They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
One nation shall not raise the sword against another,
nor shall they train for war again. ~ Is. 2:4b; Micah 4:3

In this world of continuous wars and rumors of war, endless threats of violence and acts violence and aggression, ceaseless abuse of power and privilege, it never ceases to amaze me how the hawks act as if those who call for diplomacy, those who call for cooler heads to prevail, those who call for—dare I say it—peace, let alone the peace of Christ, are naive, pollyannaish idealists who are out of touch with the stark realities of life and the presence of evil in the world. What causes people to act evilly? Is it peace and the conditions that make for peace or is it violence and war and the conditions that evoke violence and war?

Remind me. Which was the war to end all wars? What violent act—personal or collective, strategic or impulsive—led to genuine, enduring peace and not to Rachel weeping and the gnashing of teeth? When was the last time (or the first time) when fire was fought with fire that it did not lead to more conflagration, or devolve into one side being deluded by its victory and supposed moral superiority and the other side obsessed with thoughts of revenge? It is worth noting when a gesture of peace, an act of peace, a demonstration for peace, a movement committed to peace, or the death of someone in the effort to make peace fails “to produce” the results deemed a success by those enamored with soldiering and force, invested in power and war, that they will call such behavior naive, unrealistic, a pipe-dream. Commitment to peace or the Prince of Peace as enacted by Jesus who so many religious and political leaders claim to follow is, in fact, the true resistance to American political correctness.

How many hundreds or thousands of acts of violence or war throughout human history have failed to produce, not an interruption between wars, but actual peace? What greater fallacy or fantasy is there than the idea that war leads to peace? What person, leader, community, or country will take the initiative and have the courage and the prophetic imagination to make peace a reality by living peacefully in order to break the cycle of preparing for war, fighting wars, glorifying war, and constructing an economy that is dependent upon the perpetual possibility or presence of war?

The definition of insanity, it has been said, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Do we not continue to reap what we sow? And do we not continue to sow the one crop of war over and over again until the soil of human dignity, integrity, cooperation, compassion, and love are completely depleted? Do we not cultivate militarism, nationalism, and war in this country to the point that weapons of war and war are lucrative exports, that they are big business, that they increase employment, and swell the workforce?

When will we ever learn? Violence is the way to more violence, to agony, resentment, bitterness, vengeance, retaliation, and desecration. Its supposed victories are misnamed, at best, and, at worst, never lasting. Nonviolence—or peace, the making, nurturing, and sustaining of it—is not merely a strategy. It is a conviction, a way of life, a way of being in the world that is grounded in the belief that each and every person is the image of the divine. It is rooted in the golden rule, as well as in the integrity and dignity a person has for oneself. It is anchored not first in the tactical argument “that it works” but rather in the moral and spiritual conviction that it is right, good, just, beneficial to all—and for Christians— aligned with the paschal pattern and mystery of the life and teaching of Jesus. This, we believe, takes precedent over what is expedient, what keeps me or us or the President or a political party on top, ahead, and in control. It takes precedent over what is good for my personal interests, or the interests, status quo, and security of my family, my backyard, my religion, my country, the optimal word always being my (along with I, me, mine).

What of the original divine vision and intention for creation, and what of the commonweal that resides in the heart of God? And what of us, especially, who claim to align ourselves with the dream of God which we pray will become a reality “on earth as it is in heaven”?

Is it the call for peace or the threat of war that is the genesis of peace? Is it the courageous, sacrificial actions of peacemakers that make for peace or is it the glorified, glamorized militaristic actions unquestioningly deemed heroic that make for peace? What would happen if the peace corps or other humanitarian organizations aimed at face-to-face, mutually enhancing relationships and efforts of goodwill among all people were given the same budget, attention, blessing, and acclaim that our military industrial system is given?

There is such a rampant failure of imagination, such a deprivation of character and courage, such a crisis of soul in these vitriolic times of ours among so many who call themselves our leaders, our representatives, or Christians, that it sickens the heart and mind. And yet, are we— “the commoners” or “citizens” or “laity” (and for those who self-identify as do I, “the Christians”)—not equally responsible for America’s shameful redundancy, addiction, and nonchalant acceptance of violence and war? Beware the warped, limited, and hyped understanding of patriotism and heroism promoted by those who peddle its GI Joe and Jane dolls, its ballgames with color guards and flyovers and tug-on-the-heart-string reunions of soldiers and loved ones at midfield and the chants of “USA! USA!” or “We’re No. ! We’re No. 1!” and red, white, and blue blockbuster movies that glorify militarism and perpetuate the favorite, still number one, age-old idolatry. I believe we are culpable. All of us. When will we learn to make peace as readily as we make war, sacrifice for peace as much as we sacrifice for war, love peace as much as we love war?

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

“The past is prophetic
in that it asserts
loudly
that wars are poor
chisels for carving
out peaceful tomorrows” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Fr. Daniel Berrigan said it as well as anyone I know in his Chapter 5 “The Word as Liberation” in his book No Bars to Manhood:

“We have assumed the name of peacemakers, but we have been, by and large, unwilling to pay any significant price. And because we want the peace with half a heart and half a life and will, the war, of course, continues, because the waging of war, by its nature, is total – but the waging of peace, by our own cowardice, is partial. So a whole will and a whole heart and a whole national life bent toward war prevail over the velleities of peace. In every war since the founding of the republic we have taken for granted that war shall exact the most rigorous cost, and that the cost shall be paid with a cheerful heart. We take it for granted that in wartime families will be separated for long periods, that men will be imprisoned, wounded, driven insane, killed on foreign shores. In favor of such wars, we declare a moratorium on every normal human hope – for marriage, for community, for friendship, for moral conduct toward strangers and the innocent. We are instructed that deprivation and discipline, private grief and public obedience are going to be our lot. And we obey. And we bear with it – because bear we must – because war is war, and war good or bad, we are stuck with it and its cost.

But what of the price of peace? I think of the good, decent, peace-loving people I have known by the thousands, and I wonder. How many of them are so afflicted with the wasting disease of normalcy that, even as they declare for the peace, their hands reach out with an instinctive spasm in the direction of their loved ones, in the direction of their comforts, their home, their security, their income, their future, their plans – that five-year plan of studies, that ten-year plan of professional status, that twenty-year plan of family growth and unity, that fifty-year plan of decent life and honorable natural demise. “Of course, let us have the peace,” we cry, “but at the same time let us have normalcy, let us lose nothing, let our lives stand intact, let us know neither prison nor ill repute nor the disruption of ties.” And because we must encompass this and protect that, and because at all costs – at all costs – our hopes must march on schedule, and because it is unheard of that in the name of peace a sword should fall, disjoining that fine and cunning web that our lives have woven, because it is unheard of that good men should suffer injustice or families be sundered or good repute be lost – because of this we cry peace and cry peace, and there is no peace. There is no peace because there are no peacemakers. There are no makers of peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war – at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in its wake. (emphasis mine)

Peace be with you, and with all our human and other-than-human brothers and sisters.

~ Dan