CONGREGATION + COMMUNITY NEWS
PEOPLES PRESS
Joyfully Defiant for the Sake of a Just World
A congregation of the United Church of Christ, the Alliance of Baptists &
the American Baptist Churches
“Do to others what you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit does that do you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. If you do good only to those who do good to you, what credit does that do you? Even ‘sinners’ do as much. Love your enemies and do good to them.”
(Luke 6:31-33, 35a, The Inclusive Bible)
We are now seeing the phase in the Israeli/Hamas conflict where the immorality of war is hard to ignore. The UN estimates that 90% of the Palestinian population is displaced. Israeli leaders are pointing to rape and other atrocities committed by Hamas combatants with outrage that the international community does nothing about it. Civilian casualties mushroom as the war drags on. Both sides see the need to spin the headlines so that they can claim the moral high ground. The horrors of war are justified by the moral depravity of the other side. Civilian suffering and death are regrettable, but the moral clarity of the cause allows the continuation of an “all means necessary” approach.
Except….the logic is flawed. The decision to resort to violence (whether “war” is declared or not) ALWAYS produces abuse and escalating retribution. In Act 3, Scene 1 of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Mark Antony is ruminating on the death (by assassination) of Caesar. He plans to avenge the death of Caesar by inciting the crowd that will no doubt gather for the funeral to riot and turn on the assassins, who are well known. He imagines the Greek goddess Ate, the goddess of mischief, delusion, and blind folly who leads humans to ruin, to be on hand to “with a Monarch’s voice cry ‘Havoc!’ and let slip the dogs of war.” Blinded by his anger, and maybe also by the possibility of power for himself, he cannot be bothered with the consideration of the folly of war. “Let it come!” he seems to be saying. “I don’t care.”
It has been said that all of the world’s major religions have The Golden Rule in some form. Most of us know it as “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” (Since we are quoting Shakespeare, the Elizabethan English is appropriate!) It is a direct refutation of the war-enabling attitude of “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” It does not allow us to react with rage and fury, to inflict pain until our blood lust is satisfied, to let the victims exact revenge without restraint. Do to others what you would have them do to you. Once we “cry havoc” and embrace war, we lose any claim we might have had on the moral high ground. Because war is never a moral good. It is a moral failure. Destruction and death are not the means to a noble end, they are the signs that we have sold ourselves to ignoble falsehoods.
The last time war convinced us that we were on the side of good was World War II. There were obvious examples of the enemy’s evil. Concentration Camps, genocide, the bombing of Britain, the attack on Pearl Harbor. But we had to also turn a blind eye to the fire-bombing of Dresden, Churchill’s refusal to negotiate a peace in Europe, and the dropping of atomic bombs on population centers. Some might say those were necessary evils, if they were evils at all. But I would argue that they were the predictable outcomes of “all-out war.” Since then, we have attempted to spin every conflict as a struggle between good and evil, a pitched battled of the forces of democracy against the existential threat of tyranny. (Communism is no longer enough of a threat to qualify as evil). But the bottom line is, once the dogs of war are “let slip,” good and evil have very little to do with it. People die. Lives are destroyed. Hate becomes entrenched and we breed another generation of Hatfields and McCoys.
All of our religious traditions see the folly of this. All of them speak to us of the wisdom of working for peace and justice. All of them provide us with examples of spiritual giants and ordinary folk who found a better way. And all of them give us strategies for making it work. The Golden Rule is just one of them. And yet, we continue to elect and follow leaders who stoke the fires of hate and sow the seeds of mistrust and fear. We put “the button” in front of them and then hope and pray that they won’t push it. How stupid are we?
I think what got me started on this rant was the seeming indifference of all our world leaders to the suffering of the poor and the disenfranchised. I marvel at their blatant disregard of the lessons of the past, and the demands of basic humanity. There is no moral high ground. There is only outrage. There is only military might. There is only “sovereignty.” And we, as citizens, have no stomach for challenging the Powers and those who profit from war.
Well, I can no longer stomach the professed moral outrage of those who choose the path of violence. I will continue to follow the One who brings peace. Amen.
Pastor Davis Sickelka, Interim Pastor
Pastor Dave’s Schedule
Pastor Dave will be in the office on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in December except for Wednesday, December 20. He will be in the office on Friday, Dec. 22nd instead. Always call to make sure he’s around before coming to the office because a pastor’s schedule is always in flux.
If you would like to make an appointment to speak to Pastor Dave in person, please call the church office at (810)767-4911 between 10:00 and 2:00 M-F, or email him at davidsickelka@peopleschurchofflint.org. If you have an urgent need for pastoral care outside of office hours, text or phone (515) 720-6389.
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