Dear friends in the Faith Community,
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With this first issue of our newsletter we want to introduce ourselves to you. We are the Interfaith Peace Working Group (IPWG). As our name suggests, we are people of faith who feel called, even compelled, by our faith and conscience to care deeply about world peace and to promote it whenever and however we can. We have come together to form IPWG for mutual support and because we know we can accomplish far more together than alone. As we searched for a way to make our peace work more concrete, we decided to focus on the increasing militarization of U.S. society. We believe this militarization is not only one of the greatest threats to world peace. It also deprives us of the means to address other urgent human and environmental needs by consuming such a large proportion of our national resources. These unmet needs are themselves a threat to our security. We see evidence of U.S. militarization all around us, from the military equipment deployed by local police departments to the deployment of military forces on our southern border, the nearly 800 U.S. military installations in 70 countries around the world, and the increasing number and duration of wars in which the U.S. is involved. But perhaps the most powerful and convincing evidence is the U.S. Defense Budget. The federal government’s 2019 discretionary budget allocates 57 cents of every dollar to the military or to military-related purposes. If the administration’s request for a 34 billion dollar, or 5 percent increase, in 2020 is approved by Congress, 62 cents of each dollar will be devoted to those purposes next year. The purpose of the IPWG is to disseminate information about the U.S. Defense Budget and its effects on society, promote discussion of this subject from the perspective of faith, and encourage anyone who is concerned about U.S. militarization and the U.S. Defense Budget to share that concern with others, particularly their political representatives. We have (1) created a website with information on the subject and links to various peace organizations, (2) launched this newsletter, which you will receive several times a year, and 3) prepared a workshop that will be available to congregations by request. We invite you to visit our website and use information from it and our newsletter to educate and promote discussion on this subject. We also encourage you to consider inviting us to bring our workshop to your church, synagogue, or mosque at a time and in a format that fits your situation. If you have questions or requests or would like to be a part of this work for peace in other ways, please contact the Interfaith Peace Working Group at Interfaithpeacewg@gmail.com.
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Retrieving the Vision of Shalom
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Human civilization has reached an historic turning point. The accelerating rush toward world militarization and the development of weapons of unprecedented destructive power—nuclear, biological, chemical—have posed the ultimate dilemma for our species. Like the ancient Hebrews on the verge of the Holy Land, we have now before us a momentous choice: “life or death, the blessing or the curse.” From a theological perspective the arms race and political violence have been described as idolatry, the worship of false “gods of metal and hate.” In ancient Israel powerful prophets arose during such idolatrous times. Thundering out of the desert, they rebuked the people and demanded that they “turn around” their lives. “Repent! Make straight the way of the lord!” That type of conversion—or “turning around of our minds”—is just as desperately needed today. According to Thomas Merton, such a conversion offers us the liberating experience of casting off the “intolerable burden of the past” and creating a new beginning. Conversion involves not only turning away from the shadow side of ourselves, but also turning toward the Light…We must know not only what we are against, but also what we are for. As people of faith, what is our vision? Our faith traditions offer us an answer to this question. We know the teachings of Jesus: Love, forgiveness, and reconciliation. "Blessed are the peacemakers." "Turn the other cheek." "Revenge not evil." And then that sobering message from the Garden of Gethsemane, "They who live by the sword, will die by the sword.” Did Jesus really expect us to take these words literally? Were these lessons visionary and utopian, or were they a discipline to be obeyed? As followers of Jesus, Christians must struggle with these questions. What can we learn from those people who knew Jesus the most intimately? The early disciples of Jesus and Christian communities for the next 300 years, were convinced that being a follower of Jesus meant to live a life of nonviolence. They refused to hate and kill. They refused to bear arms. The Christian biblical scholar Origen summed up what they all taught when he wrote, “God did not deem it fitting to his own divine legislation to allow the killing of any person whatsoever.” What does this teaching mean for our own day and our own culture? What are the specific pathways of peace and justice? The problem of replacing a system of institutionalized violence with a just, sustainable, and peace-centered culture is the great unsolved problem of human history. Confronting this challenge is the task of every generation. The vision of Shalom/Salaam, which influenced the nonviolence of Jesus, is at the heart not only of Christianity but of Judaism and Islam and the vision of compassion so central in the teaching of the Buddha is similar to it. These visions are not only to be contemplated. They are also intended to be lived. They call faith communities to be among the first to respond to the challenge of peace and to do so with passion and energy. They also guide and empower these communities as they walk the way of peace, as we see in from the work of people like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Through this newsletter, our website and in other ways, the Interfaith Peace Working Group wishes to share information and knowledge that will invite conversion to the vision of Shalom/Salaam/Compassion and will inspire, motivate and equip people and communities of faith to pray and work together for a culture of peace with justice. We invite you to dialogue and partner with us in this task of peacemaking.
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Massive Military Spending Is Immoral
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Wisconsin State Journal | January 13, 2017
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This op ed was written at the end of the 2017-18 holiday season. We include it in this newsletter, because debate about the 2020 military budget is taking place now. Trump’s Budget Wars; Death and Taxes The administration is now proposing $750 billion for 2020 military and militarized homeland security spending. This will constitute 62 percent of our 2020 discretionary budget. Please contact your representative in congress to let them know what you think U.S. spending priorities should be.
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In the coming weeks, Congress is planning to vote on a military appropriations bill which will raise military spending to $700 billion in 2018. This includes $634 billion for the military’s regular operations. Another $66 billion is budgeted for our military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Niger and Yemen. If approved, approximately 60 percent of our discretionary budget will go to the military. The $700 billion includes funding for aircraft and combat ships the Pentagon did not ask for and for flawed weapon systems such as the F-35 fighter jet. The bill allocates money for a new ground launched nuclear cruise missile, which could reignite a nuclear missile race with Russia. And it budgets funds for nuclear weapons modernization. Championed as a “deterrent” to world war, nuclear weapons now threaten international security. Spread of these weapons to countries like North Korea, as well as cyberattacks and attempts by terrorist groups to buy or build nuclear devices have greatly increased the chances of a nuclear accident or attack. The cost of war is not only financial, it is human. As of March 2015, an estimated 210,000 civilians had died violent deaths as a result of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In the last three years, the U.S.-led air strikes against the Islamic State in Syria have killed thousands of civilians. At least 10,000 Yemeni civilians have been killed since 2015 in the U.S.-supported Saudi Arabia-led war on Yemen, most of them during airstrikes on civilian areas, hospitals and schools. Hundreds of thousands more of non-combatants have died due to exposure, lack of food, clean water, and health care arising from these wars. In Yemen, half a million people have contracted cholera, and famine now threatens the country. What damage has this continual overseas war done at home? Over 6,000 of our soldiers have been killed and 47,000 have suffered physical, psychological and moral injuries in the Iraq and Afghan wars. The Pentagon’s huge budget has meant less domestic spending on health care, education, job creation, infrastructure, and a safety net for our most vulnerable citizens. The U.S. spends more on the military than Russia, China, the UK, France, India, Saudi Arabia, and Japan combined. But when we participate directly or indirectly in armed conflicts abroad, especially when we kill civilians, we create enemies. When we destroy homes, hospitals, schools, factories, and infrastructure, we make it almost impossible for survivors of war to rebuild their countries enough to sustain a lasting peace. The budget is a moral document that reflects our national priorities. If we respect human life, surely we can find more creative, constructive ways of defending our nation than relying on massive military spending. We must urge our leaders to redirect tax dollars from guns and bombs to foreign aid, diplomacy, and economic sanctions to prevent wars. We must limit government weapon sales to combatants. We must aid those displaced by wars. And we must redirect Pentagon dollars to urgently needed domestic programs. Our tax dollars should be used to protect and sustain, not endanger lives abroad and at home.
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Good Friday Walk for Justice & Mercy (Photos by Michael Krueger) |
Reclaiming the Meaning of Mother’s Day
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by Jane Hammatt Kavaloski
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Mother’s Day was originally a day to honor peace-making. It was a day to celebrate not only our mothers, but also mothering—those skills and values of nurturance, compassion, and healing. The root of the contemporary American Mother’s Day dates back to the mid-1800s in West Virginia. Ann Reeves Jarvis, a peace activist, and organizer began “Mother’s Day Work Clubs” to improve sanitation and decrease infant mortality. During the Civil War members of these Work Clubs cared for soldiers on both sides of that conflict. Then after the war, the women brought together former Union and Confederate loyalists to work toward reconciliation. In 1905, after the death of her mother, Anna Jarvis—who remained unmarried and childless all of her life—began a campaign to create a national holiday. Due to her successful organizing efforts, President Woodrow Wilson in 1914 signed a proclamation creating Mother’s Day, the second Sunday in May, as a national holiday. Ironically, Anna Jarvis’ victory soon became a source of great sadness and anger as she watched the commercialization of the holiday. The emphasis on purchasing Mother’s Day flowers, cards, and candies replaced the call for peace-making. For the rest of her life, Anna Jarvis attempted to reform the commercialized Mother’s Day through protests, boycotts, and lawsuits that depleted her health and personal wealth. In 1948, at age 84, Jarvis died poor and broken-hearted. For her, the essence of Mother’s Day had been lost! But for some of us, that essence is not lost. Mother’s Day can still be a day of honoring mothering and peace-making. Mothering can be done by women and by men. Mothering is a nurturing, life-affirming potential within us all. And the children of the world cry out for our aid and advocacy. In February 2019, CNN reported that Save the Children had documented that 1 in 5 children live in areas affected by armed conflict and war. According to the study, approximately 420 million children were living in areas where one or more conflicts took place in 2017. This is the largest number in the past 20 years. These children suffer from a lack of food, shelter, education, medical care, and safety. According to the Peace Research Institute Oslo, there are two reasons for this tragic increase in children living in conflict areas. First, modern warfare has moved into urban areas among the civilian populations. And second, armed groups and military forces disregard international laws and treaties. Violations against children include being killed, maimed, sexually abused, recruited or abducted by armed groups, victimized by attacks on schools and hospitals and denied humanitarian aid. (It is estimated that 85,000 children under 5 may have died of starvation in the Yemen war alone.) To commemorate Mother’s Day this year, let us retrieve the lost meaning of that day. Let us challenge ourselves to take the time to contact our Senators and Congressional Representatives to demand a reduction of the U.S. military budget—a budget that is larger than the next seven largest military budgets in the world combined! Those financial resources must be redirected to peace-making efforts—like humanitarian aid and diplomacy. We also must demand a world-wide abolition of nuclear weapons. Those weapons of mass destruction threaten to destroy the earth itself. Together let us shout—“We have had enough! No to war! No to violence! Yes, to a world that protects her children!”
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Peacemaking through the Ages
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From Thomas Cahill, Mysteries of the Middle Ages
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Francis (of Assisi) sailed across the Mediterranean to the Egyptian court of al-Malik al-Kamil, nephew of the great Saladin who had defeated the forces of the hapless Third Crusade. Francis was admitted to the august presence of the sultan himself and spoke to him of Christ…Trying to proselytize a Muslim was a cause for on-the-spot decapitation, but Kamil was a wise and moderate man, who was deeply impressed by Francis’ courage and sincerity and invited him to stay for a week of serious conversation. Francis, in turn, was deeply impressed by the religious devotion of Muslims, especially by their five daily calls to prayer; it is quite possible that the thrice-daily recitation of the Angelus that became current in Europe after this visit was precipitated by the impression made on Francis by the Muslim call to prayer just as the rosary derives from Muslim prayer beads.
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Learn more about events, send us comments or questions on the newsletter, learn more about sponsoring a workshop, or just send us a message. We look forward to connecting with you!
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