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People of the Book

Monday, September 24th, 2007

“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matt 5:44-45

This is Jesus at His most radical and challenging. It isn’t enough to love our neighbors as ourselves. We also have to love our enemies, those that actually seek to do us harm. It is clearly only God’s job to figure out who is evil and who is good. It is our job to be grateful to those we fear or hate because they are the ones who help us discover our bias and weakness. If we strive to be perfect, this is how we’re going to get there.

As far as our attitude to Muslims is concerned, we have a long way to go.

I read a disturbing letter to the editor in the Toledo Blade. It was in response to an column by a Toledo Muslim regarding the Christian myopia which seems to affect our foreign policy and re-enforce the notion that our Christian nation is really out to defeat Islam rather than just responding to attacks from bin Laden.

There is a frightening ignorance in this country of Islam. It is this ignorance which some politicians and fundamentalists have used to demonize all Muslims. It is also this ignorance which causes fear in those who distrust what they don’t know. This is just as wrong as when we try to blame illegal immigrants, African Americans, Japanese, Germans, Jews, or the Irish for all our problems.

Islam is a beautiful religion of devotion and commitment. If more Christians could get past their pride and self-righteousness, they would find this out on their own. Islam means surrender. Devout Muslims surrender their life to God in ways that Christians only imagine. The daily prayer and prostration to Jerusalem is part of this process of demonstrating obedience as well as piety. The only analogy I can come up with in Christianity is kneeling, but it is so much more than that. I can tell you with no need to check the statistics, that there are way more Muslims on their knees in prayer every day than Christians, yet there is still the sense in this country that Muslims are primitive and violent.

Much has been made of the position of women in some Muslim societies. The reality is that both the Koran and the Bible have been used to subjugate women. There are many Christian religions where women have an institutionalized subservient role. There are also modern Muslim countries where women participate in all aspects of the economy in much the same ways as they do in this country. I would submit that this is a cultural issue and not a religious one.

Detroit has a large Muslim population. Some cities and schools responding to that demand have added features to public facilities to wash hands and feet in preparation for prayer. In my mind this is no different than adding changing tables or handicapped facilities to rest rooms. It is the sort of loving response to individual needs that one would expect from a open free society. It’s also a practical solution to the challenges posed by Muslims trying to use public sinks for this purpose. Instead conservatives have latched onto this as just another example of soft-headed liberalism. The thought goes, “How can we be accommodating Muslims in this country when we are waging a war against them in the Middle East?” or “Why are we spending money to make it easier for Muslims to pray when we can’t spend money to support Christian prayer in public schools?”

The Koran, on the other hand, teaches tolerance and respect for all of the world’s religions. That respect includes prohibiting evangelizing those who already have committed to another religion. Those that come to Islam, have to come of their own free will. The Koran has a wonderful term for Jews and Christians. We are “People of the Book”. They have much more respect for the Bible than we do the Koran. They view us brothers and sisters because we have the same father.

Only argue with the People of the Book in the kindest way — except in the case of those of them who do wrong — saying, “We have faith in what has been sent down to us and what was sent down to you. Our God and your God are one and we submit to Him” (29:46).

The Koran also counsels against aggression of any sort. Muslims are instructed to strike only after they have been struck. Only when they are so threatened that their life may be at risk do they have the choice of being aggressive. Then they are encouraged to fight whole heartedly. When the opponent surrenders, however, Muslims are obliged to accept whatever terms are offered without negotiation, embrace their enemy, and seek as quickly as possible a return to peaceful existence.

These basic Muslim teachings have obviously been perverted by fundamentalism. So has Christianity. All of the worlds great religions grew in response to violence and found their voice in offering people an alternative to the endless cycle of revenge and retaliation. It was their intent to remove violence from society. Fundamentalism, however, seeks to distort these teachings and divides the world between believers and non-believers. This view justifies violence in the misguided cause of defending the faith.

Just as no one person speaks for all Christians, no one person speaks for all Muslims. One of the common myths is that Muslims have not condemned the excesses of extremism in their religion. Just as Christian leaders have condemned violence at abortion clinics and gay bars, muslim leaders around the world have condemned the violence directed at the United Stated by bin Laden inspired forces.

The sooner that we condemn this notion that we are engaged in a conflict between good and evil or Christianity and Islam, the sooner that we will be able to embrace the notion that the Koran and the Bible provide all of the guidance we need to solve this conflict. All we are lacking is leaders with the humility and obedience to actually follow the teachings in the books they claim to defend.

It may well be that God will restore the love between you and those of them who are now your enemies. God is All-Powerful. God is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful (60:7).

Posted in Bias, Politics, Religious Conservatism, Terrorism | 4 Comments »

Sounding Brass

Thursday, September 13th, 2007

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” I Cor 13:1

When I heard the President speak tonight, this bible quote came to mind. I have no doubt that he is sincere, but sincerity without love (charity) is hollow and self serving.

The President has confirmed in his speech tonight what we already knew. We are going to have pretty much the same number of troops in Iraq through the end of his Presidency as we had prior to the surge – whether we like it or not. What we also can surmise from the Democrats is that this is just fine with them. They would like to have this issue to run on in November, 2008.

As many have already said, the troop withdrawals are just a bit of kabuki theatre. We have to bring those troops home because we have already extended their deployments in order to create the troop surge. So whether things were getting better or not, they would be coming home.

It is certainly good news for those that are coming home and all of our prayers go with them for their safe return.

It is also good news for those areas of Iraq who are experiencing a short respite from the fighting.

As far as the strategy is concerned, there is really not a whole lot there.

What is happening on the ground is that Iraq is partitioning itself and preparing for the coming civil war. There are very few multi-ethnic areas of the country left. We and the British are helping in that process by turning over control to the local militias, paying the local leaders for their cooperation, and in some cases actually arming them. We are also bringing back those who were in positions of power during Saddam’s government because they know how to run the country. Unfortunately they also are hated by the Shia. If you are interested in more insight on this prediction, listen to the interview of Tom Ricks on Fresh Air. He has been one of the few who has been consistently right in predicting what is going to happen next.

The reason why the Iraq government hasn’t made much progress is because there is no progress to be made. They are positioning themselves for the day when the real fighting begins and everything else is just lip service to attempt to get the most money out us before we leave.

That fighting will begin sometime in 2009 as the new Democratic president begins to draw down our troops to a level where we can no longer effectively keep the factions apart. When the real fighting starts, we will be forced to remove the rest of our troops to keep them out of harms way. We will likely try to keep troops in the region in order to prevent the conflict from spreading, but our influence at that time will depend on what is going on in Iran, Syria, and Israel. Since Israel just bombed Syria, it’s not looking real good for the home team right now.

Though this may seem frightening enough, what is really frightening is the suggestion that President Bush may also launch a strike against Iran before he leaves office. I know it sounds crazy, but there was a report to day of an Iranian supplied missile landing in the Green Zone in Baghdad. That’s the same sort of PR that led up the original invasion of Iraq. What would happen after that hit the fan is anyone’s guess.

Prayer is always an effective tool when faced with circumstances as bleak and hopeless as these seem. It is comforting to know that God is the only wisdom and power and that all creation including world leaders reflect that wisdom as part of their spiritual nature. That’s at least what I’m working on these days.

Posted in Politics, Terrorism | 12 Comments »

Strength in Numbers

Tuesday, September 11th, 2007

“And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” II King 6:15-17

This is a great bible story. The king of Syria was trying to destroy Israel. But every time he felt he had the Jewish army cornered, they escaped. In his frustration, he asked his advisors to find out who the spy was in his midst because that was the only explanation he could come up with for the uncanny ability of Jews to anticipate his every move. What his advisors discovered is that the Jewish generals were depending on the advice of Elisha, who prayed to God for guidance. The Syrian king figured he could fix this problem in a hurry and sent an elite group of warriors to surround this Elisha guy and kill him. When Elisha’s servant woke to find them surrounded, he was concerned for his life. Elisha, however, knew that there was no material power that could oppose the spiritual power that protected him and demonstrated that to his fearful servant. Ultimately the powerful Syrian army was defeated.

Six years after the attacks of September 11 in New York and Washington, we’re in a similar situation. Unfortunately we seem to be in the role of the King of Syria with bin Laden in the role of Elisha.

I don’t want this to turn into a rant on God visiting punishment on sinners. That’s not the way that I look at the world.

What I do see, however, is that our leaders have used the fear of another attack to manipulate the American people into viewing ourselves as vulnerable. What that fear specifically suggests is that our values and our freedoms are what make us vulnerable. The convoluted argument suggests that in order to maintain our way of life, we have to give up our way of life.

For example, the fact that individuals have basic rights to privacy and the presumption of innocence in this country does in fact make it more difficult for government to identify those that may want to do us harm. As a result, we’ve agreed to allow our government to spy on our own citizens, ignore the basic principles of legal due process, and even use torture to coerce information from prisoners.

We are so fearful of our enemies that we have willingly abandoned many of the ideals of freedom and law that we claim our enemies are trying to take away from us. The result is wonderfully paradoxical because in the process of protecting ourselves from this chimera, we are in fact making our enemy stronger in the eyes of the world.

I’m not suggesting that there isn’t a threat in the world or that there aren’t people who wish to do us harm. What I am saying is that this threat is an ideological one and not a military one. We are losing the war against bin Ladenist Islam because we view it as a physical battlefield where those with the best bullets and soldiers will win. As many experts have already said, this is a conflict where we will not be able to kill our way to victory.

Just as Elisha knew that all power comes from God, we have to realize that this is still true today. This conflict is not about bullets, it is about culture and ideas and ultimately the ability to demonstrate that you can live up to your ideals.

The first step to victory is to recognize that we aren’t going win minds and hearts through force (this one is particularly hard for conservatives to grasp). The second is to realize that the Muslim world views this as a conflict between Christianity and Islam. It is actually a conflict between fundamentalism and modernism. Until we are able to alter that mindset, even our military presence in the Middle East that we feel sends a message of strength, actually re-enforces a deep seated fear in Muslims that is at least as powerful as our fear of terrorists. Before we can begin to correct this misconception in the Muslim world, we have to overcome the fundamentalist view in this country that this is a struggle between good and evil.
Christian and Islamic fundamentalists actually have a lot in common. Just like fundamentalists in this country yearn for a revisionist golden age of American piety, bin Ladenist Muslims aspire to a new golden age of Islamic empire. Both are dangerous fiction when allowed to drive public policy. We’ve already seen that fundamentalist Islamic states quickly erode into dictatorial prison camps, but we haven’t given the Islamic world a very attractive alternative. Our self righteous adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan have done nothing to reassure Muslims that we can be trusted. Much to the contrary, we’ve demonstrated that we are the brutish, arrogant, morally corrupt thugs that bin Laden says we are.

Finally, the Muslim world is not going to take us or any other western nation seriously until we engage completely in solving the conflict over Israel.

Democratic pluralistic progressive open societies are the way forward. Countries where mutual respect, accommodation, and equal opportunity are the norms will ultimately starve terrorist movements of new recruits. Those countries attract investment and create hope in their populations. You don’t have to look any further than Northern Ireland to see the progression from stability, to investment, to economic prosperity, to reconciliation.

That’s where we have an opportunity to lead and that’s how we are going to win. In order to regain the world’s respect, however, we have to start walking the talk, just like Elisha did. We can win as long as we are true to our ideas and values and show the world that we will not waver even when we appear to be threatened. That’s because those ideas and values that we hold dear reflect those of our Creator who is the source of all power.

Posted in Politics, Religious Conservatism, Terrorism | No Comments »

Facts or Fears

Friday, July 6th, 2007

In his 4^th of July speech, President Bush said that we have to keep fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan in order to prevent terrorism at home.

While I agree that we need to keep fighting in Afghanistan since that’s where bin Laden is hiding, Iraq is a much more complicated story. I feel that Mr. Bush is doing a disservice to the American people when he simplifies the mission in Iraq to “preventing terrorist attacks at home”.

Since we can’t depend on the President to explain our current Iraq strategy, we have to look to history and other sources to get a better sense of what we are trying to accomplish in Iraq. The President’s justification for more troops was based on a two part plan. In the first part, our military was going to attempt to reduce the level of violence (sectarian and otherwise) in Iraq so that the moderate voices in the country could begin acting without fear of reprisal. The second part, which is just as important as the first, depends on Iraq. While our military works to create a less dangerous environment, the leaders in Iraq are supposed to be working out the power and money sharing compromises which will give the current warring factions some reasons to stop killing each other. While we have seen some progress on the first part, we have seen very little progress on the second. That’s why the original benchmark date of September to evaluate progress is going to pass with very little to show.

Mr. Bush has also said that he wants to keep politics out of the war, but our military leaders have a very different view. According to Thomas Ricks, the New York Times correspondent on Iraq and the author of Fiasco, the military are hoping that there WILL be an active debate in this country to select an exit strategy. The army is evaluating all options, but believes it is the responsibility of our political leaders to choose which strategy to follow. For example, what do we do if we are able to create some short-term stability but the Iraqi government doesn’t make progress toward building a viable coalition? Hopefully that debate can begin before we have a new president.

I also hope that the American people will reject the scare tactic of predicting that fighting in Iraq is somehow preventing terrorists attacks at home. If there is any connection, it is exactly the opposite. According to our own spy agencies, our fighting in Iraq creates MORE terrorists than if we weren’t there. Bin Laden, for example, was trained in Afghanistan during the Russian invasion. If there is any good news, however, those folks aren’t coming here. They are going to go back to their own countries, or other Middle East countries where they feel they have family or religious ties, and use their new skills to try to bring about political change there.

The terrorist attacks that ARE occurring outside the Middle East are being carried out by folks living in those countries, in most cases native born citizens.

If we have another attack in the US, it’s going to be carried out by our citizens, not some wild-eyed jihadist fresh from the battlefields in Iraq.

So, though the war in Iraq may be used as justification for home-grown terrorist attacks, the actual fighting in Iraq does precious little to make us safer. We stop terrorist attacks here by reducing the conditions in this country that produce disenfranchised hateful people. We reduce those conditions at home by offering everyone the economic opportunities to build a better life for their families and the feeling that they have a say in the policies of their government. We reduce those conditions abroad by returning to the moral high ground in our foreign policy. Beyond that, we have to be vigilant, honest, and realistic.

It took almost twenty years to capture Ted “Unabomber” Kaczynski. We still haven’t captured those responsible for the anthrax poisonings in 2001. There is still a John Doe #2 suspect at large from the Oklahoma Federal Building bombing twelve years ago.

The honest truth is that there is no practical way to defend ourselves from every individual who is crazy enough to kill others to prove a point. Those who suggest that the war in Iraq (or any war anywhere) can do that are mendacious or delusional.

Posted in Politics, Terrorism | No Comments »

Humility Memorial

Sunday, May 27th, 2007

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Proverbs 3:5

This particular Bible verse is a favorite of mine.

I leaned on it heavily during one of the more difficult times in my life.

As a country, we’re going through a difficult patch right now too and could benefit from remembering our need for humility.

As we honor those who have served our country in the past, we also have to cherish those who are serving today. We’ve put almost 200.000 brave men and women in harms way in a foreign country. We’ve asked them to fight a war which we started under what we now know to be false pretenses. They have engaged what they thought were the enemy, but in the process we have radicalized a country, weakened ourselves, and strengthened the real enemy (bin ladist Islam).

Those who support this path of action claim that victory is just a matter of will. With more patience and commitment, they claim, we will achieve our goals in Iraq. I don’t think that it is a question of will. I think it is a question of understanding.

I just heard an interesting comment on NPR by a Chaplain Major John Morris who has served in Iraq.

“In this fight, which we call the global war on terrorism, we say that we understand that the people we’re fighting are motivated by an ideology that’s rooted in an aberrant view of a religion. It’s a great line. But I’ve often had to really be forceful with commanders that, ‘You don’t understand. These people are tapping into something in a spiritual realm. And if you fail to take it seriously, it doesn’t matter how long we fight, we will not defeat them.’”

“We’re in a war. But this is a war where you can’t kill enough people to win because this has a spiritual motivation to it. You’ve got to have more tools than kinetic energy. And that’s how I talk to commanders because they understand kinetic energy as firing of a weapon system.

That means we have to take seriously religious leaders. We have to take seriously the religious worldview of people. We have to think that when we fire that weapon and we miss, that round goes somewhere. And when it hits somebody else that’s innocent, it has a ripple effect on a culture that takes seriously life and death, clan and family. That when we search mosques, it has an impact, whether the mosque was used as an armory, which I often saw that it was, or not. There is an impact.”

I don’t think that the American people have as clear a view as Major Morris, but what they do grasp is that the current strategy is fatally flawed. I’m not sure that the American people understand what we should do next, but they do understand that we have to change what we are doing now.

As Major Morris said, this is not a war that we are going to win with bullets and soldiers and the sooner we realize this, the sooner we will be able to starting doing what we as a country do best. We are the best at giving those with good ideas an opportunity to be successful. We are the best at providing families an opportunity to build a better life for their children. We are the best at assimilating immigrant cultures into our own.

We will win the war against fundamentalist Islam by figuring out how to solve the fundamentalist strife in our own country. That is going to come from prayer and the realization that what we have in common is far more important that what we have in difference. Then we have to take those lessons of loving our neighbor as ourselves and apply them globally. When we accomplish that, we will wake one morning to find that our enemies have disappeared because they have become us and we them.

“Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.” Isa. 41:11-12

Happy Memorial Day

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Life Choice

Wednesday, April 18th, 2007

I have been thinking a lot about the recent events at Virginia Tech.

There are a lot of different ideas floating around in the soup of public thought. There are those who are concerned about the volatile mixture of firearms and easy access to college campuses. We’ve turned many of our high schools into limited access “green zones” in an effort to create a safer space. The whole concept of a limited access college campus seems to fly in the face of an open forum for exploration and the free exchange of ideas.

There are also those who are concerned about immigrants and willing to blame this incident on foreigners. That is understandable, but also short sighted. This country has gone through several waves of xenophobia. The resulting restrictions didn’t make the country any safer. In hindsight, the Japanese internment camps, for example, were an embarrassment to a democratic society that claims to believe in the rights of the minority and the rule of law. The vast majority of our citizens are here because someone came here from some other country. The great strength of this country is the fact that the American dream that attracted our forbearers still works today. Those who come here to pursue that dream are the ones who are building our country’s future.

Finally there are those who are concerned about how to deal with the disaffected, disturbed, or otherwise isolated individuals in our society who may at some time try to harm others. This is not so different from the discussion that we should close the borders and lock up all of the foreigners. Just substitute those with mental or physical challenges and you have pretty much the same thing. The Supreme Court is trying to decide, for example, whether it is constitutional to execute the mentally incompetent. As the parent of a special needs child, I can tell you that blessings come in all different sorts of packages. The more unique the package, the more special the blessing.

At the end of the day, it is all about fear. For those who don’t believe in God, it is the fear that man is unpredictable, life is fragile, and everyone is at risk. For those who believe in a loving God, that fear has its foundation in the thought that there can be an evil power at work in the world that is greater than God.

What comes to mind is the story about the Gaderene man in Mark and Luke. He was out of his mind, violent, could not be bound, lived in the graveyard, and everyone was afraid of him. Everyone, that is but Jesus, who healed him. He healed him by driving out all of the thoughts (characterized as devils) that this man had about himself that prevented him from acting in a more civilized way. The healing was so dramatic that people from the town rushed out to see what had happened. What they saw was a new man sitting by the fire “in his right mind”. They were terrified because they had a lot invested in the “old” man too, and it was difficult for them to accept any other reality. Gadarene has now come to mean anyone who rushes to their own destruction in a panic.

We have the same choice today.

In our fear and panic, we can look at the situation in Virginia and only see a deranged, violent, murderer. In accepting that, however, we also have to accept a bunch of random innocent victims and a God who doesn’t care or is powerless to do anything about it.

Those who trust in God’s power and His love have another choice. It’s the same choice that Jesus made. We can reject popular opinion, and work to see the same perfect child of God in Virginia that Jesus saw in the Gadarene hills. Allowing ourselves to see this man also frees us to see those children and all children forever secure in the embrace of their Creator. Finally, this healing view confirms that God is an ever present help in trouble and available to all who seek His comfort.

I know that some of you are skeptics and wonder what the point is. But those folks from the village were skeptics too. They weren’t going to believe until they saw it themselves and even then didn’t understand it and were afraid of this new world. I’m simply reminding you that you have a choice about what sort of world you would like to live in too.

“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” Deut 30:19

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Excess of Evil

Friday, February 9th, 2007

“Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity:” Hab 1:13

When we talk about people like bin Laden and the al-Qaeda movement that he has created, we aren’t really talking about a man. Clearly our efforts since 9/11 have marginalized this one man’s tactical ability to train, organize, and direct a force of people.

The reason why bin Laden still seems to have power in the world is because he is the prophet for a particular philosophy. It is his fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran and that it resonates with other people that gives him the appearance of power. The fact that this philosophy appears to inspire people to kill themselves isn’t the issue, nor is it particularly new. The history of religious, political, and philosophical movements are filled with accounts of individual sacrifice for the higher goal. What’s disturbing here is that these “martyrs” are turning themselves into weapons, targeting innocent civilians, and seeking to extract the maximum disruptive value from their terrorist acts. It’s this particular terrorist twist on martyrdom that ends up defining this philosophy as evil.

So, at least in my mind, the issue isn’t so much what we do about bin Laden because he could die tomorrow and his philosophy would continue. The question is how we deal with evil in the world.

BTW, I don’t intend to suggest with this characterization of bin Ladist Islam that he or his followers bear all of the blame. Our government’s middle east policies and our appetite for oil clearly help create the set of circumstances which allow this evil idea to take root. This is no different than the set of feudal conditions in Russia and China which allowed the idea of communism to take root, or Europe’s insistence for German WWI reparations which plowed the ground for Nazi fascism.

WWII defeated fascism. The Internet and global consumerism defeated communism (both in Russia and China). What is going to defeat bin Ladist Islam? I don’t know what the history books will attribute it to, but I do know what we can do now. That’s to combat one malevolent idea with another even more powerful idea. That idea is that God is the only power.

Evil is frightening only when we allow it to appear to be more powerful than good. Christians, however, already affirm that there is only one infinite all-powerful God. Because God created everything and is all-knowing and all-good, evil must be something outside the scope of God/good. So at it’s most basic spiritual sense, evil can only be our fear that there can be anything other than good in the world. It is only our unwillingness to admit that God is the only power that can give the illusion of power or substance to something that God is not.

Jesus understood this clearly in his frequent use of the metaphor of light and darkness. We have a choice between the two. The light, like the sun, never stops shining. It’s our choice whether we embrace the light that is always there and the only power, or embrace the darkness of our fears that there has to be something other than light.

So the history books will have a material explanation of how the bin Ladists were ultimately defeated, but the reality will be that their evil idea was defeated by all those who prayed to know that only good has power or place in God’s creation.

“For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” John 3:20-21

Posted in Terrorism | 4 Comments »

My Peace

Wednesday, January 31st, 2007

“Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.” Job 22:21

I’ve been thinking a lot about peace lately. There seems to be so little of it in the world, and it seems so easy to try to blame that on any number of obvious suspects.

Peace is something I think we all strive for, but it is something many of us (me included) struggle with.

My sense is that it is because of where we look. So often we’re inclined to look to those things that we have control over. Perhaps it’s something material. If I just owned this, or lived there, or had a better job – I would have peace. Perhaps it’s our relationships with others. Loneliness and longing to be in a relationship or perhaps loneliness and longing because our existing relationships aren’t living up to our expectations may affect our sense of peace.

I know that I also indulge in feelings of frustration when I allow things that I don’t feel I have control over to affect my sense of peace. World peace seems threatened by an unnecessary war begun under false pretenses and perpetuated through fear of the consequences of failure. Religious fundamentalism both at home and abroad is upsetting. The senseless hysterical fear of both Christians and Muslims used to justify brutality and murder in the name of God is shocking. Self-importance, self-righteousness, bias, close mindedness, cynicism, deception, and manipulation are all deeply disturbing to me.

The problem is that all of our attempts to discuss and resolve these issues fail. We all seem to want peace, but we all want it under our own terms.

So what CAN we do?

I think that we have to start by recognizing that our feeble efforts fail because they all come down to human attempts to pattern the divine. Peace is an attribute of God. Any human attempt to replace that quality with something of our own making (however noble) is doomed sooner or later to fall short and be unsatisfying.

Peace is found, as Job said, in seeking greater understanding of our Maker. It is a surrender of all of our merely material concerns and our need to control and pass judgment on the outcome. Jesus was trying to tell us the same thing when he said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27) His peace derived from His oneness with the Father. He encourages us to follow His example and seek Peace from the same source rather than the crude illusion the world offers. When we look to God, we find peace reflected in all of His creation. We get to replace hate with love, trouble with blessing, and fear with trust. Then we become the peacemakers of the Beatitudes and our reward is that we see peace everywhere.

Clearly we’ve got a lot of work to do, but that’s as it should be since it is the work of a lifetime.

Posted in Terrorism | 7 Comments »

Winning the War on Terror

Wednesday, January 24th, 2007

“He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;” Ps 91:4-5

It may seem like stating the obvious, but perhaps the easiest and most effective way to win the war on terrorism is to stop being afraid.

I’ll share some government facts and figures with you to give you an idea of why I say that.

Over the past five years 2,752 have died in the United States as a result of terrorist acts.

In 2005 (most recent available government figures) no one died in this country and 56 US citizens were killed in other countries as a result of terrorism. To put that in context, twice as many people died in the United States during the same period from wasp and bee stings. Your risk of being killed by a terrorist is about at the same as your risk of being hit by a meteor. More people drown in bathtubs in the United States every year than are killed worldwide by terrorists. The Homeland Security budget for this year, however, is $50B.

In comparison, since 9/11, traffic accidents have claimed the lives of over 200,000 people and the National Highway and Traffic Safety Budget is $815M.

2005 was one of the worst hurricane seasons on record with four storms causing $160B in damage and approx 2000 deaths. The budget for Hurricane relief and defense this year is $29B.

We don’t seem to have any problem living in areas where hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods are virtually predictable.

We don’t seem to have any problem dealing with the current risks associated with driving. Government standards are making cars and roads safer and the fatality rate is declining gradually as a result. If we were as frightened about automobile safety as we seem to be about terrorists, though, we could make our cars much safer. We could mandate ignition interlock devices that would virtually eliminate drunk driving. We could eliminate speeding by deploying the sort of automated monitoring equipment already used in Europe. We choose not to because we like the freedom associated with driving our cars.

But somehow when it comes to terrorism, we flinch, open our wallet, and give up our rights.

The only explanation I can come up with is that neither political party really wants the war on terror to end because both continue to perpetuate the myth that there is a significant risk. That reason may be reflected in the budget numbers and the obvious promise that money can buy security.

Money can’t buy security any more that it can buy love. Fortunately, security like love is freely available to whoever sincerely seeks it from the only real source.

“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12:32

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Understanding our Enemy

Thursday, January 18th, 2007

“Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly.” Prov. 16:22

Ever wonder why al-Qaeda is so upset with us and why they resort to suicide tactics to get our attention. President Bush has said it is because they hate our freedom. That has always seemed stupid to me. So what if we are free. Why would that bother them? And why pick on us? If you are so upset about people who live in democracies, why not pick some smaller and easier to beat country like maybe Italy or the Pacific island of Niue?

As with a lot of things, if you just dig a little bit past the spin, it isn’t very difficult to find out. Just before the presidential election of 2004, bin Laden himself said that he wasn’t mad at the US people, he was fighting against our government’s policies. He just wanted US forces out of Muslim countries.

He has at other times said that he wants to overthrow the autocratic dynasties of the Persian Gulf region, along with other secular and pro-Western regimes of the Middle East. Finally he has also been identified with the grand radical Islamic vision of re-establishing Muslim world dominance which certainly implies some sort of confrontation with the west.

That isn’t to say that they don’t understand the west. They understand us better than you may think. The reason they use terrorism is because they respect democracy. They trust that our government ultimately responds to the will of our people. I think that it is naive to assume that bin Laden would be satisfied if we left Iraq, or even the Middle East; but I’ll leave a discussion of how to deal with bin Laden to another post. This post is more about understanding.

The reason some Muslim’s blow themselves up is because they believe in martyrdom as a pious way to oppose an oppressive regime. Similar traditions of self sacrifice exist in many religions, though this admittedly includes blowing up other people too. Self-sacrifice as a concept is something that our culture celebrates when we agree with the cause. When we don’t, we just don’t get it. I’m sure the Romans were similarly perplexed when the early Christians refused to defend themselves as they were about to become kitty chow.

What fundamentalist Muslims are most disturbed about is a bit of cognitive dissonance that may be difficult for us to completely understand. Much like Biblical Jews and some fundamentalist Christians, they believe that God will bless the devout with economic and political success. When they look around, they don’t see that success. In fact, they see very much the opposite. All of the success is in the west. Wealth and power appear to be concentrated in decadent countries where there are very few Muslims. Rather than evaluate how they may have limited themselves by excluding women, resisting modernization, and opposing education; they have blamed the west. They see a vast conspiracy to erode basic Muslim practices, corrupt Muslim values, and further weaken what otherwise should be the dominant religious and political movement in the world.

This might seem a wacky set of beliefs to some. But so is creationism, the claim that our founding fathers were all evangelical Christians, and the belief that ignorance and abstinence are effective forms of birth control.

There is also the claim that the suicide bombers are poor, uneducated, or mentally incompetent. There have been some of those, but the majority are young idealistic well educated men from middle class families. They want to make a difference in the world. They are encouraged by radical clerics to strike back in the only way that they feel can accurately convey both their anger and frustration. They blow themselves up in acts of political terrorism in the sincere hope that western democracies will wake up and take notice. What they fail to understand about western democracy is that we don’t care about them. Rather than ask why, we are content to accept that they are crazy, so we had better shoot them before they multiply.

Some might say that it is soft-headed to try to understand people who are trying to kill us. I think that if you are going to call yourself a Christian, you can’t do any less. Jesus didn’t ever say this was going to be easy, but He did promise a reward for those who were willing to try.

“I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven:” Matt 5:43-44

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Spiritual wickedness in high places