Prayer
Vigil for Peace
Charlotte
General Assembly
Richard
L. Hamm
10/20/03
There could be no more urgent moment in our nation's history for us to be
in engaged in a dialogue regarding our purpose and calling as a nation
and as American Christians. But there are two things that make this dialogue
difficult that I wish to mention.
First, many
people are understandably, but unreasoningly, frightened by
the change in our nation and world. The events of September
11 were of immense proportions....I do not wish to minimize
them. It was frightening and disorienting to us all, but particularly
frightening to Americans who have never traveled overseas,
or who have not understood or thought about globalization,
or who do not have friends or associates who are of a color
or ethnicity different than their own, or who believed that
friendly borders and two oceans would forever protect us from
the rest of the world.
The Cold War
was incredibly dangerous, but relatively simple. Two superpowers
were in competition on a number of different levels: philosophically,
economically and politically. Now there is but one super-power
and this carries with it its own dangers! Americans are a people
who want to be loved by the world and so many of us just can't
understand why we are the subjects of such anger in so many
places and especially within certain quarters of the Muslim
and Arab worlds. In the face of such change and confusion,
many people are taking a hard turn to the right.... attempting
to nail down everything that even looks like it might be loose......to
grab onto the concrete......to be certain. But fear and dialogue
do not go together easily!
The second
thing that makes dialogue difficult right now, in my opinion,
is that there is a small group of ideologues running our nation's
foreign and domestic policy who are exploiting this desire
for certainty, this turn to the right. Our government has,
in some ways, been pandering to our collective feeling of being
scared little kids, demanding our own way in a big scary world.
But now, in the face of what is happening in Iraq, we are all
beginning to see that the world today is a place for adults...not
schoolyard bullies!
This administration
has slammed the door on the leaders of the mainline denominations,
perhaps because the President knows we disagree with many of
his policies. What concerns and offends me more, however, is
the fact that he would not even receive a delegation of his
own bishops! This makes dialogue with our government difficult.
I
love James Russell Lowell's poem, "Once to every man and nation comes
the moment to decide.... in the strife of truth with falsehood
for the good or evil side." Our moment to decide has
now arrived. We have a choice to make.
I believe that
it is today being determined what kind of future this planet
will have, or perhaps whether it will have a future. To be
sure, there are always struggles, always important decisions
to be made. Some of us had to make decisions about the Viet
Nam War. Some of us had to make decisions about the Civil Rights
Movement. All of us are now having to make decisions about
where we stand on issues around justice and the environment.
And these are each important issues. But this generation is
now confronted with the ultimate question, and the answer we
give will not only determine what kind of nation we will be,
but what kind of world we are going to live in.
Are
we going to be a nation that lives out the neo-conservative
vision:
a nation that unilaterally decides how things should be
and then shapes the world in its own image through the
use of
military power; a nation that is drawing lines in the sand
one after
another? A nation that ignores treaties and the United
Nations Charter we helped to write? A nation that enforces
a vision
for the world that looks less like justice and more like "just
us?
Or are we going
to be a nation that seeks to serve God's vision of shalom,
peace with justice, a vision that values diversity rather than
responding to diversity with xenophobia? A nation that understands
that it must not act like a schoolyard bully but that it has
responsibilities in the world....responsibilities to help people.
Maybe
our problem goes back to Pearl Harbor. I have heard all
my life
that "we
must remember the lessons of Pearl Harbor." Yes, we should.
The problem is that I think many of us misunderstood the lesson.
The lesson was not, "Maintain a military so strong
that no one can ever possibly mount a war against you,
a military
so strong that you can impose a Pax Americana on the world,
a military so strong that you can fight two or three wars
at the same time!
The lesson
of Pearl Harbor is that isolationism is provocative. It is
active, constructive and humble engagement in the world that
nurtures peace and justice. When the United States turns in
on itself..... as it did in the 1930's......When the United
States turns in on itself and ignores the rest of the world,
except to exploit it economically, we breed enemies.....enemies
so resentful that they are willing to fly airliners into our
buildings!
Thomas Jefferson
said to avoid foreign entanglements....good advice when you
are a nation of little power and a few states as we were when
he said it......but when you are the most powerful nation on
earth.....you cannot remain isolated from the rest of theworld.
Today we have a responsibility to be engaged in the world,
humbly and constructively.
If, as Alexander
Campbell believed, America was chosen by God, then, like ancient
Israel, it was chosen for service. But like ancient Israel,
we keep getting confused about this...we keep falling into
arrogance and, just like Israel, keep thinking we are called
to rule!
Now, friends,
many of us are angry about the gap between our nation's ideology
and its actions. Some of us cry when we try to sing the National
Anthem because of the grief we feel for the loss of an idealized
view of America, a view that got lost somewhere between the
4th grade and today, somewhere between Selma and Saigon.
And, let's
admit it, sometimes this anger and grief gets mixed in with
other angers and griefs we bear and it comes out feeling and
looking like arrogance. No matter where we stand on the issues,
we must deal with our arrogance..... or we will have nothing
to contribute to the dialogue. This is a spiritual issue......and
this is one of the foremost reasons why prayer must be a key
part of strategy.
So, what do
we need to do, besides pray?
Resolutions
are fine, but they bounce off our government like bullets off
Superman! Politicians know that mainline church leaders and
assemblies seldom reflect the thinking of most of the people
in our pews. It is an informed and empowered membership that
is the key!
Most of us
here tonight are church leaders and we cannot assume that our
members will understand or absorb our world view, or our points
of view, by osmosis. Jerry Falwell figured all this out twenty
years ago, but we seem to be slow learners.
So, first,
we must equip our people to understand the world through a
lens of Christian social ethics rather than through the lens
of mere fundamentalism, fear, or perceived self-interest. We
must help our people understand neo-colonialism and America's
part in it, we must help them understand the difference between
charity and justice.
It is not enough
to encourage our members to volunteer at the food bank! If
they are not educated in the systemic aspects of poverty and
racism in this country, they will not understand what they
see coming through the Food Bank door. In fact, they will simply
see what they expect to see and thus will have their own prejudices
reinforced!
A marvelous
way to equip our folks is to get them overseas or downtown
in a setting far removed from their everyday experience. But
again, it is essential that they be prepared for what they
are going to see and experience....otherwise they will simply
see what they expect and their own preconceived notions will
be reinforced.
Most of the
people in our pews have a lifetime of acculturation that causes
them to see the world through the same old American eyes of
arrogance. They have no tools, no framework though which to
see the world differently. First, we must equip our people
to understand the world through a lens of Christian social
ethics.
Second,
we must encourage our people to engage in the political
processes of our nation.....those precious political processes
that
are what our wars are supposed to be about. By participating
in
the political processes they have the opportunity to hold
our government accountable to those marvelous truths we
hold self-evident,
that "all people are created equal."; to hold our
society accountable to the high ideal of "liberty and
justice for air, to hold our political leaders accountable
to making our foreign policy, as well as our domestic policy,
congruent with "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Bruce Springsteen
recently said this: "The question of whether we were misled
into the war in Iraq isn't a liberal or conservative or Republican
or Democratic question, it's an American one. Protecting the
democracy that we ask our sons and daughters to die for is
our responsibility and our trust. Demanding accountability
from our leaders is our job as citizens. It's the American
way. So may the truth win out."
All I can
say is, "OK, Bruce! You're the Boss!" The Bush
Administration led us into Iraq, but it is no less the
responsibility of Democrats
who failed to effectively raise red flags!
"Once
to every generation and nation comes the moment to decide....in
the strife of truth with falsehood for the good or evil side." Our
moment to decide has now arrived. We have a choice to make.
So my friends,
as we find ourselves standing before this great choice about
what kind of world this will be, let us choose life. Let us
together seek peace and share in prayer with brothers and sisters
around the globe, "what 'ere their race (or creed) may
be," to make real a world of peace and justice!
