I'm looking forward to rejoining my friends at Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace this Friday. Here's a reflection I intend to share:
I just spent a wonderful week camping and hanging out
with nearly 300 Quakers at our annual gathering, which took place at Walker
Creek Ranch in Marin county not far from Petaluma. We were surrounded with
rolling golden hills and lots of critters—cattle, deer, foxes, owls, turkey
vultures, hawks, and quail. Not to
mention, a few feral Quakers. I gave three presentations about my new book, and
around 100 Friends attended each session and my book sold out! I co-led a
workshop on ending war with David Hartsough, one of the leading Quaker peace
activists of our era, co-founder of the Nonviolent Peaceforce. David began his
career working with Martin Luther King and he’s been on the forefront of the
peace movement ever since. I was also asked to serve as clerk of the Peace
Committee for our Yearly Meeting. There were a few bumps in the road, but all
things considered, it was very good week.
I am happy to be here among friends who care about
peace and justice as much as I do, but my heart is heavy when I think of the
moral decline of our nation. I am saddened and appalled that many Americans,
including our elected officials, are responding so cold-bloodedly to the plight
of children who are fleeing deadly violence in Latin America and are seeking a
safe haven here. How can Americans be so heartless, so out of touch with God
and reality?
I am also grieving and outraged at the plight of the
Gazans who are being massacred once again by the Israelis, with the full support of our elected officials
and the tacit support of our corporate media. How can we call these periodic
bloodbaths “self-defense”? When will the siege of Gaza be lifted, and
Palestinians have the same rights and privileges as Israeli Jews?
I wish that Americans and Israelis would take to heart
what God commanded in Levitticus: “Foreigner residing among you must be treated
as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt” (Levitticus 19:34).
George Fox, the founder of Quakerism,
lived in a time of brutal wars when millions had been killed because of
religious differences. In his journal he wrote that he saw “there was an ocean
of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed
over the ocean of darkness.” That’s how I see today’s world. The forces of darkness—militarism, racism,
and predatory capitalism—surround us. But they are in turn surrounded by a much
larger and more powerful force—there are over a thousand grassroots peace
organizations in the world, and millions who are working for peace and justice.
Peace makers don’t get much media coverage, but they are the leaven in the
loaf, the faithful few who have changed the course of history. The Cold War
ended without bloodshed not simply because of Gorbachev and Reagan, but because
of the millions involved in the Nuclear Freeze movement and citizen diplomacy
who said to these leaders: COLD WAR, NO MORE!!
As I study the history of the abolitionist
movement, I am struck by how difficult and hopeless it must have seemed at
time. But the abolitionists didn’t give up, they kept agitating until slavery
was made illegal, and African Americans were emancipated. Sadly, prejudice persisted,
and so did institutional racism, with Jim Crowe and now the new Jim Crowe, mass
incarceration. But I’m convinced that this, too, shall pass. During our Quaker
gathering, I had the chance to hear a presentation by Laura Magnani, an amazing
woman who has been working for prison reform for forty years, and I am in awe
of her unwavering commitment.
I know that my Quaker community will uphold our
350-year-old Peace Testimony until war,
like slavery, is made illegal. I know that every one in this room has made a
life-long commitment to this beautiful struggle, and that fills me with joy and
hope. We are not Don Quixotes tilting at windmills, we are the Beloved
Community doing the will of the one who made us a little lower than the angels.
And we will overcome!
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