A Declaration Concerned With War

In a culture desensitized to hurt, I find my community to be oblivious to the horrible significance of every act of violence. I define my community as my country, my state, my church, my friends. Violence, especially warfare, is perceived as a necessity to dethrone the powers deemed "evil," by most in my community.


I, on ethical and Spiritual grounds, declare that it is war that is unintelligent, un-creative, ignorant, and evil.


To sum up the ethical side, I invoke the words of Gandhi. "The roots of violence: wealth without work. Pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, politics without principles."

Violence is the death of story. Indeed, it produces wonderful heroes, it creates epics, and amazing literature. But the price of lives to obtain these stories is not worth it. Fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, sons, daughters die in war. That is the end of that human being's story. Uncreative. Imagine the experiences if they had lived!

I find that I cannot separate myself from anyone in this world. I am the best of people, and the worst. I am Gandhi. I am the rapist on TV. I am Mother Teresa. I am the suicide bomber. To say that I am incapable of doing any of those things, good or bad, is denying that I am human. Therefore, when I hurt another human being, I am hurting myself. And I find that I also hurt God and His creation. Therefore, I need Someone to reconcile me, for I am inherantly violent because I am a fallen human.

I am solved, for I am a follower of Christ, and His Way of peace and love. I am allowed to be removed from the sins I commit past, present, future, and the sins I could have commited so that I may show others that same peace, that same love. I find numerous teachings of that love ignored by the masses of Christians. The Sermon on the Mount is to be taken literally, not as a group of suggestions. The words are a code, not a bunch of guidelines. Jesus says, Love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! He is not joking, or advising. How does war fit into these words?


I also see Jesus' life and crucifixion as the ultimate example of love and peace. The Jews, his people are brutally oppressed by Rome, and He has the power to end the Empire instantly. Instead, he tells his people to love, to be meek, peacekeepers, to be righteous. He had every right to go to war for his people, and he did not. Concerning His crucifixion, while any act of violence is an act of power, Jesus sacrificed himself purely powerless. With the control of the cosmos in the palm of His hand, with the armies of angels at His command, he chose not to defend himself, not to save himself, but to be killed for the people he loved. How is war, any violence, qualifed by a God who refuses to use it when He is dying.

I subscribe to the life of Jesus, the one in which he calls all of us.

I am a young man who believes in creative, militant nonviolence. I do not enjoy the sound, nor the tone people use when they call me a pacifist. I am not passive. A bystander who does nothing to prevent the outrageous injustices of this broken world is as guilty as the actions of the perpetrator of the injustice.

Instead, I ally myself with the life and works of Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, and Jesus and their revolutions of peace. I seek every opportunity to show that I am my fellow human's brother. Even if it must mean looking them in the eye silently, even when they insult and beat and hurt me.

People often ask what I hold as absolute truth. Jesus, I say. That means Love, and Peace. That means I am against death, in all forms. AMEN.