Other people’s words

My main project right now is working on a booklet about religious pacifism. I am compiling profiles of religiously pacifist individuals and groups that the Women will translate and distribute in collection with an educational program that confronts religious fundamentalism. “Look, religion isn’t all bad…” or some such.

In the process of researching, I’ve had the chance to read the writings of very articulate folks. Here is a selection of some of the best rhetoric I have discovered. I don’t agree with all of it, especially the please-please-martyr-me tone of the Christian Peacemaker Team call to action, but these are good, articulate words. Yes, eloquent rhetoric makes me happy. Yes, I am nerdy.

From Desmond Tutu, the best speaker I have ever heard in person:

“Jesus did not say, ‘if I be lifted up, I will draw some.’ Jesus said, ‘if I be lifted up, I will draw all, all, all, all, all, all. Black, white, yellow, rich, poor, clever, not so clever, beautiful, not so beautiful. It’s one of the most radical things. All, all, all, all, all, all, all, all. All belong. Gay, lesbian, so-called straight. All are meant to be held in this incredible embrace that will not let us go. All.”

And:

“It is a moral universe that we inhabit, and good and right equity matter in the universe of the God we worship.”

From Rabia Harris, the founder and coordinator of The Muslim Peace Fellowship:

“If the religion we follow makes our lives cramped, fearful, resentful, obsessive, then we are not following the religion taught by The Mercy to the Worlds [Mohammed]. If the Lord we adore fills us with rage or despair, arrogance or ennui, then we are not adoring The Cherisher and Sustainer of the human being. If the God we serve makes us a burden rather than a blessing, then we are not serving The Revealer of the Generous Qur’an.”

And:

"To deny our responsibility to one another, and for one another… is to decline being fully human, to choose to be something less than we are created to be, which means to tyrannize ourselves.”

From a speech given by Ron Sider at the 1984 Mennonite World Congress that led to the formation of Christian Peacemaker Teams:

“We must be prepared to die by the thousands. Those who believed in peace through the sword have not hesitated to die… Again and again, they sacrificed bright futures to the tragic illusion that one more righteous crusade would bring peace in their time… Unless we… are ready to start to die by the thousands in dramatic vigorous new exploits for peace and justice, we should sadly confess that we never really meant what we said, and we dare never whisper another word about pacifism to our sisters and brothers in those desperate lands filled with injustice. Unless we are ready to die developing new nonviolent attempts to reduce conflict, we should confess that we never really meant that the cross was an alternative to the sword.”

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One thing that I have learned—and been surprised by—while doing this research is that I don’t think I am a pacifist. War is bad and should never be a first response, but sometimes it should be the last option. On many pacifist websites, there are attempts to answer The Hitler Question (‘…but what about Hitler, how would you silly pacifists have dealt with him?’) Each unconvincing answer (in a pacifist world, he never would have been in power in the first place; the Danes saved some Jews; etc.) has left me less certain of the morality of strict pacifism.