peace

“Hamas is a prisoner to a logic of hate; Israel to a logic of faith in force as the best response to hate. One must continue to search for a different way out, even if that may seem impossible.“
–The Vatican

Principles

1. As a PACIFIST, I believe not only that war is evil but that in almost all situations aggressive, creative nonviolence is better able to bring about justice. This is evidenced by numerous movements and even nonviolent coups in the last century.

2. As a CHRISTIAN, I give my allegiance not to any nation-state, but only to the very political entity that is the transnational Body of Christ. Thus the situation in the Middle East (and in every similar scenario) becomes not an issue of 'what countries should get what land?', but rather of 'how do we establish justice and peace for the victims on all sides?'

Application

On December 20th, 2008, I turned eighteen. United States law demands that every male between 18 and 25 register for the Selective Service (aka the draft). This was my 'civic duty'.

I am a pacifist.

I believe that participation in war is essentially incompatible with an attempt to emulate the example of Jesus Christ. Jesus says, 'Blessed are the peacemakers' and 'Love your enemies' and 'Turn the other cheek'. He lived this out in radical subservience (but not obedience) to 'authority', spreading a message that ultimately undermines temporal power; for, to quote N. T. Wright, if Jesus is Lord, then Caesar is not. And Jesus, a King who knows no borders, rules over a Kingdom that exists most fully at the margins of empire

Thus I am a pacifist.

Many will say that nonviolence is not 'practical', not 'realistic'. But the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from his grave after a death by crucifixion was not practical, not realistic. My hope, my life, is in that resurrection. Christ's resurrection renders the impossible, possible; the fantastic, realistic; the idealistic, pragmatic.

If you aren't already familiar with it, I commend Progressive Secretary for your consideration. It's a project started by a retired Quaker activist sometime in the 1990s as a self-funded endeavor. The aim is to counterbalance the flood of organized right-wing letters to legislators, federal and state agencies, and the White House by making it easy for 'progressives' to fire off letters on topics suggested by many different 'progressive' organizations.

For information on the Progressive Letter Writing Cooperative, go to http://www.progsec.org/DynMenu/DynMenu.php. During the maybe 6-8 years I've been using the service, I've sent 4,573 letters, counting copies to multiple addressees, and not counting letters I've written on my own on the same topics.

You can make suggestions for letter topics, with or without your own text. You can also add your own text to their prepared text: "At this time, Progressive Secretary does not have the technology for modifying your letters, but you can add additional text and send them with a unique subject. Click the link below and tell me the text you want to add and or the subject you wish to use.
http://www.ProgSec.Org/a.php?p=QS2qSRHPhSCV

Here's the text of what was in my inbox this morning. It's a sad subject that has come up repeatedly. But the USA has been unresponsive.

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No cluster bombs!

Passing this along:

Never Forget, Always Forgive

By Jarrod Cochran

I, like so many in the United States, will never forget where we were and what we were doing when we heard of the attacks on the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers. I was climbing up a ladder and making entry into a second-story window in my firefighter recruit class. I was but a little over a month in as a recruit for the fire department that I work for and I still knew that the job was forever changed by the events of that day.

We all know the rest of the story. Our country went to war on the pretenses of faulty “intelligence” as a way to exact revenge for the deaths of American citizens on our soil. We lost 2,752 lives that day. According to a report from The Washington Post in October of 2006, the Iraq War death toll had reached 655,000. I would say that our misplaced vengeance has, by simple calculation, been sated about 238 times over. To put that another way, we have killed over two-hundred-thirty-eight times more people in Iraq in 2006 than those who had died in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Joshua Casteel will be the keynote speaker at Pax Christi NJ’s upcoming spring assembly to be held on March 28, 2009 at Felician College in Lodi, NJ. Joshua will also be making himself available for other speaking engagements at the end of March. For more information or to book Joshua contact
Kathy O’Leary 908-273-0751 kathy-wargo@comcast.net

About Joshua Casteel
Joshua is a former interrogator at Abu Ghraib turned conscientious objector and a recent convert to Catholicism. He gave witness at Winter Soldier and traveled to Rome in March of 2007 with the Catholic Peace Fellowship to meet with Pope Benedict XVI and members of the Vatican to advance the issue of conscientious objection. He is featured along with Camilo Mejia and six other CO’s in the documentary Soldiers of Conscience which will air on PBS’s P.O.V. on October 16th.

His book Letters from Abu Ghraib is available on Amazon.com and Small Press Distribution.

Videos of Joshua Casteel

To see Ann Hafften's blogs go to these websites:

Regular notes posted in A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Middle East Peace - http://voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/

Occasional notes posted at Ann Hafften's Web Page - http://annhafften.blogspot.com/

Someone on the Mennonite peace list forwarded this excerpt from a monologue on an NPR radio show.

It aired on the afternoon of the 4th. Original airing was on Memorial Day in 2005. The title of the monologue is "Ode to War and Peace", by Joe Frank.

"There are no medals to peace, no honors, no marching bands, no great
monuments to peace, no hymns sung, no great odes, no martial melodies, no
parades to peace.

"There are no gigantic fireworks displays, no champagne corks popped to peace,
no last cigarette smoked in its honor. There is no night before peace, no
declaration of peace. The very absurdity of a nation declaring peace on another
shocks the imagination.

"And who among us can say that he has heard of the spoils of peace? Is there
such a thing as a peace hero? Who among us have gathered with his old cronies
late at night, hoisted a glass and told peace stories? What valiant young man has
been welcomed back from peace?

"What young boy has gazed longingly at his father, saying that he would willingly
go to peace to save his country?"

Joe Frank has a dark sense of humor, so this excerpt is the close of a satirical piece extolling war, in the vein of Mark Twain's famous story (and prayer), The War Prayer. The lines immediately preceding "There are no medals to peace" are:

U.S. Confession: Weapons were not made in Iran after all.

"In a sharp reversal of its longstanding accusations against Iran arming militants in Iraq, the U.S. military has made an unprecedented albeit quiet confession: the weapons they had recently found in Iraq were not made in Iran at all...."

"In contrast, the Pentagon in August 2007 admitted that it had lost track of a third of the weapons distributed to the Iraqi security forces in 2004/2005. The 190,000 assault rifles and pistols roam free in Iraqi streets today."

See entire article: http://www.campaigniran.org/casmii/index.php?q=node/4886

I would like to propose a most powerful project for Crossleft ... that of coming together in prayer/meditation in which we are all intending the same thing.

The one common denominator we share on Crossleft is that we are disciples of Christ. We may disagree in numerous ways; but, let us rise above the level of disagreements to the level of the "mind that was in Christ Jesus." A Scriptural verse as the basis for joining hands in prayer could be: "[We] can do all things through Him who strengthens [us]." (Philippians 4:13)

Let us lift our conscious awareness above any thoughts that we know what is best for our nation and planet. Only God knows.

Throughout the coming days/nights, whenever we can, let us visualize our nation and planet saturated with the light of God. I like to see white light as the Divine Light of God. Focus your attention on this Light and hold the picture in your mind.

Let us also visualize our nation and planet saturated with the Divine Love of God. I like to see a rose pink color depicting the Love of God. Focus your attention on this Love and hold the picture in your mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Why do this? Our nation and planet is permeated with mind controlling energies, subliminal messages, and harmful frequencies that disrupt the natural vibrations of nature and people. They are destroying us and this planet.