On September 26th of last year, I was arrested in the Hart Senate Office building in Washington, D.C., while participating in an intentionally nonviolent, interfaith prayer service to end the war in Iraq. I was not alone; 71 other people of faith and conscience were arrested that day as well, among them four Presbyterian pastors.
Coming out of that experience, a small group of us began dreaming of a new kind of witness for peace. It would be clearly, unapologetically Christian. It would be deeply grounded in worship and in prayer. It would be bold about who Christ calls us to be as peacemakers. It would be an invitation to join a movement of Christians who believe that genuine security will come only when all of God’s people commit themselves to build right relationships with one another around the world.
Our conviction came out of another experience and reality as well.
It has been five-and-a-half years since the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the tragic loss of American life on that day. Since then, the “War on Terror” has become the water we swim in, so much a part of our culture and our collective psyche that few of us question its fundamental assumptions. The irony, of course, is that we Christians have committed ourselves to follow the Jesus who insisted that we must love our enemies. My favorite bumper sticker theology at the moment is, “When Jesus said to love your enemy, I think he probably meant, don’t kill him.” Straightforward, theologically solid, and unequivocal.
The Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, to be held in Washington, D.C., and in communities across the country on March 16 — the weekend of the fourth anniversary of the U.S. action in Iraq, is an invitation to live out the principled expression of our belief that Jesus meant exactly what he said. If you have been afraid to speak out about your grave concerns about the war in Iraq, this is your opportunity to lift up a Christ-centered vision of what the world could look like. If you have been increasingly troubled by a war built on faulty assumptions about security that tear at the heart of the Gospel tradition, this is your chance to make a stand for peace. If you’ve been loathe to join a secular protest that fails to recognize your pastoral obligations to provide care for soldiers and their families in your congregation, this witness offers a way to actively balance your prophetic and your pastoral call. If you are among the skeptics, young and old, who have wondered whether Christians have any intention in following the hard teachings of Jesus, this is your chance to express your faith in a way that is authentic and real.
Standing against war has never been easy. Forty years ago this month, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said that our country depended on a “company of creative dissenters” who would call America home to her true home of brotherhood and peaceful pursuits. In that same speech, King said:
The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows. One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means. How much longer must we play at deadly war games before we heed the plaintive pleas of the unnumbered dead and maimed of past wars? Why can’t we at long last grow up, and take off our blindfolds, chart new courses, put our hands to the rudder and set sail for the distant destination, the port of peace.
Many will say that it is unrealistic to pull back now, and I admit that I, like many others, am deeply troubled by the cauldron of ethnic violence now boiling over in Iraq. The long and arduous road toward peace must begin with a U.S. timeline to pull back. It must include the strongest possible diplomatic effort to reach out to all of those who have a stake in the troubled Middle East. It must embrace a clear, long-term commitment to build an international coalition that will rebuild Iraq and create a future of hope for the people of Iraq. Perhaps most challenging for those of us in the peace movement, it must work intentionally with international partners to assure that the bloodbath of sectarian violence now raging in Iraq does not become outright genocide.
We who are leaders in the Christian community in the U.S. bear a special responsibility.
As I traveled the globe while serving as moderator of the 216th General Assembly, it became obvious to me that this war is largely perceived as a Christian aggression. We are being held to account not only by those of other faith traditions, but even by our Christian brothers and sisters around the world. From Korean church leaders frustrated with our inability to stand up to our president as he divides the world into friend and foe along the “axis of evil,” to Congolese leaders who question whether we even care about fundamental questions of security such as responding to famine and disease; from Pakistani pastors building relationships with the Muslim majority in their country to Latin Americans who perceive this war to be yet another aggression of the great empire, the question I was asked over and over again was, “Why aren’t Christians in the United States demanding an end to the war?”
The temptation to embrace violence has been seductive for the people of God throughout history, and the gospel of Luke makes it clear just how hard it was for the people of Jesus’ time as well. Blessed are you when people hate you, and they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Standing against the powers and principalities to witness for Jesus Christ has always been, and always will be, an act of courage.
In the end, though, the power of the Gospel is that it continually calls a fallen people back to a renewed vision of what God has in mind for us. We can choose to be protagonists in the creation of the reign of God. I hope you’ll join us in that project on March 16. You can learn more at www.christianpeacewitness.org .
Rick Ufford-Chase is the executive director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.
