The Seeds of War?

At the end of a weekend of protest against the war in Iraq, I'm left with some thoughts.

Firstly, politics matters. I can be all airy fairy and light candles and talk about inner peace, compassion and enlightenment - but unless it has some impact on how we engage with the world of politics, guns, warfare, starvation and poverty - well who cares?! We can sit on our cushions but unless we are concerned and engaged in the world around us - I think we're wasting our time.

If while we practice we are not aware that the world is suffering, that children are dying of hunger, that social injustice is going on everywhere, we are not practising mindfulness. We are just trying to escape.

Thich Nhat Hanh - Living Buddha, Living Christ

Yesterday I attended an interfaith gathering in Riverside church New York (where Martin Luther King has graced the pulpit). It was heartening to see Christians (even evangelicals - my prejudices are challenged, thank you Jim Wallis), Buddhists, Muslims, Jews and others join together in a quest for common humanity and peace. It was good to stand together, to remember together, to consider together and to call for peace and justice together. It was good. On Friday I attended a film and discussion hosted by the Quaker Arts Committee at the meeting I attend - the discussion was really something. It was very provocative and I feel challenged to examine myself and seek to live more justly and learn what peacemaking is about.

But I'm left tired and unsatisfied. There's a lot of anti-Bush rhetoric. America is a deeply fractionated country. Democrats and Republicans seem at each others throats. Those red-neck republicans from the backwaters who are simply blinded to the truth on one side and those liberal impractical hellbound democrats who don't care to protect our country and who don't understand the threat of terrorism on the other. As much as I sympathise with the cause - is deepening the divisions the way to do it?

I can't say I had a jot of disagreement with anything I heard said either at the Quakers or at Riverside church - I'm very much against the current war and occuption of Iraq. I think the only hope for peace and the rebuilding of Iraq is to get American and British troops out and for the international community to get involved to support the rebuilding of Iraq's infrastructure and the healing of its people.

I want to really look at my lifestyle and consider how it impacts on the poor, I want to do my part and call on those in power to do their part to bring justice and healing to nations across the world effected by terrible poverty and war - from Iraq to Sudan, from the Congo to Northern Ireland, from America to the Middle East. Terrorism breeds in poverty and inequality - tackle unfair trade, starvation and poverty and ensure that every people group has a piece of the pie to call their own and we will go far towards peace and the elimination of terrorist activities.

However, I am disturbed by the attitudes I'm finding amongst my fellow anti-war protestors. One might be forgiven for thinking we would gladly have the American president hung, strung and quartered. One might be forgiven for believing that we think republican voters are bumbling red-necks with no education who need to be converted to a more liberal philosophy. There is anger, there is hatred - and with the deepest of respect, I have to ask - is this really the way to peace?

At the end of the meeting at Riverside church, we joined hands together and sang, 'We shall overcome'. I have to say, I wasn't entirely comfortable with it. Yes, there is a struggle for justice, and yes we do need to stand together. But what exactly are we overcoming? Is it injustice, or is it George Bush and the Republicans? Are there two sides in this and can there only be one winner? I sincerely hope not! Is the language of 'overcoming' a really helpful way to make peace?

In the film, Gandhi, when Gandhi calls for civil disobedience against the British he forbids violent action and says that when the British leave India, he wants to see them off as friends. I wonder - do we have to stomp over George W and the Republicans, or can we see them as friends and learn to live and work together, being willing to listen and to take on board an alternative perspective. Can we consider it possible that we have something to learn from them. (And no, I don't have any ideas as to what this might be I'm afraid!)

Most Quakers believe that there is 'that of God in everyone' and from the days of George Fox we have encouraged one another to 'answer that of God in everyone'. Is answering that of God about dialogue, about listening to that of God in the other - or is it about taking a megaphone and screaming into the ears of our 'enemies', in an attempt to wake up the divine within them?! Jesus taught that we have to love our enemies.

Love implies openness - it requires that we are open to the good in them. It requires us to listen and to not immediately assume the worst. It requires forgiveness and a willingness to see the best in others - even our ememies. It requires that we recognise the sacred in the other person and that we honour it. The concept of 'namaste' might be helpful here?

Yes there has been lies, yes we need to speak the truth - but we also need to learn to live and love and have compassion - yes, even on George W and the Republican party. Their actions may have been appalling - but remember we may not understand the motivations behind them.

The way to peace is in listening and understanding - it is in seeking and reverencing the sacred wherever we find it. Yes, even in George W.


Namaste Mr. Bush, Namaste?