Summer of Hell in Syria |

Read my post of Thursday, July 19 in the blog of CODEPINK: Women for Peace:

Summer of Hell in Syria | PINKtank


'via Blog this'

Bonhoeffer and King

A good book on two of my heroes:

Bonhoeffer and King: Their Legacies and Import for Christian Social Thought edited by Willis Jenkins and Jennifer M. McBride (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010).

The back cover states:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King, Jr. -- these giants of recent Christian social thought are here reassessed for a new context and a new generation. Each combined activism, ministry, and theology. Each professed a kind of Christian realism and ended as a martyr to his respective cause. Here many of of the leading Christian social thinkers of our own day revisit the insights, causes, and strategies that Bonhoeffer and King employed for a new generation and its concerns: race, reconciliation, nonviolence, political violence, Christian theological identity, and ministry. Along with the editors, the illustrious gathering of  theologians, ethicists, and historians includes:  Michael Battle, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Stephen R. Haynes, Charles Marsh, and Glenn Stassen, among others.

 In his essay, "Preaching and Prophetic Witness," Raphael Gamaliel Warnock wrote:

Authentic preaching can only happen when one asks, What does the reality of God's incarnation in Christ demand? As Bonehoeffer says, "The Kingdom of God is not found in some other world beyond, but in the midst of this world ... God wants us to honor God on earth ... and nowhere else. God sinks the kingdom down into the cursed ground." 

This is one reason that I Declare World Peace.

In the Christian Scriptures

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus taught his followers in what has come to be called, The Sermon on the Mount. There he included these words:

"You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. "You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

In the Letter of Paul to the Romans are these words:

Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly;do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." No, "if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. 

The Christ Life

What does “the Christ life” look like? (This is what John’s Gospel calls “eternal life”; I like to call it “the good life”). It is a life of non-violence and one that exposes the myth of redemptive violence. It is a life of grace and goodness, a life of forgiveness and moral strength and courage. It is a life that confronts the false claims and values of “the System” (what John’s Gospel calls “the world” in its delusional and alienated state) and refuses to get sucked into a spiral of bitterness and hate. It is a life committed to compassion and justice for the disenfranchised and most vulnerable among us. It is a life of loving God, loving others, and loving self in healthy and transformational ways. It is a life of balance between joy and sorrow, giving and receiving, suffering and contentment. 
   --the Rev. Chuck Queen in his blog, A Fresh Pespective

Secular Ethics and Disarmament

His Holiness the Dalai Dama has a wonderful book, Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World, that was published in 2011.

In writing about the book, His Holiness has written:


This book may seem strange coming from someone who from a very early age has lived as a monk in robes. Yet I see no contradiction here. My faith enjoins me to strive for the welfare and benefit of all sentient beings, and reaching out beyond my own tradition, to those of other religions and those of none, is entirely in keeping with this.


I am confident that it is both possible and worthwhile to attempt a new secular approach to universal ethics. My confidence comes from my conviction that all of us, all human beings, are basically inclined or disposed toward what we perceive to be good.... In view of this, I am of the firm opinion that we have within our grasp a way, and a means, to ground inner values without contradicting any religion and yet, crucially, without depending on religion.

In his book, the Dalai Lama has a section entitled, "The Futility of War," that that ends this way:

In the remaining years of the twenty-first century, we must ensure that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past. The only way to reduce the level of violence in our world is for more and more people across the globe to consciously adopt a stance of disarmament. Disarmament is compassion in practice. What is required, therefore, is both inner disarmament, at the level of our individual hatred, prejudice, and intolerance, and outher disarmament, at the level of nations and states. Rather than pouring salt on the wounds we have inherited from earlier generations, we must start to heal our divisions by committing ourselves to dialogue, cooperation, and understanding. As the population of the globe continues to grow, and as large nations like China, India, and Brazil race ahead with rapid economic competition for natural resources--not just fossil fuels but also basic necessities like water, food, and land--will inevitably intensify. So it is vital that that our younger generations, the guardians of our future, develop strong awareness of the futility of war. We can learn from the great achievements of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. to recognize that nonviolence is the best long-term approach to redressing injustice. If the twentieth century was a century of violence, let  us make the twenty-first a century of dialogue.


That last sentence seems especially important in this time of wrangling with Iran over its nuclear program.

Defining Peace

Wikipedia Encyclopedia says: “Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the establishment of equality, and a working political order that serves the true interests of all. In international relations, peacetime is not only the absence of war or conflict, but also the presence of cultural and economic understanding and unity.”

Our English word peace is derived from the Latin word pax which was the Vulgate Bible translation for the Hebrew shalom in the Old Testament and Greek eirene in the New Testament. Wikipedia writes:“Shalom, cognate with the Arabic ‘salaam’, has multiple meanings: safety, welfare, prosperity, security, fortune, friendliness. The personalized meaning is reflected in a nonviolent lifestyle, which also describes a relationship between any people characterized by respect, justice and goodwill.” I note that the word shalom especially denotes wholeness, completeness, harmony, and soundness.

May Peace Prevail On Earth!

Obama's Middle East and N. Africa

I have come to believe that my country, the United States of America, is two-faced. We tend to have great values, such as human rights, but tend to act toward other countries, and sometimes against our own people, in a completely contrary manner. I mentioned before that the Native Americans used to say, especially in those "Westerns" of my younger days, that the white man speaks with forked tongue. The Native Americans certainly experienced first hand our contrariness.

In their post for CODEPINK's blog, PINKtank, Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of both CODEPINK and Global Exchange, and Charles Davis, an independent journalist, seem to be saying the same thing about President Obama's major speech on May 20 at the State Department regarding the Middle East and North Africa. We speak of and commend non-violence, but act in a completely different manner.

Here are some excerpts ~

**Given that President Obama daily authorizes the firing of hellfire missiles and the dropping of cluster bombs in places such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen, it was awful odd seeing him wax eloquent this week about the “moral force of non-violence” in places like Egypt and Tunisia. But there he was, the commander-in-chief of the largest empire in history, praising the power of peaceful protest in countries with repressive leaders backed by his own administration.

Were we unfamiliar with his actual policies – more than doubling the troops in Afghanistan, dramatically escalating a deadly drone war in Pakistan and unilaterally bombing for peace in Libya – it might have been inspiring to hear a major head of state reject violence as a means to political ends. Instead, we almost choked on the hypocrisy.

* *Yet even for all his talk of human rights and how he “will not tolerate aggression across borders” – yes, a U.S. president said this – Obama didn’t even feign concern about Saudi Arabia’s repressive regime invading neighboring Bahrain to put down a pro-democracy movement there. In fact, the words “Saudi Arabia” were never uttered.

**The president also didn’t deviate from his policy of “unshakable” support for Israeli militarism, typified by his administration’s efforts to safeguard the Jewish state from accountability for its war crimes in Gaza – crimes that left some 1,400 Palestinians dead – and his determination to hand an already wealthy nation more than $3 billion a year in military aid, even as it flaunts the “peace process” and colonizes ever more Palestinian land. 

**Obama’s remarks on the killing of Osama bin Laden were likewise delivered with a complete lack of self-awareness. Describing the latter as a “mass murderer,” Obama – who since taking office has the blood of hundreds of Afghan and Pakistani civilians on his hands – said bin Laden’s philosophy of using bloodshed to achieve desired political changes had been discredited “through the moral force of non-violence” that has swept the region. 

You can read the full post here:  Obama Should Follow His Own Advice on the ‘Moral Force’ of Non-Violence | PINKtank.


Somehow: May Peace Prevail in the Middle East and North Africa. May Peace Prevail in United States Foreign Policy.

The Not OK Corral

I have been quite taken, shaken by the shootout killing in Tuscon, Arizona on Saturday, January 8.  Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, holding a constituents meeting called, "Congress on Your Corner" at a Safeway (?) supermarket, was critically injured. Six people, including a U.S. judge and a nine-year old girl were killed and several others were injured.

One of the earliest and most impressive commentaries I saw was a blog post/sermon by Fred Hamond, author of the blog, Unitarian Universalist Minister in the South, and a minister in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. His post was entitled, Find the Cost of Freedom.

Here are a couple of excerpts:

This treating others as we would have them treat us is hard work, it seems.  It is far easier to denigrate others, to ostracize others, to refuse to understand the other’s plights.  Yet, we must begin to see that each person is part of who we are as a people.  When one person suffers in our country, we all suffer.  When an injustice is done to one person; injustice is done to all of us.   

...

 To undo the history of our nation’s propensity to violence takes each of us to transform our own hearts towards peace, towards nonviolence in all areas of our lives.  Not just in reducing physical violence against another but also seeking to reduce emotional and spiritual violence towards others.  A harsh word as we have seen can engender physical violence in another. 

I recommend the full post.

May Peace Prevail in Arizona and in the United States! Condolences and prayers regarding the victims and their families.

The Jesus of Christmas

The Rev. Chuck Queen, controversial pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church here in Frankfort, KY (See my previous post here.), has published a rather small Christmas book this year. The book is entitled Shimmers of Light: Spiritual Reflections for the Christmas Season (Eugene, OR: Resource Publications of Wipf and Stock Publishers). Adaptive portions of it are found in his blog, A Fresh Perspective, and have been published in his column in The State Journal of Frankfort.



This Christmas book, unlike so many others, is quite unsentimental and not fluffy at all. Queen writes of the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith and intersperses it with lively illustrative  anecdotes. I really recommend the book which I have enjoyed immensely. Although it is too late for most readers for this season, some might want to purchase it to read next year. For those who follow the Liturgical Year, however, Christmas does not end until January 6. They still have a chance for this year.



Below, I am giving three excerpts that speak especially to the mission of The Peace Advocate. Two of the excerpts are from Queen’s blog postings and one from the book itself. Queen writes:

Luke begins the actual birth story by setting it in the historical context of Emperor Augustus. Caesar Augustus was heralded as the greatest of the emperors. He was born Octavian and was the adopted son of Julius Caesar. Following his father’s assassination a great civil war tore Rome asunder, wrecking havoc on the empire until Octavian defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BCE at the Battle of Actium. He then assumed the position of emperor and became known as Augustus, the Divine (the imperial myth had him being conceived by the gods). Augustus ushered Rome into a great era of peace and stability. He was proclaimed throughout the land—on coins, inscriptions, and temples—as “Son of God,” “Savior of the world,” “Lord of the whole world,” and “God made manifest,” among other titles.

Undoubtedly, Luke is drawing a contrast between the one he believed would occupy the throne of David (1:32), and the one who brought peace to Rome. The peace ushered in by Augustus was a temporary peace, enforced and supported by imperial might that violently subdued all opposition. It was a kingdom maintained by violent power, exercised by the powerful.

How different is the kingdom of the Christ child! He was born, not in pomp and pageantry, but in a humble peasant’s house among the animals. He did not walk among royalty in palace halls, but among the poor, oppressed, diseased, and demonized in the towns and villages of Galilee and Judea. Lowly Jewish shepherds, often despised among their own people, came to honor him, for to them and their kind he had come, bringing hope of a new world where the power of love would take the place of violent force. He did not wield sword or spear and he admonished his followers to love and pray for their enemies. He taught his disciples a nonviolent strategy for asserting their humanity and dignity as children of God under the crushing hands of imperial force. He pronounced blessing on peacemakers, judgment on warmongers, and he challenged all security systems rooted in wealth and control. He is a different kind of king, the viceroy of God’s peaceable kingdom, and he manifested in his life, words, and deeds the character of a forgiven, healed, and restored world. (from the blog here)

- - -

Jesus, empowered by divine love, challenged the powers that be and stood in solidarity with the poor, oppressed, marginalized, and excluded, confronting the gatekeepers of conventional religion and the powerbrokers of the social order. Courageously, he preached, taught, and lived the kingdom of God, and the kingdoms of the world were offended and outraged. (from the blog here)

- -- -

When we abide in God’s love and stand in solidarity with the marginalized, there will be times when we have to swim against the swift current of popular opinion, common cultural values and standards, and corrupt corporate practices, even at the risk of drowning. Those who are compelled by divine love are not only committed to comfort and encourage the hurting, they are also willing, at great personal sacrifice, to challenge and confront the powers that be who are determined to muzzle and immobilize an opposing voice. (from page 69 of the book. Italics are Queen’s.)

Peace On Earth. Goodwill to All. I Declare World Peace.

"Blessed are the Peacemakers"

Note: This post and the previous one are pointing to blog posts by others that fit in very well with the purpose of The Peace Advocate. I am trusting that the authors do not mind the reposts. I am grateful to both authors for their writing. I enjoy reading both blogs.

The Rev. Chuck Queen is pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church here in Frankfort, KY. He writes a paid weekly column on progressive Christianity in our town's newspaper, The State Journal. His columns have provoked quite a conversation in the paper's Letters to the Editor.

This particular post of his speaks to the mission of The Peace Advocate. He speaks of peacemaking and nonviolence from a progressive Christian perspective that needs to be spoken out loud and taken seriously.

See ~

A Fresh Perspective: Blessed are the Peacemakers