FALLEN FROM PASTOR WAYNE’S DESK: HEADLINE: 9 of 10 Americans Support War

It is my firm belief that while the US may be very, very good at war, we are at our best when we are at peace. While I can pray for the safety of all involved in our current military action and for an end to violence, I cannot use prayer to bless or justify war. This belief is bred of my own Christian understanding of God’s abhorrence of the violence of mankind and of my own conscience, and this belief does not make me un-American, or unpatriotic. Clearly the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are noble documents, worthy of establishing a nation and both born in the Age of Enlightenment. In every age, these nation-defining documents hold us to a higher calling: equality for all, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all, equal opportunity in employment and housing and health care for all.

Consider please the words of Rev. James Lawson, one of our nation’s leading non-violent theorists and a local pastor who spoke recently in Granada Hills on the topic of seeking justice without war:

"When London had bombings from the IRA, London did not then bomb Belfast or Boston (from which much of the money came), instead London beefed up the Scotland Yard’s ability to investigate and proceeded to investigate with human intelligence and to find the people and to end the bombings in London by law, by putting the people in public courts, debating it and then convicting them.

When Birmingham, Alabama was "Bombingham", in my mind and in the minds of many black people, where churches and houses In the ‘50s & ‘60s were persistently bombed, we, in the black community, did not call for retaliation against the KKK or white churches or homes, we instead pushed harder against the FBI and the State and the Federal governments saying the bombing, the bombings can end.

We resolved, we solved the issue of justice for the bombing of Oklahoma City not by bombing Idaho, or the militia from Montana or elsewhere, but by pushing the law and the investigation and we did get the results which we think provided justice in that case. Law. Pursue justice by justice. Pursue justice through using the means of investigation."

These are sober, appropriately introspective words, calling for those most difficult of actions - self-restraint and conscience. Luther’s defining moment was an act of conscience... In our own Lutheran Social Statements we acknowledge that each of our ethical positions can only be dictated by our own individual conscience. It seems appropriate to recall the prophetic words of MLK Jr.:

"I believe today there is a need for all people of good will to come to a massive act of conscience and say in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘We ain’t gonna study war no more.’ This is the challenge facing modern men and women."

As we reflect on the meaning of Christ’s resurrection in our own lives, let us hear this call to study ‘non-violence’ as a proven, God-given power for real change in this world. Let us pray for peace, pray for an end to violence not only on our streets , but on the streets of Israel and Palestine and beyond. Let us do this in the confidence that as surely as Jesus lives in our hearts, we will have peace. God has promised us this. That prayer for peace does not have to be very long, because God knows of what you ask, and actually needs you to get back to working and striving for peace with the other people in your community and places of worship. We have much work ahead, but God is with us and has shown us the way to peace.