REBEL WAR IN THE MANO RIVER UNION

 

 

 

INTERVENTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

 

 

 

 

THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2005 is a significant year in many ways for the Korean peninsula. Korea has experienced a painful modern history, suffering the invasion of imperialistic superpowers, particularly the colonial rule by Japan, and the division of our nation with the inception of the Cold War era. In this year 2005 we are marking the anniversaries of many historical events.

This year is the 100th anniversary of the Ulsa Treaty that marked the actual start of Japan's colonial rule of the Korean peninsula. Japan's colonial rule continued until 1945 when Japan was defeated by the Allied Forces, bringing an end to the Second World War. During the long 45-year colonial period, the Korean people suffered terribly.

This year is the 60th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule. On this anniversary we recall the intense joy of liberation from Japan and, at the same time, the bitter pain of national division imposed by outside powers immediately after our liberation. This anniversary marks also the 60th year of the presence of US military forces on the Korean peninsula. In the 5,000 years of Korean history, this is the longest that any foreign military forces have remained on the peninsula.

The Korean peninsula was liberated from Japanese colonialism, only to then immediately suffer the division of the nation and the subsequent tragic war that forced people of the same blood to kill each other due to the deadly tensions of the Cold War. While the world community overcame the Cold War structure long ago and established a new world order, the chilling danger of military confrontation continues between the two Koreas divided by the 155-mile-long demilitarized zone.

This year is the 5th anniversary of the June 2000 Summit Meeting between the two top leaders of North and South Korea which resulted in the historical joint statement of June 15th. In the painful history of the divided Korean peninsula, the Summit was one of the most powerfully meaningful events in our journey toward reconciliation and peace. Since then, the two Koreas have been jointly celebrating the June 15 Joint Statement every year at the non-government level. This year for the first time government officials from the two sides joined the anniversary event held in Pyongyang, North Korea.

In this year 2005, we on the Korean peninsula are reflecting on all the events which have held special meaning in Korea's modern history and which brought so much deep suffering to the Korean people. This year, more than any time before, we are urgently seeking ways to build peace.

Koreans have been struggling with the difficult challenges of dealing with the nuclear crisis, national division, and North Korea's economic crisis. Today I want to reflect on Korea's history and what the church can do for true peace on the Korean peninsula, as well as how Korean Christians can work together with sister churches in neighboring countries to bring peace to the world.

Current Situation of the Korean Peninsula and the Church's Role

As I have said, the modern history of Korea is mainly defined by the tragedy of national division. The two Koreas have been engaged in adversarial competition and, consequently, peace has been destroyed. The competition has resulted in excessive military spending, the continuing presence of foreign military forces in the South, and political dictatorship. Neither the South nor the North has been free from the impact of division and the competitive political environment.

In spite of our tragic modern history, the South Korean people have never forgotten our dream of achieving democracy, human rights, justice, peace. We have moved toward democracy step by step through constant struggle. We never ceased our efforts for reconciliation and reunification of the nation. The journey has been far from easy, and many people were killed, wounded, and imprisoned. However, the difficult ordeal could never extinguish the Koreans' will for democracy, human rights, peace, and reunification. In 1987, South Koreans achieved an important breakthrough to democracy through what is known as the June Democratic Struggle. Since then we have struggled even harder for democracy and national reconciliation.

The Korean churches have played an important role throughout the struggle. The labour movement and civil struggle were cruelly oppressed by the military dictatorship. The churches, however, could function in a relatively stable way, secure in the support of overseas partners, and could provide people with legal, safe spaces. The church could play a role as the hub of the struggle for democracy and human rights. Especially, the PROK has been in the front of the struggle, confronting the severe oppression by the military governments in the past.

It is true that not all Korean churches participated in the people's struggle. Most churches were very conservative and supported the government. However, conscientious Christians and churches, even if not large in number, took courageous initiatives, and their activities became a sign of hope to many people.

With the progress of democracy in South Korea many people who manipulated the situation of national division for their own vested interests and enjoyed their vested rights in the past, have been facing a new situation. For nearly 50 years those people never lost political power, until 1997. However, losing in two presidential elections in 1997 and 2002, they began to feel extremely insecure as they witnessed the dissolution of the Cold War structure and the progress of democracy. In addition, the emerging critical stand of the majority of Koreans toward the unilateral foreign policy of the US has become a threat to those people who have maintained their political power and influence with the two pillars of division and pro-Americanism.

There have been many changes within the churches since the 1987 June Democratic Struggle. As South Korea has progressed toward full democracy, the churches that were vitally involved in the movement for democracy and human rights have experienced a loss in momentum under the present situation where political oppression and social contradiction rarely exist. Social movements that were active in solidarity with the churches have developed into labor and civil movements, and the churches' involvement has relatively weakened.

In the meantime, some big churches have regarded the "crisis" of influential people's waning political power as their own crisis. They have taken the role of spokesperson for those people and started to actively participate in political activities. This is a remarkable change from their silence of the past. As a result, churches as a whole are now facing society's criticism that the churches work for the vested interests of fundamentalist right-wing people.

The general situation in South Korea is becoming increasingly complex. But the most crucial factor is that the mainstream of history is moving toward the dissolution of the Cold War structure and toward reforms in Korea. However, there is one major power that is blocking this irreversible flow of history in Korea, and that is the hegemonic behaviour of the United States.

Today, the issue of North Korean nuclear power carries one of the most serious threats to peace on the Korean peninsula. US hegemony is a hidden driving force behind this issue. The Bush Administration is under the powerful influence of a group of hawks or so-called neo-conservatives who are pushing the Korean peninsula to the edge. The most absolute and immediate national issue for North Korea is to maintain its regime, and the mounting pressure of US neo-cons has forced North Korea to use the nuclear issue as a tool for negotiating with the US.

In this situation we must seriously ask what the churches can do for reconciliation and peace of the two Koreas.

First, the Korean church must work for peace, reconciliation and co-existence. On May 23rd-25th of this year a very meaningful event took place at Mt. Gumgang in North Korea. Christians from the two Koreas gathered there and held a prayer meeting and choir festival together. Two hundred ordained and lay Christians participated from the South, representing member churches of the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK), and twelve Christians from the North represented the Korea Christians Federation. This prayer gathering was a highly significant, historical event in that it was the first joint effort of North and South Korean Christians for a gathering of lay people as well as ministers, and the first such event held on the Korean peninsula. In the past North and South Koreans could meet only in a third country. The main events of the prayer gathering were worship services and a special choir festival. We believe the prayer gathering will give strong momentum to opening up a new history of Korean Christianity leading to peaceful reunification.

Secondly, the Korean church must continue to provide food support to the starving North Korean people, and to encourage the ongoing exchange of personnel,. The South Korean churches must strongly support the North Korean churches. There is some criticism that such support is abused and manipulated by the North Korean dictatorship. But 60 years of division has deepened political, economic, and social differences between the two Koreas. The differences can be overcome by mutual trust and exchanges. As one means of overcoming the differences, churches must help North Korea recover its economy so that it can end the food shortage and feed its people. In fact, we are afraid that the economic suffering of the North can not be solved in a short period of time in spite of our support. It is known that 3.5 million people are in danger of dying unless the international community gives North Korea adequate food support.

Churches must give first consideration not to ideology but to love. If the churches do not care for their hungry brothers and sisters they will be subject to the criticism specified in James 2:17, "So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead." The South Korean churches must continuously help their sisters and brothers in the North. To translate the PROK commitment to peace into action, the most recent annual meeting of the General Assembly resolved to set up a Campaign Centre for a Community of Peace, and to continuously engage in the peace movement in the years to come.

Thirdly, we must endeavour to change the hegemonic behaviour of the US which is forcing North Korea to make extreme choices. If the US insists on its unilateral diplomatic solutions and continues to pressure North Korea, North Korea will give in to its desire to possess nuclear weapons. If the US is determined to use military force in dealing with the problem of North Korean nuclear power, it is very likely there will be another Korean war which will bring a total disaster to 70 million Korean people. The current abnormal relationship between the US and North Korea must be normalized, and this must be done through changing the present armistice on the Korean peninsula to a full peace treaty. Churches in South Korea can play a role in persuading the US government to change its policy. For this, we urgently need the prayers and cooperation of US churches. The US government's unilateral diplomacy will not be in any way helpful for the US interest in the long run.

Fourthly, we must try to change the thinking of people in South Korea who reject peace and want to maintain the status quo of a divided Korea so that they can maintain their political influence and power. We must show them the road to peace. South Korea is still under the grip of the National Security Law which, still labelling North Korea as an enemy state, is an obstacle to reunification. There are also other policies which are shaped by nationalistic and militaristic thinking and run contrary to human rights. Korean law, for example, does not permit conscientious objection to military service, and conscientious objectors are subjected to harsh punishment. Churches must play a leading role in finding a way out from the legacies of the Cold War era. We must make every effort to build a society that tolerates differences and where none are marginalized. Only then can peace be eventually realized on the Korean peninsula.

Conclusion

We have learned precious lessons from our painful history. We have learned that peace means harmonious co-existence. Through our painful history we have come to realize that the ideal state of co-existence is as described in Isaiah 11: 6-8: "The wolf shall live with the lamb..... and the young child shall put its hand into the adder's den."

We therefore must seek an order of co-existence. We must not oppress or eliminate those with different thoughts and ideas, and different economic powers. We must reject the logic of exclusion and isolation. We reject unilateralism pushed by the few powerful countries in the world. We dream of a world where all people live in peace and harmony. In order to realize this dream, the PROK together with all Christian communities in the world will continue to articulate our vision on peace and to consolidate our solidarity with all peace-loving people.

My name is Rula Shubeita and I am not a politician, I don’t understand politics, but my daily life is all full of politics, even the little children in the Holy Land talk politics and everybody breathes politics.

I am present here in front of you as a simple Palestinian Christian from the Holy Land. I was born, raised and spent all my life in the city of peace "Jerusalem."

I come here to be a witness and an ambassador to you to represent my people back in the Holy Land and to convey their voice to all of you our brothers and sisters in Christ.

It is very important for me to share with you our daily life in the Holy Land, Israel and Palestine and the conflict between these two nations that has been there for the last century. I am not going to talk about facts that you all know through the news, the media, the newspapers or magazines, but rather I would like to talk about our daily life as Palestinians, and share with you, out of our experience of occupation and oppression, persecution, violence, and lack of dignity, what will make for peace in our land – including security, justice and reconciliation.

Living in the Holy Land, I identify myself in four characters: A Palestinian, a Christian, a Tour Guide and a resident of Jerusalem. Each of these characters is a part of my identity and because of these identities; I feel a great responsibility towards my family, my people, my work and my nation.

AS A PALESTINIAN, my ancestors lived for hundreds of years in a city called Ramleh near Tel Aviv. During the Independence War of 1948 my parents were displaced. The Israeli Army forced them to leave their house completely. They took my father and my three uncles as prisoners and all the women had to leave by foot towards the West Bank. My mother, my aunt and my two grandmothers reached the city of Jerusalem after a long and a very hard journey by foot full of suffering, and they became refugees. Three months later when the men got out of prison, my father had to look for my mother as they had been married only for three days before the displacement and he had to start a new life. After losing all his properties and money in Ramleh, it was very challenging to start again. My three uncles, as they were not yet married, left the area to work in Kuwait, one of the Arab Gulf countries. As a result, all three lost their identity cards and lost their right of return to their country and homeland. My story is not unusual -- this displacement happened to at least three quarters of a million Palestinians who suffered from the founding of the State of Israel either by fleeing to the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon or Gaza and setting up residence in refugee camps or by going to the other Arab countries as refugees and thus losing completely their right to return.

If we look at the situation of today you can see that the Palestinians are still eager to have closure on this painful history of displacement - to be given the international rights that refugees deserve – to have some choice and say in the resolution of where they can live, to be compensated by the Israelis for the displacement and for those who want, to have their right to get back the territories of the West Bank which was occupied by Israel during the six days war of 1967, only 22% of the whole Palestine. This would make for peace.

But on the contrary we see Israel every day building new settlements on Palestinian confiscated land from 1967, expanding old ones and confiscating more land. Then they confiscate more Palestinian lands and separate villages to build bypass roads to help settlers to drive freely to their settlements without passing through or by any Palestinian cities or villages. While my people sit in refugee camps – now for 58 years – I watch Israel encouraging Jewish people to immigrate to the Land of Israel, giving them tax benefits to dwell in these settlements, finding them jobs and exempting them from paying taxes for the first three years. These are actions that tell us as Palestinians that one people are more valued than another. Israelis and Palestinians need equal rights and equal treatment for there to be real peace.

AS A CHRISTIAN PALESTINIAN, I belong to the first Christians who believed in our Lord Jesus Christ. My ancestors were here for two thousand years, since the first church was born during Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles while they were in the upper room. I belong, like any other Christian Palestinian to the Mother Church of Jerusalem.

After the birth of the church, Christianity was spread all over the world by different missions of the Apostles. The church was born in the East and was spread to the West.

The Christians of the Holy Land were the majority before 1948. After the occupation and its consequences, things started to change. Christians found themselves in a difficult political reality and they started to leave to look for a better living in the West.

Today Christians have become only 2% of the whole population of Israel and Palestine among the Jews and the Moslems. The Israeli occupation and our status as a shrinking minority have seriously affected Christian life here.

The separation wall that Israel is building to separate the Palestinians from the Israelis is one more blow to Christian life. Christians of Jerusalem and of Israel are not able to get to Bethlehem to visit the birth place of our Lord Jesus or any other holy site located in the West Bank. Also Christians of the West Bank are not able to cross to Jerusalem to visit Calvary where our Lord Jesus was crucified and his Holy Tomb where he was buried and resurrected on the third day.

The separation wall affects all of us as Palestinians – preventing us from visiting our brothers, sisters, relatives and friends because some of us will be beyond and the others will be behind the separation wall. When our community is divided and isolated, we can not build the state that we dream of – Palestinians need to have the freedom that everyone deserves – of movement and religion for there to be real peace.

AS A CHRISTIAN TOUR GUIDE, I can see it is obvious that Israel and Palestine combined together are part of the Holy Land. As Christians we believe that we have four gospels, the Holy Land is the fifth Gospel. You cannot separate them from each other. To understand the four Gospels as a faithful you have to visit the Holy Land to trace all the holy sites where Jesus was. You could see where he was born, was baptized, was tempted by the satin, where he lived as a child, where he did his public ministry for three years, where he performed miracles, where he celebrated the last supper with his disciples, where he was betrayed, condemned to death crucified, died, buried, resurrected and ascended to heaven and where the first church started.

, I can see it is obvious that Israel and Palestine combined together are part of the Holy Land. As Christians we believe that we have four gospels, the Holy Land is the fifth Gospel. You cannot separate them from each other. To understand the four Gospels as a faithful you have to visit the Holy Land to trace all the holy sites where Jesus was. You could see where he was born, was baptized, was tempted by the satin, where he lived as a child, where he did his public ministry for three years, where he performed miracles, where he celebrated the last supper with his disciples, where he was betrayed, condemned to death crucified, died, buried, resurrected and ascended to heaven and where the first church started.

Yet the occupation takes that away from all of us. Because of the continuous Israeli Palestinian conflict and the Intifada (the uprising) started in September 2000, people were afraid to travel to the Holy Land saying "it is not safe to travel there." This caused a great loss in tourism which is considered as one of the first industry for Israel and Palestine alike, leaving hundreds of people without jobs. I would urge every single person to travel to the Holy Land to do your pilgrimage and to walk in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus as it is safe to travel to the Holy Land, not only to visit sites but also to see the people of the Holy Land, support those who are working for peace and to bring a message of Christian love and care for both nations of the Holy Land. This would help to make for peace.

AS A JERUSALEMITE, I was born, raised and lived all my life in the city of Jerusalem. I feel very much attached to the city of Jerusalem. My love to Jerusalem is like my love to my mother, I feel that Jerusalem is my mother, my sister, and my daughter. I don’t find myself living far away of my city, Jerusalem is part of me and I am a part of It.

Jerusalem is the holiest city in the World and is the centre of the three Monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The holy sites for the three religions are located very close to each other in the city of Jerusalem. Everyone has the right and freedom to pray and practice his religion in the city of Jerusalem and no one has the right to prevent anyone of doing so.

All of us - Christians and Muslims and Jews – must demand that Jerusalem should be open for Israelis and Palestinians and it should be a city for two states –the Israeli State and the Palestinian State. An open and international Jerusalem is essential for peace in the Holy Land.

The question remains: WHAT MAKES FOR PEACE?

As a Christian the Bible teaches us to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves from all our heart, from all our mind and with all our strength and even to love our enemy.

We believe today that we are two nations that were imposed on each other and we have to share the same land and to be good neighbors to each other.

If it was fair and just to recognize the Israeli State in 1948 because the world did not pay attention to the Holocaust, it is fair and just that today, a Palestinian State be recognized because the world ignored our 58 years of occupation. The Holocaust of the Jews was horrible event that should never happen again – but the lesson that we take from it is even more important - such a catastrophe should not happen again - and that this is a universal message not to oppress other people but to see all people as human beings created in the image of God and pursue peace and love.

The political answer to what makes for peace is known: Israel has to implement the UN resolutions.

To withdraw to the 1967 borders.

To give the refugees their rights and to compensate them.

To remove all settlements from the West Bank and Jerusalem.

To tear down the separation wall.

To maintain Jerusalem as a city shared by three religions and two nations.

If these conditions will be implemented, there will be political peace, security and justice.

For us to have real peace, we must also have real reconciliation that comes with our faith and love – to truly express our respect for each other.

There should be reconciliation between the two nations of both sides know how to educate their young to love not to hate, to forgive not to condemn, to dialogue not to monologue, to respect and equalize not to discriminate.

Therefore, I urge all of you our brothers and sisters in Christ to act and intervene. You can help in different ways:

I encourage all of you to travel to this region on fact finding mission or on pilgrimage to understand the political situation more and the people of the region specially the Christians who are the Living Stones who are still preserving and maintaining the holy sites and keeping the churches active. If the Living Stones continue to leave there will be no one left to protect these holy sites and then churches will be like museums that will be used as a history site rather than a place of worship. Be sure that it is very safe to travel to the Holy Land.

We need support financially to keep the community strong.

Financially: you can buy well known Palestinian Products such as the Olive Wood Carving, the Mother of Pearl, the Palestinian embroidery which are done by Palestinian women from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Original Olive Oil pressed and manufactured in the Holy Land. Also you can sponsor a child out of many Palestinian Children who do not have the chance to join the school because of poverty through the Global Ministries program. Or you can help to create a housing project in the Holy Land to help young couples to live in a decent house rather than leaving or to help other people who had their house demolished by the Israeli Government, or to help to find jobs creation for the Palestinians as the unemployment is very high because the Israeli Government does not allow Palestinians to work in Israel. Or to contribute for university scholarships to have a well educated generation to know how to defend their land and to seek peace and justice.

You can support with one of the mentioned ways by contacting one of the Palestinian Institutions such as Sunbula based in Jerusalem or Dar Al Nadwa based in Bethlehem or Hcef: The Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation based in Washington DC. You can get resources and their Website addresses at Global Ministry booth.

You might want to participate in Sabeel’s International Conference "The Forgotten Faithful" in November 2006.

And finally pray for us. We need your spiritual support. The faithful of the Western Church should help the faithful of the Eastern Church because we are one body in Christ, if one part of the body is sick the other parts will be sick too. We ask you to include us always in your prayers until peace will prevail on the region.

Thank you very much!!!

In the search for peace in the Middle East some people begin with the Camp David agreements, others with a new status for Jerusalem. There are those who begin with the Road Map, while others speak of the Saudi Initiative. Still others see peace primarily in Israel's withdrawal, in whole or in part, from lands it militarily occupied in 1967. Palestinians will always begin with the loss of our lands and our rights.

I am one of nearly nine million Palestinians worldwide. Fifty-seven years ago, more than half of us were uprooted and made refugees - some of us displaced multiple times. We were cast outside the course of history, our identity denied, and our very human, cultural and historical reality suppressed. We became victims of the cruel myth: a land without a people for a people without a land.

Those of us who came under Israeli occupation in 1967 in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem have since been subjected to a unique combination of military occupation, settler colonization and systematic oppression. The infrastructure of occupation continues to entrench and expand with the building of more settlements, more by-pass roads and more sections of the Wall. All the while, United Nations Resolutions, the rulings of the International Court of Justice and International Law as they pertain to Palestine, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, continue to remain unimplemented.

And so I come to you today from the heart of Palestine, a land besieged and violated and from the midst of an indigenous people - a nation held in captivity. We continue to be victims of a colonialist program, that is, an exclusivist agenda, one that usurped our rights, our lands and confiscated, as well, our historical narrative.

As someone who has lived all her life in Ramallah, and more than half of it under Israeli military occupation, I can assure you that life has never been as difficult as it is today. While Israeli military incursions into the occupied territories continue, the apartheid wall continues to be built on confiscated land, separating people from their lands, families, schools, hospitals and houses of worship. There is a policy of both systematic and direct violence that is making life unliveable for us all, at almost all intersections of our lives.

Chaim Weizman, who was to become the first president of Israel, remarked long before the establishment of the Jewish state that the world would judge Zionists by the way they treated the Arabs of Palestine.

It was a wise prediction, but half a century has passed and still the world has made little headway in understanding and nurturing those things that make for peace between Jews and Arabs in Israeli-occupied Palestine.

In the West there exists only slight awareness of the depth of the injustices we Palestinians have suffered in terms of the denial of our rights and self-determination. Indeed, despite the courageous advocacy of growing numbers and the justice-oriented statements of many Christians that have been passed within the general manifestations of their denominations, there remains much misinformation. And, quite significantly, there is the absence of effective political will on the part of the international community to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or even to view the resolution of the conflict as in the best interests of their nations.

There are several reasons why, I believe, everyone should be concerned with this conflict and work toward peace in the Middle East:

The Arab-Israeli conflict is the cause of an explosive situation that could become a threat to world peace. It now affects the lives of millions of people in the Middle East; if it widens, it could affect the lives of tens of millions of people elsewhere.

Several governments, especially the US, support Israel militarily, politically and financially. Each individual has the right, if not the duty, to know the facts in order to judge whether the support his or her government extends to Israel is given for a legitimate cause and whether in the long run it will end occupation and promote peace for the two parties.

The Palestine Question has been on the agenda of the United Nations since 1947. Many resolutions have been adopted but not implemented. Therefore, every individual has a responsibility directly or indirectly for the action or inaction of his or her own government.

The struggle for human rights all over the world is a struggle in which all must engage, including the Christian community, if we are to be faithful to the demands of the gospel in our time.

In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the concept of a divine nature existing in harmonious relationship with human nature and the natural order has been dominant. The teachings of these religions helped undergird the belief that human beings have rights. Our value comes from the belief that we are created in the image of God. God is loving, free and just. God's purpose is to liberate human life from inhuman conditions, which exist because humans of free will have chosen behavior that disrupts the intended harmony of peace, justice and freedom for all.

As a Palestinian Quaker woman of the Holy Land, I have been confronted all my life with structures of injustice. These political, cultural, economic and social structures have been at work in a destructive way throughout our community and have caused both spiritual and physical suffering for many, including myself. I started to think about the following: "If there is something of God in every person, why is there so much evil and darkness in the world? Why is it hard for us to see God in others?"

My inward struggle made me aware of the suffering that reflects the evils plaguing the human race, but it also opened me to God's redeeming love and activity.

Involvement in any action has a price. The question is, am I ready to pay the price to share the suffering of others? Suffering for me is bearable, if it is for the cause of liberation, if it helps to find a new community with others and with God. I realize that those who operate the structures of oppression are dependent on the people they oppress and are equally in need of liberation and God's grace. Yet, it seems to me that too often the will and strength to end the oppression comes from those who bear the oppression in their own lives and very rarely from privileged and powerful persons and nations.

What do we do to preserve the dignity of human life? What do we say to the arms race and nuclear weapons? What do we say when arms sold by the industrialized nations to others are used for internal repression, violation of human rights and wars within a country and between neighboring countries? What do we do when our style of life, or our silence, is the cause of war without arms, war in which the victims are millions of people dying from hunger and poverty?

What about social justice? Can there be peace between the starving and the affluent? Between the oppressor and the oppressed, occupier and occupied? Can arms bring security or keep peace? Are we concerned when the Bible is abused in a way to worship the false gods of money, material wealth, race and other idols? What do we do when individualistic interests are justified by biblical passages quoted out of their historical context? What are we in our particular countries called to do?

We are called to conversion, to be converted to the struggle of women and men everywhere who have no way to escape the unending fatigue of their labor and the daily denial of their human rights and human worth. We must let our hearts be moved by the anguish and suffering of our sisters and brothers throughout the world. How can we bear the pain, and where do we look for hope? Is there anything we can do to solve the political chaos and crisis in the world? Is there anything we can do to stop wars of all kinds?

Let us take a look into ourselves. The outward situation is merely an expression of the inward state. It requires great self-denial and resignation of our selves to God to be committed to peace and to nonviolent action to bring about change. This technique may have no positive effect, and it may lead to outward defeat. Whether successful or not it will bring suffering, but if we believe in nonviolence as the true way of peace and love, we must make it a principle not only of individual but of national and universal conduct. We should try, however, to avoid feeling moral superiority, because we know how soon we may stumble when we are put to the test. We may talk about peace, but if we are not transformed inwardly, if we still are motivated by greed, if we are nationalistic, if we are bound by beliefs and dogmas for which we are willing to destroy others, we cannot have peace in the world.

Living under military occupation has forced me to go through deep self-searching. I have been confronted with three loyalties. The first loyalty is to Christ, who calls us to love our enemy. The second loyalty calls us to aid fellow humans in need or trouble. The third loyalty calls us to love our country, its people and its way of life. This last loyalty prevents us from being willing to aid our invader. In our situation, no one can set rules for us to follow, but what we can do is testify that in our experience the spirit of God leads us into the truth and gives us the guidance we need in every situation.

We have gone through circumstances of great privation, anxiety and suffering. All these seemed at times to weaken my dependence on God, but what joy and hope I gain when I know, wherever I am, whether in affluent circumstances or in poverty, whether I have personal liberty or not, that I am under the guiding hand of God and that God has a service for me to render wherever I am.

I call myself a Quaker or Friend, and Friends throughout history have maintained a testimony for peace. War, we say, is contrary to the mind of Christ, and it is laid upon us to live in the virtue of that life and power that wins through love and not war. This is not an easy testimony, and it has three aspects:

To refuse to take part in acts of war ourselves;

To strive to remove the causes of war;

To use the way of love open to us to promote peace and heal wounds.

But how can I interpret this pacifism to my children and my students when we are all victims of violence? How can I have peace within when I worry so much about life in general and the lives of my family members? How can I have peace within when others call my people terrorists and justify our oppression by quoting the Bible? How can I have peace within when our movement is restricted in our own country; when walls are built to imprison Palestinians from one another?

Can we have peace without self-determination and sovereignty or without land and water that are essential for survival? How can we have economic development without the right to our land, our water resources, and the right to freedom of movement? How can we have self-determination when more than half of the Palestinians are outside of Palestine? Many are still in refugee camps and are denied the right of return and compensation.

Commitment to the search for universal values, however differently they are expressed, which may enable the individual and the community to overcome greed, power and self-seeking;

Affirmation of the presence of a spirit of hope and compassion available to all by which our lives may be more whole, more creative, more harmonious as we draw directly upon that power around us and within us and within all life.

We cannot live a day without saying yes or no to death or to life, to war or to peace. The choice is ours. There is no compromise in this matter. To postpone or evade decision is to decide, to hide is to decide, to compromise is to decide. There is no escape; this is our challenge.

In Psalm 85, we read and hear the following:
I am listening to what the Lord God is saying;
God is promising peace to us, God’s own people,
if we do go back to our foolish ways.
Surely God is ready to save those who honor him,
and God’s saving presence will remain in our land.
Love and faithfulness will meet.
Justice and peace will embrace.
Human loyalty will reach up from the earth,
And God’s justice will look down from heaven.
The Lord will prosper us,
Our land will be rich with harvest.
Justice will go before the Lord
And prepare the path for our God.

=========== Part One =============

Unfortunately, the world today is very far from the world spoken about in that vision. Ours is a world with too much violence, too much injustice, and far, far too little peace.

As we have heard here today and see on the news everyday, there is still conflict in the very land from which this vision comes. The bloody conflict between Israelis and Palestinians continues—with the Israeli military confronting other Israelis, and Palestinians in gun battles with other Palestinians.

There is the US stand-off with Iran over the use of nuclear technology.

There is the ongoing and dangerous conflict with North Korea over nuclear weapons.

There is the continuing US hostility towards Cuba, and the growing US hostility towards Venezuela.

There is genocide in Dalfur—acknowledged, but still largely unaddressed.

And, of course, there’s the conflict that most Americans see everyday on their televisions, hear about everyday on their radios, or read about in their newspapers: the war in Iraq.

Recently, vice-President Cheney said we were winning. Then Secretary of Defense Rumsfield said we had turned the corner. Then the pro-US leader of Iraq said he feared that his nation might be moving closer to civil war.

In response to this, President Bush admitted that we’d be in Iraq for a while—at least until we get the job done. But no one seems to know exactly what "done" means.

If it means stopping the insurgency, we’re far from done: the number, strength, and deadliness of the insurgents continue to grow.

If it means the Iraqis defending themselves, we’re still far from done: the recruitment and training of Iraqi forces is not going as smoothly and as rapidly as the Administration had hoped.

If it means leaving behind a democratic Iraq, then it’s unclear exactly when we’ll be done.

Yes, there was a handing over of sovereignty. But it was more in name than in fact. Yes, there were elections. But Egypt and Iran also have elections. And no one is holding these nations up as models of democracy. And yes, they’re drafting a constitution. But unless there is genuine buy-in from all factions in Iraq, any constitution is not worth the paper on which it’s written.

You know, I heard on NPR a couple of days ago that there was much excitement in Washington and among the current leaders of Iraq because the process of drafting a constitution was going faster than anticipated.

According to the report, the only details that remained to be worked out in this divided Muslim nation were the division of power among the factions and the role of Islam. It seems to me that these would be rather major details!

But here are some more details—grim ones:

Over 1700 US soldiers killed in Iraq.

Over 13,000 US troops wounded in Iraq.

Nearly 25,000 Iraqi civilians dead.

And billions of dollars spent on Iraq that could have been spent to meet human needs here—as well as alleviate suffering around the world.

But the President says we must continue fighting no matter what the cost. Why? Because it’s central to the war against terrorism: We’re fighting the terrorists over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.

Well, it seems to me that what just happened in London might call that strategy into question—unless, of course, the President thinks that London, also, is ‘over there.’

When asked about his unpopular campaign to destroy Social Security, the President said, "The easy path is to say, 'Oh, we don't have a problem. Let's ignore it—yet again.'" It is truly tragic that the President will not apply this thinking to Iraq.

More directly related to the war on terrorism than Iraq are the prisoners being held at the US Base in Guantanamo, Cuba. We’ve often heard from conservatives about the violation of human rights in Cuba—and now we know it’s true.

Large numbers of people are being held there—by the US government—for an indefinite period of time, with no charges formally made against them, and with no access to legal advice or help. As ‘enemy combatants,’ they’re even denied the basic rights granted to prisoners of war by the Geneva Convention.

Amnesty International recently called attention to this situation. The organization issued a report in which it criticized the harsh and abusive treatment of the prisoners by the US military. Responding to this criticism, the President called the report ‘absurd.’ Why? Because "we’re Americans" and Americans "don’t do things like that."

He also called the report biased. Why? Because it was "based on allegations by people who were held in detention." Furthermore, these are "people who hate America." Hard to argue with logic like that, isn’t it?

During the same press conference in which the President dismissed the findings of Amnesty International, he said the following: "In America, you’re innocent until proven guilty. You shouldn’t be judged guilty before you’ve had a fair trial."

In order to prevent any confusion, please be aware that the President was not applying this principle in any way to the prisoners at Guantanamo. Instead, he was expressing his profound concern about the arrest of an oil tycoon in Russia!

All of this—the war in Iraq and our treatment of prisoners—is having a very negative effect on our image in the world. Most of our allies are dismayed by our behavior and our attitude. And while recruitment numbers are down for the US military, they appear to be up for terrorist groups like Al Queda.

But the Bush Administration is not sitting still on the recruitment issue. Given that recruitment levels are down even in the face of less-than-honest tactics by military recruiters, our government is on top of things. They’re now requesting that, in order to receive particular federal monies, schools must provide information on their students to military recruiters. It sort of gives a new twist to the slogan, "Leave No Child Behind."

Going at the problem from the other end, this Administration continues to stretch our current military to the limit. But for a growing number of military families, that limit has been reached.

Here’s an interesting story: For those of you who don’t know about him, Walter B. Jones Jr. is a congressman from North Carolina. He’s an ideological soul-mate of former Senator Jesse Helms, and he’s a darling of the Religious Right. He’s the force behind a bill to allow churches to get more directly involved in partisan politics. And he’s the guy who promoted a House resolution to rename french fries "freedom fries—because he confused the use of the word "French" in relation to a nationality with the use of a similar word describing a method for cutting potatoes. And, based on this confusion, he recommended that we change the name of this popular food because the French were opposed to our invasion of Iraq, an action he strongly supported.

But now, congressman Jones is the co-sponsor of a bill with Dennis Kucinich to set a timetable for getting the troops out of Iraq. Why? According to Jones, there are two main reasons: First, the reasons we went to war have proven to be false. Second, his district has two military bases full of families who are growing in their opposition to the war. Many of their loved ones have died, others have been there too long, and the families—as well as the local economy—are enduring too much stress under these conditions.

This same sentiment of uneasiness about the war is growing among military families across the nation—and among all Americans. That’s why the President’s job approval ratings are falling. That’s why he has to take time away from important things like defending Karl Rove and stacking the courts with right-wingers: he’s got to keep trying to defend the war.

Parenthetically, I don’t know if Karl Rove committed a crime or not when he identified a covert agent by her relationship with her husband rather than by her name. But I do know this: the real crime was trying to suppress the truth and to punish anyone who could, with some credibility, call into question the Administration’s false claims about the dangers to America posed by Iraq.

nd this very mindset—this desire to punish critics and truth-tellers—is exactly why many of us are so concerned about the Patriot Act. . . .

============ Part Two =============

So what we do about all of this? What are people of faith who seek peace with justice supposed to do?

There are many things, of course—too many for mere mortals. But I want to suggest four, maybe five.

FIRST, in the words of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, "Keep hope alive." Believe me, if Congressman Jones can see the truth about the war, anyone can.

In fact, to help other members of Congress to see it better, he posts pictures of the dead soldiers from his district on the wall outside his congressional office. It doesn’t exactly win him a lot of friends in his own party. But whether it does or not, it’s the right thing to do.

And this fact is important for all the people who are feeling pessimistic about the war and about the overall political climate in America. Hope is not the same as optimism and is therefore not the opposite of pessimism. It is the opposite of the kind of deep despair related to a complete loss of faith in the essential goodness of creation and in the eschatological promises of God. And it is this kind of deep despair out of which people of faith are called, and against which people of faith must witness.

Why? Because true hope is grounded in a faith that includes both a conviction of the right and the belief expressed by Dr. King that "the arc of history is long but it bends toward justice."

So, as people of faith committed to a faith-based vision of peace and justice, and as Christians grasped by the Biblical vision of shalom, we must keep hope alive.

SECOND, I think we need to get the big picture. There are many reasons behind what is going on in Iraq and other war-torn places around the world.

And there are many reasons why the United States is doing what it is doing in Iraq and elsewhere.

Yes, there’s ideology—foreign policy has been hijacked by a small but powerful group of neoconservatives.

Yes, there’s economic interest—not just oil, but the billions of dollars that Vice President Cheney’s corporation is making by rebuilding what the invasion destroyed.

And yes, there’s stupidity—our leaders have made mistakes and miscalculations all along the way.

But I’d like to suggest to you that there is a larger force at work that helps bind these others together, and gives them the power they have. This force is religious nationalism.

It’s a dangerous theology and a destructive ideology that identifies America with God, wraps the flag around the cross, and confuses patriotism with religious faith. It makes a false god out of the nation and a political prostitute out of religion. It subtly draws people of faith into idolatry and effectively robs religious faith of its prophetic voice. Like the abomination mentioned in Daniel 11 and Mark 13, religious nationalism "stands where it ought not," it "pollutes the sanctuary" of authentic faith, and it "makes desolate" the healing power of true religion.

This is the force that drives the political agenda of the Religious Right. This is the national religion over which President Bush presides. And this is the demonic force that encourages—and then sanctifies—war.

As I have already said, there are certainly more forces at work than religious nationalism. And in many ways, religious nationalism serves as a cover for and distraction from the destructive side of globalization that accompanies the worldwide expansion of unrestrained, amoral and undemocratic forms of capitalism.

The direction of globalization should be a major concern for all people, including and especially people of faith. But just as in a previous time, the greatest danger for Christians as Christians was the Nazification of the Church, the greatest danger today for the Church and for all people of faith may well be the types of religious nationalism capturing the hearts and minds of millions in America and around the world.

Yes, religious nationalism is in one way a cover for and a distraction from the more negative side of globalization. But it is also the force that gives energy and power to an otherwise soulless set of institutions and relationships that desperately needs grounding in some spiritual reality, even if that reality is a demonic distortion of both religious faith and legitimate forms of patriotism.

As Christians, we must speak out against this powerfully destructive force. We must reassert the authentic power of religious faith, and affirm legitimate forms of patriotism as important, but lesser and different forms of loyalty. Otherwise religious nationalism will successfully support the emergence of a new form of feudalized capitalism with greater destructive potential than its previous Nazi, Fascist, and Stalinist manifestations.

The THIRD thing that faith-based peace and justice advocates need to do is enter into diverse and effective coalitions with others who are also working on peace and justice issues. This is not the time for turf wars and internal battles over which particular issues deserve the most attention. This is the time to come together and support each other in the effort to build and maintain a larger movement for peace and justice—one that corresponds to the shared vision of ‘the beloved community’ articulated by Dr. King, and one grounded in the faith-based vision of peace and justice revealed in the Bible and encouraged by the holy books and writings of other people of faith.

Let me briefly give you some examples of this principle at work:

A coalition of people—including our own Rita Brock and Al Pennybacker—came together at Riverside Church in New York to commemorate the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., to read his statement against the war in Vietnam, and to promote King’s vision of the beloved community.

A large number of groups supported this event, and the energy from this event and its planning flowed into other events and campaigns:

a ‘Break the Silence’ bus tour to cities across the nation,

a Peace-not-Poverty statement collectively written by hundreds of peace advocates,

protests at recruiting stations in various cities,

local vigils with diverse people of faith praying for peace,

and the formation of new groups—such as a new Clergy and Laity Concerned organization focused on Iraq.

This September, the 24th – 26th, there will be a massive peace mobilization in Washington, DC, highlighting the need to end the war in Iraq. The event will include:

a massive march and rally,

a peace festival,

an interfaith service,

grassroots training,

lobbying,

and civil disobedience.

Christians and other people of faith will be participating in organizing the event and are encouraged to come and give witness to their faith-based commitment to peace with justice. And so, while I’m here today, I encourage all Disciples of Christ who are able to do so to do just that.

In October, there will be an interfaith campaign called "God’s October Surprise." Based on the fact that this year, the religious holy days of many religious traditions occur in the month of October, people of various faith communities will be working together to organize shared worship, fasts, vigils, and feasts to celebrate our common commitment to peace with justice. Institutional and individual support for this effort is rapidly growing, and I encourage all of you to get involved in congregational, ecumenical, interfaith and community events.

There are, of course, many, many other things going on. Our task is to find ways to join them, promote them and support them. And we must do so not just for the secular reasons of strategic wisdom and political effectiveness, but also, and more importantly, because as Christians we are called to participate—self-critically but in faithful risk—in mutually edifying and mutually corrective relationships with the prophetic forms of what Paul Tillich called ‘the latent church.’

FOURTH, in dealing with issues of justice and peace, we need to maintain a healthy balance between the prophetic and the practical, between protest and pragmatic participation in the development of better public policy.

I don’t know if I heard this somewhere, if I dreamed it, or if I made it up. It’s a little too silly and far too cute. But it’s true nevertheless. It goes like this: Without a vision, the practical is merely tactical. Without a plan, the prophetic is politically pathetic.

Prophetic vision and prophetic criticism of war and injustice are absolutely necessary parts of authentic Christian faith. But if we are to make even a marginal difference in the world situation, our prophetic vision must be translated into practical public policy. This involves planning in a less than orderly world, making moral judgments in a morally ambiguous situation, choosing between less-than-desirable options, compromising with less-than-admirable opponents, and, almost always, settling for less than perfect results.

Practical politics must always be subject to prophetic criticism—otherwise it degenerates into morally indifferent and merely calculating forms of thinking and acting. But prophetic witness must also be subject to prophetic criticism. Otherwise, it, like so many other things in life, can become an idol: it can lose its transforming potential and become instead an escape from responsibility, a way to secure our moral superiority and sanctify our rituals of protest instead of risking decision and imperfect action in the world of injustice and violence in which we are all entangled. Again: we must risk action, and we must be practical as well as prophetic when we do so.

ONE LAST THING: for people of faith, the struggle for world peace must always be grounded in God’s peace. As Christians, our advocacy is authorized and guided by the ministry of our Advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ, and empowered by the Paraclete sent to us—the one breathed upon his disciples by the Prince of Peace.

Therefore, protest should always be grounded in prayer. Public witness should always be connected to what happens to us in public worship. And the grace that accompanies true repentance should always temper our righteous indignation about those who—for personal, institutional, and/or ideological reasons—promote the twin evils of war and injustice.

Keep hope alive. Get the big picture. Join forces with others. Be practical as well as prophetic. And always ground our work for world peace in the peace that passes all understanding.

In my view, these are the things that make for a more peace-loving America, and also make for greater peace with justice around the world.

Thank you

We are all indebted to our speakers for their very insightful presentations on our theme, presentations that reflected their own contexts and challenges to peacemaking. There were any number of important themes, running throughout the presentations, that I hope we will remember.

For example:

the need to collaborate with people of other faiths, as well as non-religious groups, in our efforts at peacemaking;

the need to pray for one another and, generally, to share more than material resources;

the urgent need to educate our children and mobilize our youth for peacemaking;

the need we have in the United States to pressure our government in response to the voices of Christians in other countries (to advocate for a more constructive, proactive role in Palestine/Israel, to advocate that more attention b