality

Of the early holiness leaders' penchant for peace, Dayton notes:

"Thomas Upham, one of the more mystically inclined of early Holiness teachers, wrote in 1836 the important Manual of Peace, opposing the military chaplaincy, advocating "tax resistance," and calling for the abolition of capital punishment. Almost totally ignored in the literature of pacifism are the several 'peace churches' produced by the movement."

Dayton also laments the decline of such social ethic distinctives in the middle and late 20th century.

Dayton's article, "The Holiness Churches: A Significant Ethical Tradition" is available online: click here.

A LETTER TO THE EDITOR: REFLECTIONS ON THE HOLOCAUST MUSEUM

IN SUNDAY’S STAR. I wrote the following “Letter to the Editor” and submitted it the Indianapolis Star. It was included in the Sunday, January 30, 2005 "Focus" section:

PRIMARY & ORIENTING. On the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, I have a recommendation: plan a visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. This is a pilgrimage individuals and families of all nations should make. Whatever else one sees in Washington, this is the primary and orienting experience.

GRATEFUL & TROUBLED. After this encounter you will be more grateful for the Capitol and more troubled by the influence peddling that pervades it. You will see the White House and know that a revered president who resided there long delayed an intervening response after learning of the plight of the Jews in Europe, even preventing many from immigrating to the United States.

GRIEVE YOUR BIGOTRIES. You will be deeply grateful for freedom and come away with a heightened sensitivity to abuses of authority even in the name of democracy and freedom. You will grieve and repent of your own small bigotries and speak up more quickly in defense of any oppressed person or group in the future. Information about the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is accessible at www.ushmm.org.

WHAT WE ACCEPT AT THE BEGINNING MATTERS

EXAMINE UNDERPINNINGS. I’ve reviewed a lot of images of the Holocaust this week. They are gory. They are sickening. They are alarming. But I think it is critical for me to review them. They remind me that where you begin, what you accept as a valid beginning point matters much. But we rarely look there. We hardly ever question back to there. We simply do not take the time to discover the tennuous underpinnings of what we accept as normative, as truth, as good policy, as life-sustaining value, as world-saving action.

WHAT GERMANS ACCEPTED. My sense is that most of the proud German people living in the beginning days of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (a conservative, moral-values based political party) did not examine the roots of their angst or challenge the underpinnings of the solutions to their national woes that the Nazi party proposed.

UNTRUTH BECAME NORMATIVE. They went along. They accepted. They allowed. They gave the benefit of the doubt. And what they allowed and accepted became normative for their children. It had the ring of truth and strength in numbers. They thought themselves to be on a heroic journey of national restoration and attempted to bring a liberating fascism to weaker countries stalled in economic and moral malaise.

SIXTY YEARS LATER. Sixty years later, the heads of state of most world-leading nations (absent George W. Bush) gather at Auschwitz to commemorate the day the Soviet troops liberated the Nazi death camp that sent more than 1,100,000 Jews, gypsies, gays, and other stereotyped prisoners to gas chambers and crematoriums that ran day and night. The leaders solemnly vow "never again" and at the same time do not examine the norms they accept or the perilous underpinnings or trajectories of the actions they take.

CRY OUT NOW. Examine everything. Question authority. Trace down every assertion. Look behind every notion. Exegete perspectives. Do not just go along. Do not just accept what is said. Speak what you discover. Repent if it is called for. Expose untruth if it be so. Cry out now, or many may weep for your silence.

ELIE WIESEL: PEACE IS OUR GIFT TO EACH OTHER

THERE MUST NEVER BE A TIME WHEN WE FAIL TO PROTEST. This is the concluding paragraph of Elie Wiesel's Nobel Peace Prize lecture, December 11, 1986:

"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. The Talmud tells us that by saving a single human being, man can save the world. We may be powerless to open all the jails and free all prisoners, but by declaring our solidarity with one prisoner, we indict all jailers. None of us is in a position to eliminate war, but it is our obligation to denounce it and expose it in all its hideousness. War leaves no victors, only victims."

"...Mankind needs to remember more than ever. Mankind needs peace more than ever, for our entire planet, threatened by nuclear war, is in danger of total destruction. A destruction only man can provoke, only man can prevent. Mankind must remember that peace is not God's gift to his creatures, it is our gift to each other."

Click here to read Wiesel's full speech, "Hope, Despair, and Memory."

AN ALTERNATIVE VISION OF THE COMMON GOOD

Dissent, as I speak of it as a grace, is rooted in an alternative vision of the common good. Dissent, in my case, is anchored in an understanding of the Biblical image and principles of the Kingdom of God articulated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and his church. This is the vision and allegiance that claims my heart and life. This alternative vision of the common good is starkly distinct from the claims, posturing, values base, and policies of the Bush Administration.

THE GRACE OF DISSENT

GRACE FOR THIS PRESIDENT? Knowing both my penchant for seeing the possibility of grace in unlikely situations and my consistent criticism of the posturing, choices, and directions the George W. Bush regime, a friend challenged me to try to write something graceful about the U.S. President.

SAY SOMETHING NICE. One would think this would be easy to do: just say something nice about the man. Like: he professes Christianity. Like: he is a sober, recovering alcoholic. Like: he is a faithful husband. Like: he loves America. I can say these things. These are commendable for a President. Few Presidents could honestly claim this combination of commitments or characteristics.

LIKE MILLIONS OF US. As laudable as these four claims are, they can be said of perhaps millions of people (millions more if you consider those who have not had the experience of addiction to alcohol). These characteristics do not qualify George W. Bush or any other person to be President of the United States of America. Nor have they apparently assisted him and his regime in leading the American people wisely, or even honestly.

GOD'S HAND ON HIM? During the recent election campaign, the Rev. Pat Robertson said of Bush that though he had made mistakes and was not necessarily right on a variety of issues, God's hand was obviously upon him. There you have it. The right reverend hath spoken: the savvy use and bullying abuse of political power cloaked in well-orchestrated images of civil religion equate to God's blessing. Not!

OPEN LETTERS TO THE PRESIDENT. I am a citizen who has paid close attention to this Presidency from day one. I have taken the time to reflect on his manner and choices and have written over seventy letters to George W. Bush over the past four years. I have commended him and scolded him. I have agreed and disagreed with him. I have offered alternative perspectives along with my prayers. My thoughts and feelings in these letters are open for all the world to read.

OFFERING DISSENT. Some may read into my letters and perspective nothing more than carping criticism. But in my heart and mind I am sincerely trying to offer this President the grace of dissent. Dissent means "to withold assent" or "to differ in opinion." Dissent is not unpatriotic. Dissent is not simply being contrary. Dissent is not a minor key or discordant voice. Dissent is not negativism. The fact that dissent is begrudgingly endured by the majority of people does not reduce its value and importance in the past or to the future for all.

AN ALTERNATIVE VISION. Dissent, as I speak of it as a grace, is rooted in an alternative vision of the common good. Dissent, in my case, is anchored in an understanding of the Biblical image and principles of the Kingdom of God articulated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and his church. This is the vision and allegiance that claims my heart and life. This alternative vision of the common good is starkly distinct from the claims, posturing, values base, and policies of the Bush Administration.

A PARTICULAR REASON FOR DISSENT. It is particularly because of the Bush Administration's appropriation of Christian terms, images, and posturing for the sake of selling to the American public a thoroughly secular, wealth-serving, class-dividing, violence-reinforcing ideology that I have raised my voice in dissent. Christianity is not merely civil religion. Christianity is not a tool to be used by power brokers to passify or satiate a hopeful citizenry. It is not wool to pull over the eyes. It is not bapitsmal water to justify the spirit of mammon and violence.

CONTRADICTIONS. It is not of Christ to incite moral alarm at gay marriage and at the same time continue to intentionally mislead the world regarding the connections between the terrorist attack on 9/11/01 and Iraq. It is not of Christian faith to name the Prince of Peace as one's chief counsel and lead primarily by intimidation, the violence of unprovoked war, and at the bidding of donating patrons. To me, the contradictions between this regime's claims to act Christianly and the real claims of authentic Christianity are numerous and glaring, as comprehensive as specific.

THIS GRACE I OFFER. So, this grace I offer this President and his regime: dissent. I simply cannot and will not give assent to this President's claims and directions. I dissent as a citizen. I dissent as a Christian. I offer this President and his Administration and alternative vision and perspective. And I live in hope that it, not the present means or ends, will ultimately prevail for the sake of the world which God gave his Son to redeem and transform.

PASTOR ARRESTED

A BETTER IMAGE OF A PASTOR. Most images of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. depict him behind a pulpit or before a great throng of adoring people. But I prefer the pictures of this Christian pastor being manhandled by government authorities serving vested white interests. King's primary witness and power come not from the pulpit and podium, but from his stand in the streets with unnamed people with whom he identified and for whom he gave his life. This photo, accessed at The Seattle Times MLK pages (a good online resource!), was taken in 1958 in Montgomery, Alabama. He was arrested for loitering; the charge was later changed to failure to obey an officer.

ANY PASTORS ARRESETED LATELY? When was the last time you read of a Christian minister being arrested for any issue of peace and justice? Plenty have been arrested for fraud or other immoral behavior. Help me recall those who have so irked the powers that be regarding peace and justice that the government has had the nerve to lay hands on them?

WHAT WOULD KING SAY OF IRAQ? The "fulfillment" of King's dream of a nation of races reconciled, diversity embraced, and poverty rolled back gets mixed reviews. At best it is a work in process; at worst, it has been accomodated and drastically diminished. Based on his outspoken perspective on the Vietnam War, I doubt many would want to hear what Martin Luther King, Jr. would have to say about the Iraq War today.

TEACHING PEACE

I completed my first two teaching sessions at Indianapolis Peace House this week. The 3-hour college course, "Introduction to Issues of Urban Peace and Justice," looks at the emergence of various aspects of our urban area into an interlocking system, highlighting the ways conflict, class, war, poverty, wealth, race, etc. are either effectively or ineffectively addressed. From a general orientation to the city as a system this week, next week we will begin to look at the city from the angle of various groups and concerns. I anticipate the students will begin to see very specific conflicts and challenges emerge.

PEACE? ON EARTH?

OH, THAT. It’s difficult to read the Bible without tripping over the word “peace” as a core imperative.
“Oh, yeah.”
“Oh, that.”
We assume we know what it is referring to, gloss over the word, and read on for the “real meat.”

THE REAL MEAT. What if peace IS the “real meat?” What if we are inadvertently minimizing, by sheer familiarity with a word, something vital to faith and action?

LOOKING OVER A... Of the numerous references to peace, I’ve tended to gloss over its mention in the birth of Jesus narratives most. There’s old Zechariah declaring, in his prophetic response to the birth of his son John and in reference to the impact of the coming Christ, “to guide our feet into the path of peace” (Luke 1:79).

EASY WORD? There’s an angel choir singing to Shepherds, on the eve of Jesus’ birth, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14).

HARK TO A PATH. These birth narrative references are the first of many mentions of peace at critical moments in the Gospel story. They hark backward in reference to a peace that was possible but perhaps lost, latent, or unfulfilled. They hark forward to a way—a “path”—and present quality of life in this life, here and now.

GREETING CARD PHRASES? Was peace just a convenient word for Luke? Were these greeting card phrases only? If so, dismiss them as pabulum. If not, should we not explore their intended meaning as they take their place in the story of grace?

A PATH. What is the “path of peace” into which we are to be guided? Is it significant that the message is of peace ON EARTH and TO PEOPLE? What are we to make of this blessing?

WAGE PEACE

PEACE IS ITS OWN METHOD. I am thinking that the message of peace, of necessity, implies the method of conveying it, teaching it, living it—even waging it. Peace is its own method. It bears its own ethic.

WITH THE POWER OF INTENTION. I have chosen the word “waging” intentionally. The image is not inconsistent with its ethic or spirit. Peace is to be waged, no less intentionally and intensively than war is waged. But peace is to be waged not combatively, not harmfully, not insultingly, not belittlingly, not in any way that mitigates against its very spirit.

ENDS BESPEAKS THE MEANS. Whereas war is a violent, destructive means to—some would say—a hopeful end, peace is a constructive, nonviolent means as much as its intended end. It does not do harm to resolve it. Peace is a way of approaching problems and conflicts that incorporates the intended result into the first word and in every mediating action.

LOCKED IN A STRUGGLE. That does not detract from the image of “waging.” Core spiritual principles and life-or-death-determining challenges must be engaged with vigor, with intelligence, with savvy, with effort, with soul—peace must be waged with all legitimate capacity and every possible life-giving resource.

INTENTIONAL AND INTENSIVE. Let us lay aside our images of peacemaking as a soft or weak way. Let us conceive of peacemaking as an intentional and intensive response to discord, strife, and open conflict that calls upon our highest energies and deepest devotions. Let us wage peace in such a way that we bear and share its fruit even as we move toward its fullness.

PERFECT LOVE...AND WAR

A CHRISTIAN SHALOM. Amid the beginnings of America’s attack on Iraq, and while on a plane from Kansas City to Indianapolis, I began reading Perfect Love and War. The 1974 book published by Evangel Press is a compilation of papers presented at a symposium on the topic among holiness theologians and thoughtful practitioners. I’m grateful to Stan Ingersol for putting me on to the book. It includes a history of holiness advocacy for peace by Donald W. Dayton and a piece by Timothy L. Smith titled: “A Christian Shalom.” The following are a few excerpts from Dr. Smith’s article:

A BROADER DEFINITION OF 'SHALOM.' 'Peace' – 'shalom' – cannot, for us, even us who believe afresh in an imminent Second Coming, denote merely otherwordly hope in Christ’s apocalyptic settlement of the world’s strife. We recognize, rather, a responsibility to advance the alternatives to war which human beings can realistically hope for now.”

PEACE AMID CONFUSION. “The shalom which [Jesus] pronounced was a promise that His grace could make them disciplined disciples, able to obey His call to personal holiness in a world of sin. His ‘peace be unto you’ was a confirmation of what He had declared on the eve of Calvary. Their hearts need not be troubled; they believed in God, they could also rely on Him. You can rest at ease, He said on that dark night of confusion and betrayal; your souls can be secure; you shall indeed live for Me and walk in the way I have charted for you.”

SET TO PEACE-BRINGING. “Eternal life began in a special sense for them that Easter night, in the grace of shalom, in the gift of the Holy Spirit, Who would abide with them forever. Temporal holiness and everlasting salvation thereafter were two sides of the same priceless coin… The cross, and the resurrection which triumphed over it, had brought them a shalom which the world could neither give nor take away. It would heal their wearied and sin-bound spirits, and set them to bringing peace on earth and good will among men.”

WAGE WAR ON WAR. “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.”

A MORAL GAUGE. “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.”

ETHICS OF PEACE TO INFORM OUR ACTIONS. “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.”

STRIFE IS DESTRUCTIVE. Smith concludes: “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.”

THE HOLINESS CHURCHES: A SIGNIFICANT ETHICAL TRADITION

THREAD OF HOPE. Donald W. Dayton's article, The Holiness Churches: A Significant Ethical Tradition, is perhaps the most vital thread of evidence and hope I have in the discovery of a rich peace tradition in holiness circles. If you're not familiar with the American holiness movement and doubt whether or not it has relevance for the peace tradition, this article will begin to shine light.

HOLINESS & QUAKER CONNECTIONS

NORTHWEST YEARLY MEETING. I've had some conversation with a few folks about connections between holiness and Quaker folk. The Northwest Yearly Meeting appears to be an expression of the Society of Friends that connects these dots in faith and practice.

A PRAYER FOR THOSE ENGAGED IN WAR

FROM FLETCHER TINK. Fletcher Tink is a teacher, writer, minister in my holiness tradition. He penned the following prayer, "A Prayer for Those Engaged in War," on March 25, 2003. Remember what was happening then?

Oh, Father God, we, as fallen humans in a corrupt world, confess our collective failure to find peace. In our desperateness, we seek your divine help. . .

For the spirit of confusion that enshrouds us, give us your mind.

For the spirit of fear and panic, temper us with perspective and peace.

For our lies and euphemisms, nurture in us childlike honesty and transparent language.

For our reckless might, extend to us your divine power.

For our callous and cold calculations, renew in us warm and sensitive hearts.

For false hopes and illusions, reshape us with a realism of the hope found only in you.

For our guilt and shame that harbors blood on our hands, give us pardon and cleansing.

For our arrogance, wet our eyes, bend our knees in dependency on you.

For rabid enthusiasm, caution us with measured confidence born only in your coming Kingdom.

For ugly rhetoric and dogmatism, frame our mouths into prayers.

For the pain of combat, the agony of injury, extend your hand of healing.

For excruciating loss and violent death, embrace us with your arms of comfort.

For the tragedy and horror of war, offer us a peace beyond understanding that will unite that which has been fractured, into your transforming, ennobling and liberating self.

For these gifts, unworthy as we are, we plead,

Amen.

TO BE PEACEMAKERS

IN THE DAYS AHEAD. Johann Christof Arnold of The Bruderhof posted a concise response to the November 2004 election, something all Christians would do well to take to heart in the days ahead:

"Whether we are saddened or elated by the prospect of another four years, now is not the time for depression or gloating. Jesus called on his followers to be peacemakers, and told them that they would be called the sons of God. This promise still exists for us today. These are simple but powerful words. If they worked in Christ’s time, why shouldn't they work today as we struggle to rid the world of terror? It is easy to pay our taxes, abide by the rule of law, and otherwise dutifully give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But what about the second half of that commandment? In the end, only when we each become a peacemaker will we achieve the unity that politicians of all stripes are fond of giving lip service to."

WHAT'S PEACE GOT TO DO WITH HOLINESS? AND VICE VERSA?

“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.” Hebrews 12:14

I want to understand what this means…and live it.

Two words. Peace. Holiness. Are they worlds apart?

Does international disarmament, interpersonal nonviolence, racial reconciliation, and pursuing peace have anything to do with personal piety and Christian holiness?

My name is John Hay, Jr. I’m a Christian minister in the Wesleyan/holiness tradition seeking to explore peacemaking as a lost spiritual and ethical heritage.

Honestly, I find hardly anyone within my “holiness” faith tradition talking about peace other than a “Jesus gives me peace” personal experience. We don't talk about it as a social imperative of the Gospel.

I was raised in a faith tradition called “holiness.” We Free Methodists, Nazarenes, Wesleyans, and Salvation Army folk talked about peace of heart but not about peace in the world. Our diminished outlook could be summed up with a bumper sticker: “No Jesus, No Peace; Know Jesus, Know Peace.”

We thought it possible to live in peace with close relationships and local toughs because of inward grace. We just didn’t think that applied on an international or global scale. In fact, we were suspicious of those who talked about world peace; we linked such talk to anti-Christ. Following the declaration of “peace and safety” sudden destruction could be expected.

Sound macabre? Welcome to the theological milieu of my upbringing. It was not uncommon among evangelicals.

I think we sold ourselves short. We were onto something. The holiness part, that is. But we thought only in personal pietistic terms. We didn’t let our hearts range far from our little experience. We asked for peace in the midst of our personal storms, but that was far from expecting peace in the midst of international conflicts. We surrendered everything but our politics and prejudices to Jesus.

The experience of holy love filling one’s heart is no mere illusion. At times it has translated into an outgoing, collective, fervent love that transforms social fears and hatreds—holy-fired folk advocated for the abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, labor relations, and rights of the poor. Donald W. Dayton and Timothy L. Smith make this clear. Holiness of heart can translate into holiness of life at both personal and community levels.

They say there is a peace tradition within my own Wesleyan/holiness theological and church tradition. They say it’s there, somewhere, I just haven’t yet found it. If it’s there, whatever significance it had in history has apparently not translated into contemporary faith and practice of any Wesleyan/holiness churches or associations of which I am aware. If it is there, I will find the strain and amplify it.

But it is possible to explore the implications for peace and witness as part and parcel with the holiness ethic without having historical precedent. We are not called to be mimickers of the ways of our forebears so much as we are called to be witnesses to present grace as it intersects the issues that confront our generation.

There may not be a more critical witness of holiness in this generation than that of peace. Perhaps this is a test of the relevance of the ethic for the present and future.

I don’t know much about peace. But I am going to learn. You’re welcome to look over my shoulder as I do. I must learn quickly. There is urgency to learning and applying what I discover. Think of this as a project in process. I will post what I am discovering about peace and holiness. You’re welcome to contribute what you know and discover.