There. I said it. I feel better.
I didn't want to say it. I know how angry people are, and I fear being an object of that anger. But if I, a white-knuckle flyer under the best of circumstances, can get on a plane to Fort Worth just 10 days after the attacks, then I can put in print the words, "I am against the war."
I sound a bit like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. Yuck! They say that God punished America for its embrace of homosexuality and abortion by sending jetliners into office buildings.
But how can they be sure that God's mad about these things? Perhaps God's mad about our consumerism or militarism or something else.
Falwell and Robertson have used a human tragedy to score political points. That's wrong. If God's wrath has overtaken America, then Falwell and Robertson need to remember that they too are Americans. They too stand under the judgment of God. Horror, not grim satisfaction should be their response.
Now is a time for prayer, for humility, and most of all, a time to grieve and mourn. Noah was in the ark 40 days while God's judgment poured over the earth. Jesus was in the desert 40 days doing battle with Satan. Jonah warned the king of Assyria that his capital city had only 40 days before it was slated to be overthrown.
My modest peace proposal is this: no hostilities for 40 days. Open the houses of worship. Let us pray. Let us fast. Let us humble ourselves. Let us weep for the dead, and for ourselves and our children. Perhaps the fruit of an autumn of prayer would be a national consensus on where we have gone wrong, and the steps we need to take to make it right.
I am not naïve enough to think that if we were just a little nicer then everyone else would be nice to us. My commitment to nonviolence is not a liberal squeamishness about war coupled with an overly optimistic view of human nature. But woe to us if God has issued a wake-up call, and we sleep through it.
My second, dogmatic reason for opposing a war is this: While the God I meet in Jesus Christ calls me to suffer for him, and even die for him, I am not sure he calls me to kill for him. He taught his followers to love their enemies, and he practiced what he preached. Jesus willingly went to his own, unjust execution rather than leading the violent revolution so many hoped for.
Early Christians lived in a world as violent as ours, yet they never questioned the practicality of Jesus' teaching or example. All were pacifists. Their willingness to die, but not kill, for what they believed in won them many converts.
But the church became a victim of its own success. Pretty soon the whole Roman Empire went Christian. The problem was, empires are maintained by violence. How can you have a Christian empire? The church hedged. Violence became acceptable. Did the church conquer the world, or did the world conquer the church?
It is time for we who are baptized to return to our roots and embrace the peaceable kingdom that Jesus proclaimed. No more maintaining the empire. "Our citizenship is in heaven."
Understand this -- I am a lousy pacifist. I have a bad temper. I hold grudges about trivial things -- just ask my wife! I pay taxes, some of which build weapons of mass destruction. I am a compromised, hypocritical, half-hearted advocate for Christian nonviolence. But every day I pray the prayer of Saint Francis: "Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace." Maybe God will do just that.
It's not about keeping my hands clean while others do the dirty work. True pacifists don't hide from the world. They engage the world on Jesus's terms. They work for a just peace while prizing the enemy's life as much as their own and their loved ones'. I am told this is dangerous, rewarding and faithful work. My first, and minuscule contribution to this work is to say: I am against the war.