The time for peace is now

Disciples Peace Fellowship's Statement on War with Iraq

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us: "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." (Matthew 5:9)

And he says: You have heard it said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father in heaven. . . (Matthew 5:43-45a)

During the early days of the cold war, President Dwight Eisenhower said, "I think that the people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it."

Disciples' Peace Fellowship joins with others around the world to say the time for peace is now. The call for war against Iraq is only the latest in a long series of steps that lead the human family away from a world where God's peace reigns. While the current administration has accelerated this process by abrogating treaty after treaty, by ignoring legal processes and civil rights, and now, by aggressively planning a first-strike war against Iraq, previous administrations have armed and trained those who now act against us. We, as a nation, are entitled to pursue lawful justice for our attackers; however, it is also time to take responsibility for our own actions which have caused others to do violence against us. In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, our grief and fear have been co-opted and converted into a call for revengeäan American holy war. This only increases our grief and sense of alienation. War is the last, worst answer to humanity's problems. There is never anything holy about it. Violence only births more violence, destroying the earth and leaving human misery in its wake. 

We applaud the words of the World Council of Churches, A Call to Stop the Rush to War, signed by world religious leaders, including Dick Hamm, the General Minister and President of our denomination. Certainly, the United Nations must be respected and action against any nation should only be undertaken in cooperation with the world community. But beyond more careful ways to pursue a "just war," DPF believes it is time for the human family to abolish war and invest our resources in creating the conditions of peace and justice among all people and nations

There are different kinds of peace. A peace wherein our country has simply bullied the rest of the world into submission is not a peace that will last; not the peace we seek. In its quest for this kind of poisonous peace, the administration has coined the phrase "anticipatory self-defense" to describe its new and dangerous first strike policy. But "anticipatory self-defense" is just another name for aggression. For the first time in our history, we are planning to openly attack another country before it has attacked us.

As in all war, the most vulnerable, here and in Iraq, will suffer the most. In Iraq, sanctions have already cost the lives of a million children and have had virtually no effect against the elite in that country. The loss of life in an all-out war there will surely be staggering. But the losses here will be significant too. In addition to our own military losses, cuts in funding for health care, public education, programs for the young and the elderly, and a myriad of other programs will put many at risk. Are we prepared to pay the cost? According to an administration source, this war may cost us $15 to $20 billion dollars a year. What would be the result if we invested as much in nonviolent solutions as we are currently investing in violent ones?

God's peace, God's shalom as it is called in the Hebrew scriptures, means the absence of fear and want for all earth's people and sustainable life on the planet. As Christians, we believe Jesus calls us to live life nonviolently and to be a peaceful presence in the world. Peace is not an opinion or an option. It is a command. In obedience to the teaching of Jesus, we say again, the time for peace is now. 

Disciples Peace Fellowship, Executive Committee
Joel Heim, Moderator
Linda McKiernan-Allen, Vice Moderator
Donna Compton, Secretary
Kelly Kirby, Treasurer
Rob Crawford
Marie Green
Bruce Frogge
Jackie Bunch
Jon Lacey
Suzy Stanfield Lynskey
Gerald Cunningham
Pablo Stone
Carol Q. Cosby, DHM Staff Liaison