I came across this today and felt like posting it, particuuarly as our country continues in its warring posture and stands on the precipice of another engagement.
We call a poor man “Lord” and in his name determine friends and enemies on the basis of who has oil for us.
We call “Lord” a man who told us to love our enemies but in his name make enemies to promote our values.
We call a peaceful man “Lord” and then favor those who divide in order to conquer.
We call “Lord” the one who gave us a vision for life that will not succumb to broken realities and we chose instead to use pragmatic justifications.
Why do we call him “Lord” and not do as he says?
Yoder's, The Priestly Kingdom, 195. (HT - Jesus Creed)
I don't usually put a lot of political stuff on here, but I do post stuff that relates to peace and how to live lives of shalom. Here is a quote at the first Republican debate from the "crazy" Ron Paul about the war in Afghanistan.
"[Bin Laden] wasn't caught in Afghanistan. Nation-building in Afghanistan and telling those people how to live and getting involved in running their country hardly had anything to do with finding the information where he was being held in a country that we give billions of dollars of foreign aid to, at the same time we are bombing that country."
"So it's the policy that is at fault. Not having the troops in Afghanistan wouldn't have hurt. We went to Afghanistan to get him, and he hasn't been there. Now that he's killed, boy, it is a wonderful time for this country now to reassess it, get the troops out of Afghanistan and end that war that hasn't helped us and hasn't helped anybody in the Middle East."
If you ask me, we need more "crazy" like this.
What do you think? Do you think a protracted U.S. effort in Afghanistan has helped or hindered peace. Now that Bin Laden is dead, is there warrant for the U.S. to stay? Do you agree with Paul in his assertions that the U.S. is too preoccupied with "Nation Building?"
Matthew 5:9 (The Message) "You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.
My theology was shaken this week. Spending time in Thailand and India, I was able to walk through red light districts and peer into the eyes of women who had been shoved into the sex trade as young as 10 years old. Many American Christians love to preach a Christian gospel that promises happiness and health. How does our faith speak to such things?
I have have been in an anti-war posture for some time now. There seem to be endless milatary engagements while our country literally goes bankrupt. I have serious questions about our foreign policy theologically and econmically.
Here is a Q essay that attempts at an even handed view of our latest embroilment in Libya.
What do you think of a non-violent approach to life and
faith?
I have been fascinated by how many people were so against
war when Bush was in office but are strangely silent now that their candidate is
the president (a note for the reader – I did not vote for Bush or Obama in the
last election).It was an outrage
for "peace" voters when G.W. pressed for continued military intrusion into other parts of the world, but now
it is somehow justifiable.If it
was outrageous then, what makes it different now?There is no difference in policy that I can see.I must admit, my own attitudes and thoughts
about war are changing.I find
myself more and more attracted to an Anabaptistic ethic.I seriously want to figure out how to
be pro-life…completely pro-life.I
don’t think I want to be involved in killing anybody – unborn babies or my enemy.I want to be counted among the
peace-makers.
Here is a short video that I watched this morning that
rattled me a bit.Got it from my
local and blogging friend Eric Blauer.http://fcb4.tumblr.com/
Robi and I had lunch with a woman
yesterday who had visited our church who is a refugee from Iraq. What
ensued was a fascinating conversation about her perspective of the war in her
land. As is the case every time this type of interaction happens, my paradigms
are stretched (sometimes exploded). Being a cool purple church, I
was taken aback by her unapologetic pro-war talk (in my world it is rare to
find someone of that ilk – most in our world are de facto Bush haters).
She talked of the increased freedom for the church in Iraq that has been a
by-product of the war. According to her, before the war there were no
evangelical churches allowed in Baghdad and now there are like nineteen of
them. In fact, she spoke of one Baptist group who are actually officially
approved by the government. She also informed me that Muslims in Iraq are
thrilled about the possibility of an Obama presidency (maybe more on that
later)
I concluded the conversation with the
realization that I just don’t get it…that it is difficult to make sense of
stuff in the midst of all the swirling info that we have to digest. The
point is, for me at least, I must move forward with humility on this Middle
Eastern thing, because I simply don’t have the internal mechanisms to completely
understand the nuances of that part of the world. There are so many
emotions that live near the surface when Americans talk about the war and our
involvement.
In addition to that, conversations like
these conjure up the tension of trying to navigate how my theology interacts
with a globe that has such a dissimilar worldview.
With these thoughts in mind, this
morning I was reading one of my favorite prayer books (by Brueggemann).
It was a prayer for those suffering in the world due to political corruption and
violence. The prayer helped inch me toward a posture that is hopefully
both humble and theological. Here is a section from that prayer/poem
entitled, “Teach Us to Weep”:
And we feebly watch for you and wait.
Teach us how to weep while we wait,
And how to hope while we weep,
And how to care while we hope…
With the endless power grabs of our
world…with the unending death of real people (brothers and sisters, sons and
daughters) because of decisions made by those powerful from safe location…with
the confusion of peoples who don’t get each other, I want to work hard to
maintain a Jesus position. I don’t want to simply become unfeeling or
callous because it is happening somewhere else. I want to remain
sensitive enough to weep over the pain and devastation of the other, to hope
for something better for them/us and to care enough to both speak and
act in tangible ways for justice.
Walter Brueggemann: The Prophetic Imagination, 2nd Edition I love Brueggemann's thoughts and writing. I read this book years ago and just finished reading it again with my Theo-Reading Group. One of the most helpful books on discerning how the prophetic works both biblically and practically. (*****)
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