#45 - Thoughts of Pacifism on Memorial Day

BBC NEWS World Middle East Iraqis shot 'for wearing shorts'

Three athletes were shot dead dead today in Iraq for wearing shorts.

They were tennis players, one fellow was the coach the other two team mates.

Flyers had been distributed earlier in Baghdad warning people to not wear shorts.

These guys had just dropped off some laundry.

And then their lives were ended.

This is insanity.

This is the type of craziness that puts pacifism to the test.

What do you do with evil like this?

Yes, evil ... not the act of a righteously religious zealots.

The shooter dragged the coach's body out of his car, piled him on top of the two other fallen players and stole the car.

Children of God,

Children of the Divine...

no matter which sect they identify themselves with...

they just do not do such things.

Mahatma Ghandi had discovered on his journey to peacemaker that all of the major religions hold a kernel of wisdom that we share.

LOVE.

Love is Divine.

Not the Hollywood romantic nonsense.

Unconditional love.

Love that will never end.

Love that gives and grows each time it is given.

How do you love in the face of craziness that deems to murder over athletic wear?

If someone wanted your car, a true follower of Jesus would GIVE the car away. A gift. Not an object to be stolen.

If you can not let go of your material object, that object owns you...

you do not own the object.

Jesus told us to lay our lives down.

I do not think this meant to be a doormat, or coward.

Jesus was a renegade of His time.

During Jesus' lifetime, Roman soldiers could nab you and press you into service.

Jesus' response?

If you are told to walk a mile... walk two.

If someone asks you for a garment, give him more than he asked for... give him two items.

Why?

This response to what may appear to be an injustice is actually extremely powerful.

The power of the gentle.

If you walk two miles, you are no longer a servant to a Roman soldier... you volunteered... you took the power away from the soldier.

If you give more than you were asked to, you volunteered. You did not follow a command... you CHOSE to do more.

Take this way of living to the ultimate abuse of power... someone demanding your life.

GIVE your life, and you take the power away.

Jesus did that.

And look what happened from that deed.

His life did not belong to the Roman empire.

They could not take that away from Him.

And in the bravery of Jesus' deed, He taught His followers to not fear.

God's power, the power of the Divine courses through each of us and will be there for us if we pay attention and keep ourselves on the proper path.

Jesus did not kill other people to get them to walk His path.

Truth.

What would happen if a sea of humanity stood up and said to the killers, here take my life, and mine, and mine?

and so forth...

Would such an act satisfy the bloodlust?

Could you continue to murder and murder and murder a mass of people who refuse to kill you back?

Would you run out of ammunition?

Would you finally faint from the exhaustion of trying to slay people until your need for earthly justice is abated?

Would you become horrified?

Our soldiers represent all of us Americans to Iraq.

This is not good enough and this is not a solution.

I am sure the majority of our military do not want to be there in the face of the bloodlust that has spiralled out of control.

Actually the bloodlust in the former Garden of Eden (Iraq) has always been out of control. Just ask any Iraqi who has lived under Saddam's regime.

Like all oppressed people, sometimes no one cares about who is in charge, just as long that whoever is in charge will help families to be safe and prosper.

As a nation we have to ask ourselves, exactly who are we to demand anything from another nation?

Do we work together to help the people within our borders be safe and prosper?

Some folks say yes, but if you spend enough time with the working poor, and the people living in war zones throughout our nation... they would give you a definitive NO.

A fence spanning a manmade border does not equate safety.

Actually, that is pretty silly.

We could expend man power on so many other important tasks.


We invaded Iraq as if our intentions are pure.

As if our history past and present is not waist deep in the blood of innocent victims.

Who are we to be policing the world?

Who indeed?

We have our own factions of American citizens who believe in bloodlust to promote their causes. Some of the blood hungry ones even claim to belong to religious organizations. They create acts of violence regularly right here in the U.S.

Sometimes you may even hear about one or two of them on the news.

How would we feel if another nation invaded our borders to take control of all that... thinking that they could do a better job of it than we could?

Sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn't it?

But, isn't that we, the United States of America have taken upon ourselves?

I do not have answers.

I have loads of questions.

Questions, though, that need to be asked.

Questions that demand a response before people in governmental power lay the lives of our sons and daughters out to be sacrificed in foreign lands.

Even after reading today's act of violence in Baghdad... I am still a pacifist.

No, I do not have any answers right now...

But, I will tell you one thing...

War does not work.

No... it certainly does not work.