Saturday, February 11, 2006
Peace
As I sit in my peace class I am struck by how easy it is to hold a Christian pacifist position. It doesn’t cost me a thing. If my country goes to war and I am against the war shouldn’t I be required to somehow actively try to be a peacemaker? Shouldn’t I be required to do more than tell a few friends I’m against the war and occasionally say a prayer for peace? Shouldn’t I possibly join a Christian Peace Making Team and go to Iraq and work for peace in nonviolent ways? Oh hold on a second Kevin, you have a wife, a child, and a church. Yeah, but so do a lot of the soldiers fighting in Iraq? They believe in what they are doing enough that they will give years away from their families to go to Iraq. Do I really believe that nonviolence can bring peace or do I just believe that nonviolence is a fun, cool, and even trendy position to hold?
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3 comments:
Nonviolence is definitely not fun, cool, or trendy. Non-violence doesn't bring peace - It is peace. Whether in Iraq, Honduras, Boston, or Mt. Vernon, we must be peace. A Christian pacifist is not the same as a nonviolent peacemaker. Being nonviolent is never pacifist. You are required to do more than tell a few friends you are against the war - you are required to love kids who are not loved - you are required to help others work towards healing so that they can be peace also.
If you do this in Iraq for some time - then do it. If not, then do it where you are, as you have been.
Peace ultimately starts in your home, with your family, where we are loved or rejected, given a safe place to develop and love, or given insecurity and shame.
Thanks for the link, dude.
wow. good link. why does it have to be "a war that we're against," but instead shouldn't it be any war? If we are truly non-violent, then we're against war for any reason. We seek other means of resolution to confrontation. I completely agree with you, but I suggest you widen the scope beyond just this war to all violent conflict. I agree with the "nonviolent does not equal pacifist" comment TB makes, because we're not saying we're not speaking up about it, we're committed to non-violence and we're going to make noise to get peace. Good post though Kevin, I really enjoy your blog and the items you post about. I wish we woulda had more time at New Years to spend dialoging and probably would have given up less time playing "human 20 Q" to speak about issues of faith and life. God bless your family.
I've been fixin to come over here and post a comment for the past two days bro... but I was loving on my wife and kids... doing my best to be peace to my wife and love my children into non-violent revolutionaries. so anyay, looks like kyle beat me to it... what kyle said yo
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